And its snowing!

Snow in November. Last year I went out for a ride out to Crown Point in the Columbia river gorge in November. This year, as with the sucky summer, it is snowing! so yet another gear entry. This time around the jackets. I have 3 that I wear regularly .



First and my favorite is the Dainese Vintage jacket. This is a full leather jacket with armor built into the shoulders and elbows. Zips up to Dainese pants. It does not have any back protection (not even a foam insert). That said, there is a pocket built in if you want to get the Dainese G2 protector. I usually end up wearing my regular back protector underneath and it fits just fine.

Fit- when it is all zipped up, armor hardly moves*, which is super important if you go down. It was a bit tight at first but as it has broken in, now it just feels right, even with a thin fleece under it for those cold days.

Breathability - very little. This is a jacket for the cooler days. It has a couple of air vents under the arms, but that is about it. No liner in this one either. So a very basic jacket, but great build and quality.





The 2nd one, the Dianese Portland jacket, is my summer jacket. This is constructed with Dainese d-skin fabric with a mesh back. Armor in shoulders/ elbows. The cool thing about this jacket is that it comes with a removable back protector, which is super convenient as I don’t have to wear another piece of riding gear and it keeps the jacket in place. The bad, no zipper to attach to pants and the back protector does not fit in my other jackets - I tried :(.



This jacket has been road tested and worked flawlessly. It took brunt of the impact on the shoulder. Armor stayed in place and did its job. If it had moved or not been there I likely would have ended up with some broken parts.



And when I really want to pimp it up, out comes the Tattoo. This was more of an impulse buy while at the Dainese store in Italy (first stop after checking into the hotel ;), but I do like the detailed work that went into it. This is more of a summer jacket and has a combination of leather (perforated) and d-skin material, so is breathable. Armor in shoulders/ elbow, nothing in the back. Includes a zipper for pants. I was a bit disappointed in the build quality on this one as a month into owning it, some of the stitching at the edge of the jacket started coming apart!!! Called Dainese, and they did fix it, but left a bad taste. Other than that, this too has worked well and it definitely gets some attention.





*I recall my first jacket. I had no clue what I was doing, the sales people were unhelpful and I ended up getting a jacket which was super comfortable to wear while walking around, but 3 sizes to large.