The Frank Thomas web site boasts "Striking design and unbeatable performance". Unfortunately that was not my personal experience with my FTL225 Sabre one piece suit.

View suit here: "http://www.frank-thomas.co.uk/index.php?pge_id=11&product_id=112"

I bought it last November at Cycle Gear in San Francisco, CA USA. I rode it maybe all of 7 times before I crashed while on the track in a slooooow corner (25 mph, corner 11, hairpin, at Infineon raceway in Sonoma, California) I had a front flat tire - slow leak.

First problem is the "armor" if you can call it that. Cheap thin plastic shells with a single layer of postal envelope packaging foam. (Seriously!) It was so poor that I removed it from the special internal pockets and replaced it with TPRO forcefield body armor before I even rode it. I honestly can't believe the original armor was CE approved.

The suit's leather actually held up fine, but the SEAMS COMPLETELY DISINTEGRATED in the crash. I blew out 4 major seams and a couple minor ones as well in a very minor crash. The thread in the seams vanished, and the leather panels simply peeled apart. The holes in the seams were 12 inches long on average. I simply can't imagine what would have happened had I crashed at 80 or 90 mph. I would have been left buck naked on the track.

View:
"http://www.heavynova.com/motorcycle/motorcycles/suit.jpg"

When I took it in for repair the owner of Johnson's Leathers in SF the owner said that the suit simply should not have failed like that PERIOD. He said the seams were not sewn well, not reinforced, the thread was not Kevlar, and the seams were certainly not glued. He recommended I toss it as it would cost more to repair than the suit was worth. (His time, labor and materials.)

I am at a total loss as I don't trust this suit now. Even if the damaged seams are repaired, the rest of the seams aren't safe. I don't know what to say other than I am terribly disappointed.

I am a designer by trade and I have worked with leather a lot...and I really think this suit could be so much better design wise if only it was constructed better.

When I contacted Frank Thomas about the suit failure (sent the suit to the rep and photos to the UK home office), they were polite and said they would forward my email to the product and production departments, but offered little else except apology and excuses. There were no offers of repair or replacement even though it was a catastrophic failure of their product.

I expect to crash every now and then racing. It's part of the sport. I expect to get injured and I expect there to be damage to a racing suit in a crash, but not the level of destruction I saw in this suit.

Between the poor quality of the suit construction and the poor customer service I can honestly say I will never purchase another Frank Thomas product again nor can I recommend them to anyone else.

Recommended: No