Aerostich Roadcrafter. Best rated riding gear for a reason!
Written: Mar 26 '07 (Updated Feb 06 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Outstanding quality, weather, wind and road protection second to none
Cons: Will be overlooked by the "Cool" crowd
The Bottom Line: This is what the serious motorcyclist eventually finds themself in. Don't waste time or money, get one at the begining of your journey
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| toolguy1963's Full Review: Aerostich Roadcrafter One Piece Suit #120 |
I was digging through some old family photos the other night and came across a few from my youth. There were a number of me on my old ‘Pre-Popular” Harley and other bikes Id accumulated and hauled back to the farm. I had to stop and ponder this thought for a moment. Iv been riding motorcycles now for over forty years. A lot has changed since then. A lot for the good. One particular thing that came along around 1985 and changed the entire scene for the motorcyclist was Andy Goldfine’s Roadcrafter one piece riding suit. We usually just go by the company name, Aerostich, when we make reference to it. No matter though.
Prior to the Roadcrafter I used to bundle up in a leather jacket and sweater, thermal underwear and if the rain set in pull on whatever type of vinyl rain suite that was popular at the time. These were unfortunately designed for static use not for flying down the road at the 55 MPH speed limit. This was not the most comfortable or easiest way of doing things but it’s what we had. I used to think that it would be nice to have something you could just get into that would cover you from top to bottom, be warm, waterproof and protective in case of a fall. When the Roadcrafter hit the scene I was in heaven.
The Roadcrafter was first seen as the BMW guy’s outfit. High quality, sharp looking and with a price to match. I didn’t care. It was just what the doctor ordered. By 85’ Id had plenty of riding experience and was past the image thing. I ride because I love to and if something like the Roadcrafter could keep me on the bike longer and more comfortably then it didn’t matter if I was on a CL70. I was gonna have one.
My first suit was a red one piece outfit. When it showed up at the house, I pulled it out of the box, took a quick look at it and yanked it on. I don’t think Aerostich was advertising the ten seconds or less suit-up time then, but my brother kept saying he was amazed by how fast I could get into it. It was so dang easy to get in out of that I started using it every single day for my rides to work, the store and just riding out through the country. My intentions were to have it for foul weather and long trips but it seemed to do it all with ease. I wore that suit until it faded to pink and was softer than an old set of gym shorts. Something like eighteen years. Three years ago I broke down and purchased a new lime/yellow suit and it’s easy to see that Aerostich has made progressive improvements in this suit over the years.
So lets get into the present and Goldfine’s original and still best suit on the market.
Top notch construction.
Aerostich only uses the very best materials for the Roadcrafter and other proprietary clothing. They build the outer shell from the best U.S. made 500 Cordura nylon. This stuff is brutal strong but very flexible. It allows for easy movement but incredible abrasion resistance in case you have to slide down the road at some point. The typical impact points “knees, elbows, shoulders” are covered over with 1000 Cordura nylon to ensure you don’t gash through the fabric if you land on one of those spots. An interesting note about the Cordura; I remember reading and article a number of years back testing Cordura, Leather and Kevlar to check the abrasion resistance and the Codura came out on top. At some point Goldfine was asked why he didn’t switch to Kevlar and he said Cordura was a better material for the cyclist and if Kevlar would prove out then he would. Never happened of course.
The Cordura is backed by a boundary layer of Gore-tex. We all know what Gore-tex is I hope? It’s a breathable yet waterproof material that allows perspiration out and keeps rain or water from penetrating. What I don’t think most people realize is that Aerostich uses only the best Gore-Tex and Goldfine himself has been involved with the R&D of Gore-Tex. He just doesn’t buy whatever the lowest bidder has to offer. No way, he goes out of his way to make sure he has only the best on the market.
Below the Gore-Tex is an inner nylon lining. This lining is like silk. You can slide right in and out of this suit like a greased pig. Iv never experienced any catching up of my boots or clothing while getting into or out of this suit. The material for being as sheer and light as it feels is very strong. I have never broken through or worn it out.
Underneath the suit you can also find impact pads. Aerostich sells two versions of the pads. One standard and then a softer winter pad for cold weather riding nuts. Both pads are a special memory foam that is shaped to the contour of your knee, shoulder, elbow and or back. Aerostich makes them in its factory/store in Minnesota. The attention to detail and quality control of the pads like the rest of the suit is amazing. You can put your fist in one of these pads and punch a brick wall. Believe it or not, it really absorbs the impact. Iv had hard shell pads in other garments that can absorb the brunt of the impact but you still get a perceptible impact through your hand and wrist. For real world riding the Aerostich pad is a better design and flexible to boot.
Extraordinary features.
High-visibility Scotchlite reflective tape. They put this stuff in strategic locations so that you can be seen at night. One large strip across the left chest pocket and another across the back. Both are long and wide so you can be seen easily at night. There are also two more on the lower calf. Now that sounds like an odd spot until you realize that a car with its low beams on is going to pick up a reflector at a lower level to the ground than up high. That’s where the light beam is concentrated.
Nine strategically placed, external pockets. Its just insane the amount of junk you can carry with you in this suit. Makes a tank bag or backpack seem ridiculous. Lets see if I can remember them all. 1. A big right chest pocket with long up and down zipper. It’s massive. You can stuff a camelback or bota bag in there. 2. Velcro closed pull apart under the left weather flap. Also long and flat. Great for magazines and papers. 3. Left chest slash cut with flap pocket. I hated this pocket until I started using it. Great for maps, wallet, glasses. It’s a multi duty pocket. 4. Left arm/wrist pocket. Small zippered pocket that can be used for keys, ear plugs, change etc.. It’s long enough that you can access it when zipped open. 5/6 Thigh front pockets with flaps. Great collect alls. 7/8 Side pants slash cut pockets. I use them for storing stuff that’s going to come right back out again like gloves and wallet when I’m in the store. 9 Right leg pocket with zipper. All kinds of stuff ends up here like my throat bandanna and maps. And lets not forget there is also a nice deep internal pocket for storing valuables. There is really so much room in this suit that I actually misplace stuff a lot.
Provisions for removable arm and thigh map window pockets. These are basically Velcro strips sewn on the outside of the suite. It’s like having your car pre-wired for a stereo upgrade. You may never use them, but if you want to you can.
Hip pads and back pad. I didn’t get them with my suit, but the location points are already there. If you want to pick them up latter they could improve your level of protection dramatically. When you think that spinal injuries are second to head injuries in severity to head injuries it makes sense to go with the back protector.
Underarm and back vents. These vents make the Roadcrafter a year rounder. Open them up and you have a nice flow of air through your torso area to cool you down. You can open them as far as you want to full open to control the amount of air flowing through. The zippers are protected by a flap that seals out the weather if it turns nasty.
Side zippers for access to your street pants. Iv left keys and wallet in my street pants so many times that now I can’t imagine wearing this suit with out these.
Comfortable, ultrasuede collar lining. My original suit didn’t have this and am glad the new one does. This ultrasuede material is soft and comfortable. Takes perspiration away form your neck and keeps it warm in cold weather. It zips right up to seal the cold air form getting down into your chest area and doesn’t chafe your neck while doing it.
Adjustable tabs and zippers that allow you to fine-tune the fit. The arms, calves and torso all have these zippers to close you in and tabs to adjust the fit and seal you up. They are ultra fast to use, heavy duty and once set keep the whole outfit tailored to your size.
You can get a Roadcrafter in 25 sizes from size 34 to 50. These are real American sizes not Euro guesses and Asian dart board sizing. American men will have no problem buying these off the rack. There are regular, short and tall sizes available. With the adjustability factored in there’s no guessing. Aerorstich is right in Minnesota and makes all their stuff right there. If you need a special size, need to get some fitting info or just want to shoot the bull give them a call. You won’t get your call relayed to Pakistan or be put on hold for an hour.
You can also get this suit in a variety of colors and mix and match ballistic patch colors to get a two toned look if you want. They have five basic suit colors; Hi-Visibility yellow, Red, Blue, Back and Gray. The ballistic patches can be had in the same colors plus silver. Additionally they have 14 other custom colors for the ballistics. That gives you a hundred color combinations you can go with if you use just one ballistics color and don’t mix them up. I’m getting frail and drivers are getting worse so I opted for the new Hi-Viz color with silver patches. It really stands out during dusk, dawn, day or night. If you’re unsure of what its going to come out like, you can use Aerostich’s own website and use the fancy graphic color change program they have to do all the mixing and matching right there like magic. If your still not sure they’ll send you some swatches so you can throw it over your sofa. That way the wife can see if it matches the furniture.
Now if you do everything possible to get the right fit, right color combo and right accessories installed for your taste and it still isn’t right. Send it back. You need alterations, Stich will take care of it. Not happy, they’ll take it back. This is probably Aerostich’s least used feature, but most invaluable. I can’t really think of any other company that will do so much for customer satisfaction. And if you’re on a budget, check out the website for returns, altered and slight defect suits. You can usually get those at cut prices and with such minor flaws that only the ultra anal retentive could find fault with.
Wearing the Roadcrafter.
Getting into and out of the Roadcrafter is extremely easy and fast. This has become a big selling point for Aerostich and it’s the truth. They actually have a guy demonstrating it on the web site, but I can testify to it. Since day one I can’t ever say it’s taken me the whole ten seconds to get into it. Less for getting out. Take the suit and slip your right leg into the pant hole, push your right arm into the top, then the left arm. Now zip the right leg down, in one smooth motion zip the left leg and torso all the way up. Pull the arm zippers down. You’re done. It takes less time to do it than to type it.
If it’s your first time suiting up you may want to adjust your leg and side tabs so that the suit fits to your body. Once that’s done you’ll always have a form fitting suit once its zipped up. I considered the two piece suit at one time but decided the one piece is a bit easier to get in and out of, less prone to wet weather woes and I never ride with just the top and not the bottom, so why disconnect them.
Once on the bike you really begin to understand why the Roadcrafter has it all over leathers. Its a lot lighter weight for one. I had a couple full on leather suites and combo sets. They were all much heavier than the Roadcrafter. You couldn’t move around in them as well. They also have a hard time dealing with heat and precipitation. A problem the Roadcrafter solves for the most part.
Under way, you find the Roadcrafter’s abilty to tailor itself down to your body size and keep everything held in place eliminates wind drag and buffeting of air. You glide through the air smoothly. The Ultrasuede collar when zipped all the way up keeps the air from attacking your neck and chest and makes for a pleasant to ride even in nasty weather.
For the Roadcrafters ability to keep you cool when it gets hot out, it is doubly impressive in cold weather. When you see how thin and light the Roadcrafter is compared to leather you think no way. I was given an English Frank Thomas Cordura coat a few years back when I was being assaulted about the condition of my old Roadcrafter. I rode in the cold just once with that jacket. The Air and cold permeated the arms and chest right through the material so quickly that I took it right back to the dealer and get my wife’s money back. This does not happen with the Aerostich product.
I feel comfortable all zipped up in this suit from about sixty degrees down to around freezing. I will put on an electric vest on longer trips when the temperature gets below about forty. If it’s a short ride to work or across town I don’t bother. The Stich is really good at keeping the wind from blasting through you so staying warm isn’t the real issue. Below freezing I will keep the electric vest cranked up and maybe add a thermal shirt, but I don’t layer up sweaters or anything like that.
When the temperatures start to climb above 80 I start opening the underarm vents “zippered” and letting the air blast through. If the temperature continues to climb I ‘ll open the zippered back vent to increase air flow. A nice thing about the Roadcrafter of course is with such a nice nylon interior you can go right down to a swim suit underneath and still get full protection. This is really good in the summer time when you may want to get off the bike now and then and be able to shed the suit and be properly dressed for the occasion. Heck if you want to get out of bed at midnight and run to the store in your birthday suit underneath no ones gonna be the wiser and you’ll be protected from the elements and a fall. That isn’t experience talking though.
When it comes to rain this is where the dividing line between the one piece and two piece comes into play. You can argue this point back and forth, but Iv yet to have worried about the rain seeping through with the one piece suit. Let the two piece crowd argue amongst themselves. This suit is much better than any rain gear I have ever used or seen. The triple barrier and overflap protection does it all. The collar comes up high on the neck and seal it all out. Iv ridden across France in Germany in drenching rain, through Oklahoma and Kansas in hail and sleet, Louisiana in hot humid mucky rain and rain that would come at you from all angles. Iv yet to feel anything but comfortable in this outfit.
I have not taken a spill in my newest Roadcrafter but I’m sure its more than capable at handling anything you may encounter on the road. I did get sideswiped by a Taxi driver in my old suit about ten years ago. That suit had already covered over 80K Miles by that time. The bike went right into a hedge and got stuck upright. My body was traveling a bit over forty miles an hour and I went over the hedge and luckily landed on a freshly sodded lawn. Unfortunately I skidded over the slippery grass and flew into a huge cement drainage duct and skidded and tumbled to the bottom. Nothing broke on me or the suit. It did take some small abrading to the shoulder and butt area, but didn’t go through. That was probably the luckiest road crash a person could have had and I chock a lot of that up to the Stich and Shoei I was wearing.
Off the Bike.
Once you’ve worn an Aerostich product be it the Roadcrafter or any of the other fine products Goldfine produces up there in Duluth MN, you begin to realize that you do get what you pay for. Aerostich goes beyond selling you just a suit though. The product support you’ll encounter when you deal with Aerostich is second to none. They’ll help you in your purchase decision, in sizing and provide great after sales support.
Suppose you do have an accident and the suit gets messed up. Send it back and they’ll fix it up. Need alternations done, ditto. Need some information about your suit’s care and feeding. You’ll get some great product care literature from them to boot. If you misplace your owner’s literature, no problem, go on line, they have it for the downloading. Their whole website is a funland for the cyclist and you can learn a lot more about their products at http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/index.html
I have had no problem taking care of the suit. It’s machine washable. Throw it in the washer with a little bit of Tide and let the machine do its thing. Aerostich suggests retreating the suit for water repellency every so often. I’m a bit on the lazy side so I only did that a couple times with my old suit and have yet to do it with the new one. I could tell the difference with the old suit when I did treat it, but never really noticed the water repelancy getting worse with age. It wasn’t until the old suit was really worn out that I noticed it letting some water through.
Recommend.
I can recommend this suit without a doubt or hesitation. I wished it had been around when I first started riding. I would tell any young guy that’s just starting out that; You can fill your closet with all kinds of different pieces of riding gear. In no time it will all add up to more than what the Roadcrafter costs and still won’t perform as well. Save your money and go for the Roadcrafter right up front.
Unfortunately we find these things out with experience. So for the experienced rider Id say, this is just what you’ve been looking for but were to hesitant to drop the money on. Read the above advise to the young guy now.
Recommended:
Yes
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