Gear:Airglide Mesh Tech Jacket and Pant

Olaf Wolff
AllAboutBikes.com Sr. Staff Writer

Olympia Moto Sports owners, Kevin and Karilea Rhea, have made it their mission to redefine traditional motorcycle apparel design. Their gear was launched as the industries first “Designer Driven” collection. The Airglide Mesh Tech Jacket and Pant’s appearance supports that claim and without compromise to functionality.

Standard mesh motorcycle gear can sometimes lack adequate protection and generally is only suitable for warm weather riding. The Airglide Systems Jacket comes with a wind and water resistant insulated flight jacket type liner for multi-season riding, plus the jacket liner looks cool enough to wear by itself. The pant also comes with an easily removable insulated liner that can be worn separately and features two riveted front and two rear pockets and belt-loops.

Both the jacket and pant outer shell is constructed from 500 Denier Dupont Cordura with panels of ballistic air flow mesh advantageously placed to provide the utmost ventilation, without surrendering safety.

The jacket is shorter than traditional motorcycle jackets and features fully adjustable hook and loop closures to cinch at the waist and closures on the sleeves for adjustments. When selecting hot weather gear I’m all in favor of less being more. The shorter jacket fits well and doesn’t ride up when in a seated position. It also provides for a distinctively smart look. There’s removable CE approved Motion Flex injection molded armor at the elbow and shoulders and a removable articulated back protector. Should you find yourself in the unfortunate position of needing to rely on the armor, or the Dupont Cordura, its comforting to know it’s been carefully positioned and designed to actually provide maximum protection.

There are four exterior pockets, two vertical, on each lower side, and two horizontally zippered breast pockets. There’s also a fifth pocket located on the left inside of the jacket. Zippers that grab and get caught on fabric when opening or closing is a pet-peeve of mine, the design of the Airglide jacket seems to have made allowances for this and eliminated zipper failure. The 3M Scotchlite reflective piping isn’t merely randomly positioned either, but rather becomes a part of the design cues, working nicely for both esthetics and visibility purposes. The neoprene comfort neck insert features a rubberized pull-tab that makes opening and closing easy with gloved hands.

The pants wear more like a comfortable pair of relaxed fit jeans, rather than bulky, saggy- crotched riding gear. There’s a custom fit expandable waistband that provides for additional seating comfort and like the pant-liner, there are belt-loops. The custom fit three-tier adjustable knee armor can be personalized using a simple progression of hook and loop closures to move the armor up or down. The EZ hem bottom also uses hook and loop closures for easy adjustments and there’s a zipper that runs up to the hips for immediate cooling comfort when called for. There are removable EVA compression foam pads at the hips, and an 8-inch zipper to connect the pants to the jacket.

I recently had the opportunity to do a real world test on this gear in the blistering 98 degree heat and 90 plus percent humidity of Turkey and what makes this such exceptional mesh riding gear, in my opinion, is the unfaltering attention to detail – the ideal blending of safety factors and strategically positioned cool mesh airflow lining. Not only does it put the hip back in motorcycle gear – it just plain works.

The jacket is priced at $209.99 and the pant at $190.99. For more information contact Olympia Moto Sports toll free at (866) 473-4327 or online.