Review Details

Men's Roadcrafter Classic Two Piece Suit

Product Review (submitted on February 20, 2010):

I bought my black two-piece in the spring of 1997. Since then it's accumulated a lot of miles--how many, I'm not certain, but when black fabric fades noticeably, it's a lot of 'em.

In general it's held up well. True, most of the zipper pulls have fallen off, but paper clips or key rings replace them easily enough. The fabric's getting a bit frayed in places, and the Ultrasuede collar's looking a bit sad, but otherwise the material's holding up well.

I've found the suit to be waterproof, to the point where I don't even own a conventional rainsuit--provided I remember to give it a once-a-year treatment with the "TX Direct" DWR stuff. One rain-related peculiarity I've found, though: if you've got a US-style sidecar (mounted on the right), you may find the bow wave of the hack lifting the rain flap on the RC jacket and forcing water in.

One of the problems I have faced is that because the suit's so durable (and expensive), I've had to find a way to deal with my inevitable weight gain. Here's the trick I used: sew a second zipper-half on the end of the rain flap. This will zip to the matching half of the existing zipper, and give an extra 1.5 inches of gut room. And no, it doesn't seem to compromise watertightness.

The suit is perfect for touring, especially on a sporty bike with limited cargo space. I often take off with only shorts and t-shirts in the saddlebags, and just wear the suit over 'em when I'm riding. And when I get to a hiking trail, a few seconds to get the suit off and I'm properly dressed for a walk in the woods--something you just can't do with jeans and leather jackets!

I'll cheerfully confess that I haven't crash-tested the suit, and don't plan to. In all fairness, I didn't buy the suit for crash protection, though that's a nice bonus. It's just a really convenient thing to wear while riding.