since I have moved away from sports bikes and the need to wear full leathers, to the more classic look of my triumph Bonneville I have been on the look out for good quality but affordable "Kevlar" lined denim riding jeans. after reading an article in the august 2015 edition of RIDE magazine about the various riding jeans and which were better I noticed an advert on the following page for HOOD jeans,their advert seemed to claim their K7 jeans had all the good qualities of the RIDE recommended jeans but at about half the cost, so after a little more interweb research I purchased a pair of the HOOD K7's with the 10mm D3O armour. my initial impression is WOW! these are great jeans, they fit like my normal wranglers, the K-tech lining is very comfortable (which as I have sensitive skin is very important) and doesn't feel like it makes the jeans noticeably any heavier and they don't feel like they would be noticeably any hotter than a pair of conventional heavy weight denim jeans. once you find the best position for the armour to suit you, the 10mm D3O armour is hardly noticeable. the one area that I have slight criticism in that the front to rear range of adjustment for the hip armour is about 20mm and although it was ok for me some may find that they cannot get it in the perfect position, but this could easily be overcome by adding another length of stick on Velcro to the armour and K-tech liner. fortunately or unfortunately I can't give you a crash test review, but from what others have reported on the interweb and the quality of their construction I feel they should give satisfactory protection in a low speed (sub 50mph) slide.if you want protection at higher speeds you should be wearing leathers any way.
I'm huge fan of hood jeans. Some jeans only offer patch coverings of aramid/Kevlar so in event of a spill you rely on the denim holding everything together. Not clever. Hoods are fully lined which to me seems a more sensible solution. I must admit I've never got round to putting armour in mine. Get a mesh jacket to go with them and your sorted for hot weather. If it gets stupid hot (Europe or Scotland) they work very well with the old bikers air con technique of pouring water down her strides before you set off. BTW this technique is NOT recommended if wearing gortex pants as you just steam yer plumbs. Just ask Dusty :-) And as they pack like a normal set of jeans you can take them on tour as secondary riding kit. And they are British.
I remember a long time ago . One of the bike mags were testing the abrasion resistance of various types of riding apparel . Heavyweight denim, jeans and jackets, compared very favourably with leather. And yes Steve H I am now the proud owner of some air cooled nuts . I do wear the rubber "armour" to prevent the dreaded ' stone chip on the knees.
I thought it would be better to wear kevlar long-johns under ordinary jeans. This place in Loughborough makes them: http://ansontactical.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_fr_undergarments.html The boss told me that they were better at stab protection than gravel rash, and 'Most "Kevlar" that is being sold for motorcycle use is as good as useless I am afraid.
So if your greatest risk is being stabbed in a biker pub on Saturday night, Anson kevlar underwear is the best option. If you're more worried about sliding down the road, it's probably still second best to leather.
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