I recently received a Scorpion All-In jacket and was immediately impressed with the cut, styling and fit. I'm tough to size — 6'5″ and long, but not massive at 230 pounds. I needed a tall jacket, without the girth of a 50-gallon drum. However, the jacket hung around 'cause we weren't sure if it was destined to be given away, or what.
I poured a tall Bulleit Bourbon over two cubes and took a searing gulp. A delicate mission had just been entrusted to me. Could I handle it? Riding jackets are like girlfriends. You get comfortable with one and it's a bastard to set it aside — unless of course, the next one has bigger tits. Hmmm, not sure that analogy works, but when I ride, I generally reach for a comfortable cloak that fits the weather pattern. In fact, some bikers I know have been wearing the same damn jacket for decades.
No riding plans were etched on the social calendar this weekend, but Mr. Soto was under pressure preparing for the 2009 Redwood Run and he wanted to use the Bikernet shop to build a rigid frame luggage rack. He needed to pack leather saddlebags, a sleeping bag and a tent. He wasn't fuckin' around! He showed up with steel bar, a plan, clamps and two tabs to create a custom rack.
In a couple of hours we successfully bent the steel bar and welded it into a functioning item, capable of packing a Smart Car on the back of his Shovelhead hot rod. He was so pumped about it that we decided to take a test ride around the Los Angeles harbor at breakneck speeds.
I'm sensitive about current motorcycle noise issues, but once in awhile it feels good to let it rip. I try to keep it down around citizens and in residential neighborhood, but riding through industrial wastelands is wide open. I recently re-jetted my Mikuni carb and needed to test the results. I adjusted the idle, the mid-range air jet and cracked the throttle.
My 93-inch S&S configured hot rod rigid splits the harbor air like a deadly armor piercing bullet through an eggshell. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, like heroin addicts' needles. On top of a razor sharp V-twin crack, I slipped on the heavy Scorpion All In jacket and my golden Lee Parks deerskin gloves. It immediately felt like a motorcycle jacket should: tight, thick and secure. I felt incased in an evil, tough-as-nails, protective shell. It made me want to go fast.
“Basically the All-In is a good all-round leather riding jacket explained Robin Hartfiel.” Despite the vintage leather appearance, the jacket is actually constructed of a race-weight 12-14mm drum-dyed top grain leather. Function follows form in this case, so CE-approved body armor is installed at the shoulders and elbows (also note the “EXO-Tec” armor is removable and vented… cost a little more, but Scorpion brand founder Eric Anderson insisted on it).”
I immediately noticed that no air could slip up the sleeves, no-how. The jacket was snug, and wouldn't balloon on the freeway. An adjustable waist gusset allowed for a custom tailored fit to further keep your shirt tail from flapping in the breeze.
Soto and I dropped out of the Bikernet headquarters onto a Port Boulevard and nailed our throttles, as if all the cops in town were in Vegas for an armor-piercing Kevlar convention — unfortunately that wasn't the case. Soto has straight pipes, strictly against the Code Of The West in today's regulatory atmosphere. I swear I can hear him fire up his bike in his garage five miles away.
Straight pipes notwithstanding, we bobbed and weaved across town as if there was only one cold Corona left at Walker's Café at Point Ferman and Carol, the blonde bombshell, had only given me five minutes to fly across town before she would offer it to the next drooling patron.
As we sliced through town, I could feel that Scorpion's deadly tail slip under my helmet, resting against my bare neck. Okay, so the cut-down collar is actually comforatable, but I had to take a little poetic license. When I had geared up, I noticed the size of the deep interior pockets and that the lining is cut to allow easy access. The All-In jacket also has a gun pocket, snaps around the wrists over the zippered sleeve breaks and zippers to secure the exterior pockets. There are also a couple of zippered panels on the chest.
“The built-in ventilation system actually works,” said Robin, “Scorpion calls it “AirVent” and essentially there are two chest vents and two zippable back vents… airflow is damn good when all the zipped panels are open and you are bombing along. The “KwickWick” inner liner panel is the same material used inside Scorpion's helmets to wick away moisture.” See the hot “Sweat” video clip at:Just Click Here.
I snatched that Corona at Walker’s while stock bike patrons checked the ticking bare bones Shovelhead chopper and the subtle flamed stitching on my jacket. The day was clear as a polished brass run bell. I could see the beaches on Catalina Island, some 20 miles across the channel. As the sun drifted and a notorious glowing globe of a full moon crested the horizon, Soto and I said our farewells and peeled off in opposite directions. He sought a girl on the Palos Verdes Pennisula, and I needed for find a cheap dinner and return to the headquarters.
As the sun dipped I remembered what Robin said about the Scorpion during cooler riding temps. “Since you are SoCal-based, I don't think your test jacket was shipped with the removable EverHeat liner, so you can skip that part of the test or augment it with the new ThermoShell liners that function as stand-alone fleeces and can be worn without the jacket, available in both a vest and a jacket style… In fact, I wore my Hybrid liner to the Speedway races in Costa Mesa last night and it was plenty warm (the vest version is called the “Fusion”).”
Whiskey, beer, the security of the Scorpion leather jacket and a fine-tuned motorcycle have a tendency to drive me to dance with disaster in a lane-splitting frenzy… Not always a good idea in a sea of six million sharp-steel bumpers.
“To make sure that the jacket is real riding gear and not one of those Pakistani poser jackets, all the Scorpion garments get “EXO-Stitch” safety seams,” Robin explained. “A garment is useless if the seams blow apart, so the EXO-Stitch process maximizes strength by stitching a seam and then folding it over and stitching is again. A pain in the butt process, but well worth it if a rider should ever have the misfortune to test it. While it is a touchy subject, crash protection also should be mentioned in the abrasion coefficient. Scorpion came up with the “Abradium” scale — a five-point abrasion scale. Your All-In jacket is a four on the Abradium scale, suitable for everything up to full scale road racing.”
To quote the company line: “All Scorpion ExoWear products are rated on our Abradium Scale depending on the materials in the garment. Leather products rate the highest on the scale with a four, while textile materials rate at a lower number (generally around two).”
I attempted to remain cool as I rumbled across town and into the parking lot of Big Nicks for a bowl of pasta. Maybe I pushed my luck some. I pulled off the heavy leather jacket and draped it across the chair to reveal my anti-cop Bikernet sweatshirt. No sooner did I sit, than two uniformed Los Angeles Harbor officers entered the restaurant and sat at an adjacent checker-top table.
Then another pair arrived, as a second black and white cruiser pulled up next to the unruly chopper. I looked at the diminutive waitress with big dark eyes, while deciding on more alcohol or ice tea. I immediately noticed the position of my exhaust, aimed at the pane-glass windows. At one point, the passing traffic shook the glass next to my table with unnerving reverberations. Two more cops and yet another cruiser filled the parking lot.
Big Nick's pasta was as good as the cut of the zipped-in lining in this jacket, and I quickly determined that this coat was a keeper. I wondered if the tight, tough leather was capable slowing .38 caliber slugs. There was also a foam pad spine protector, but the standard temper foam was softer than the full-tilt EXO-Tec armor found at the shoulders and elbows.
Two more cops arrived, one and investigator in a suit, the other in gang apparel, sporting a flak vest and no less than three holstered automatics. I was getting edgy. The tiny strip-mall restaurant was shrinking and I was catchin' claustrophobia. Besides, my outlaw motorcycle in the parking lot was surrounded. I decided I needed to move while every cop in San Pedro stuffed their mugs with spaghetti and meatballs.
I daydreamed that I forgot to pay the bill and was riddled with hollow-point slugs before I reached my ride. A fitting way for an old outlaw to leave this stinkin' earth. I checked the receipt folder twice, added a healthy tip, slipped on the Scorpion masterpiece and said farewell to the blonde too-hot waitress as I slipped out the door.
I rolled my scooter so the pipes wouldn't pepper the Man's pizza orders. I thought about noise issues, the cop slipping into the driver's seat of the cruiser behind me, and the fact that Robin mentioned a couple of other jacket features (my mind tends to shift into overdrive with that many cops around!): “Their jackets come with Scorpion's full 5-year warranty. Sizes range from S/M/L/XL all the way up to “Porn Star Sizes” (Triple X). MSRP on the standard sizes is $399.95 (slightly more for the XXXL since you have to kill an entire cow to come up with that much leather).”
I slipped out of the parking lot keeping my pipes in check. I felt secure in the All-In jacket, as if I really could handle a couple of .38 caliber rounds and still make it back to the Bikernet Ghetto alive. I survived, only to find out that the Bikernet Staff had voted to give this jacket to a Bikernet Reader.Here's the deal. Click on the banner below and run to the Bikernet door-prize area, register, it's all free, and tell us why you should receive this well-built piece of motorcycle security. Make sure you'll fit this XXL Long, and give it hell. You only have a couple of weeks before we ship it out at the end of June. Can't say the Bikernet staff doesn't take care of our readers!
–Bandit
