Cortech Gear Review

[blue tiger]

When I went from one bike (HD RoadKing) to another (S4RS Tricolore) I bought a ton of new gear to go with it. I don't have pic's in this review but if your interested you can look it up. I'm not doing all the work .

The first item is the Tourmaster Coaster leather jacket. I got it for less than $250. It is all leather with CE approved shoulder and elbow armor.It also included a back pad with it's own internal pocket for putting in a better one. It has a slightly different type of leather for the front of the arms and the front of the chest. It appears to be good quality leather but feels a tad thin. My older jacket (with 0 armor) has much thicker leather. It is very well vented but is a little warm sitting still. The jacket uses a lot of velcro which is a weak spot in an otherwise good jacket. Right away the velcro tabs for covering the sleeve zippers has pulled slightly away from the leather and will need to be resown. I would have returned it but resolved to restitch it on my own. The buttons for the liner sleeves are plastic. They attach the sleeve cuffs to the cuff of the jacket. One popped off the first time I took the liner out. An easy fix but still kind of cheap. The liner is thick and warm. It has removeable sleeves. It also has a zipper for attachment to pants.

The second item is a pair of Cortech Caliber pants. They are made of a heavy textile material with a (non removanle)waterproof liner. I've not ridden in the rain with them yet. They have a very thick insulated liner that is easy to remove. The pants are padded in the hip's and above your butt in the rear. They also have a removeable hip pad and dual density knee armor. The positioning system is pretty easy to use and effective. I was able to get the armor to sit very comfortably on my knees. These will be in the closet come high summer because they are very warm even without the liner. I actually fit my flight suit on under the pants as they are big enough but it would have been WAY to hot (and pretty tight). The weird thing is thety have a velcro closure over the full length leg zipper. That would be fine but they have the IZ_ velcro on both sides of the zipper meaning that half the time it is stuck to itself and is a pain. Kind of nitpicky but it is a pain. I paid less than $125. An excellent value and I'm sure they will be great when it gets colder.

I also purchased a pair of Cortech accelerator gloves. No I don't have stock in the company. I paid about 50 bucks. They have Kevlar in the knuckles and gel paddig in the palms (very thin padding I might add) They are the short wrist style and are pretty comfortable. They seemed small at first but broke in nicely. They also have rubber armor in the fingers. Nothing flashy but pretty good.

I also bought a Cortech sport tailbag. A highly recommended product. A little small but I can cram a pair of shoes, my flight suit, all my work stuff (stethoscope,ID,flashlight and) a lunch in there. It is expandable and has a detachable neoprene pad on the bottom. It hooks onto the bike with bungies/plastic hooks. I always take off the seat cowl to use it for fear of paint damage.

I also bought a KBC FFR Cruze modular helmet. I paid about $125 for it. It has most of the standard vents (top of head and chin bar). It is a slightly loos fit for my head but acceptable. I dropped it onto gravel from the seat of my bike. It broke the shield attachment mechanism which concerns me. KBC is sending a new one as a warranty replacement. I will fix it and keep it as a spare but ordered a Suomy spec1R to replace it. It just seemed a little cheap and the print on the lift up chinbar (it read Does not protect the chin from impact or something like that) is less than inspiring.

So there is my little review. Ebay is your friend and I can usually beat the local shop by 20 or 30 percent if I really shop around. For instance the local shop has the same model helmet I am getting for $504. I got it online for $419.Ride safe.