Leatt ADV

Leatt Adventure Gear

Manufacturers build clothing around keeping riders safe. This is the new ADV range from Leatt.

We appreciate functionality, visibility and protection. We also like to be comfortable, but you shouldn’t really be riding in your jeans and takkies. 

 

Our latest investment, (Yes it is an investment, a suit like this costs more than the one that you bought for your lighties matric farewell or wore to your wedding, but it should last a whole lot longer)  is Leatt’s Multi Tour 7.5 adventure riding suit. OK, so it comes along as pants and then a jacket, but add them together and… It’s a riding suit. The pants and the jacket both come with a removable inner liner. This is SA, we are tough, those have been removed… Until the Highveld winter gives us a smack…

Choose your size:

With any bike gear, before you make the investment, try the stuff on. Does it fit properly? Do you think that you are skinnier or chubbier than you actually are? Yup! Thought so. Leatt seems to have done a lot of homework before bringing this lot to market, it shows in the design. Here’s a rough overview…

Pay attention. There’s test at the end.

leatt adventure

Pants. The ADV Flow 7.5 Pants.

The zip on the fly is heavy duty. Leatt has used their cliplock slider to lock the belt section. They have included braces to keep everything up and in place. We like braces, they are cool!

Padding:

Now there is some debate around these with a You-Tube personality sharing his opinion that memory foam pads are actually pretty pointless.  But he does say to make your own call on this. 

First hand experience has shown that we’d rather have them than not thank you very much! 

The padding in our Oxford suit prevented much damage in a major crash a while ago. There is a lot of science that goes into rider safety. You’ll find wide padding in the hip and knee areas on the pants.

Lotsa pockets. 

Four up front to be exact, two large zip-up water resistant pockets up top. Big enough for a wallet, keys, a phone and lots more. Then there are two cargo pant type giant pockets on your thighs that fasten with velcro. These are easily accessed via a rubber tag, so – stash a wallet or whatever in there and it’s simple, convenient access even with your gloves on. In front of those is a zip-up vent for airflow to your legs. Behind the pocket at the back of your legs are larger zip-up vents. Below the knee, the pants are flared so that they can fit over your boots. Noice!

Once you’ve put your boots on, they pull over and zip up, with a velcro flap securing the whole lot. You also get adjuster straps to ensure that you don’t go flapping off into the wind. It’s all very well thought out, and most importantly, the pants are really comfortable.

The ADV Multi Tour 7.5 Jacket. Where to even start?

 A beefy YKK Zip secures the front. At the bottom of the jacket is a second zip so that, should you wish to, you can secure the jacket to the pants. In addition to the zip, press snap lugs and velcro are fitted to the collar for secure, comfortable fastening.

The sleeves are adjusted and secured with velcro and they have included strap adjusters to tighten it all up. In addition to all that, there are strap adjusters on the slides of your belly. They even include little shoulder straps to hold your Leatt neck Brace in place…. Cool Huh?!?!

Leatt Adventure

Padding:

Your elbows, back and shoulders all have thick memory foam coverage. And you don’t feel any of it when you wear the jacket.

 

Pockets: 

Yes we like! Two large Velcro enclosed pockets up front. Behind these are open pockets for your, or your passengers hands. Cool! There is also a double pocket above your waist at the back. The one closest to your body is a sealed water resistant pocket, in front of that is a vented utility pocket. In your left sleeve, you’ll find a small water resistant zip-up pocket perfect for a credit card or something small.

 

Stay hydrated:

There is a sleeve on your back designed for a water bladder with routing through the jacket to the front for the suck-pipe. It’s all integrated and very neat, they have even fitted a pipe clip so that your pipe does not disappear over your shoulder while you ride. Very Cool!

leatt birch
Note the Hydration pack pipe and clip. Vents are open.

Venting:

Here we go… a large section on each breast can be opened allowing airflow. Almost the entire back zips and unfolds open for more air. Winter is coming, we did not open them right up. There’s a long venting zip in each arm, from your sleeve to the elbow to allow air in.

Rider feedback:

Flip. Ok that’s a lot. It is a lot to take in and it always astonishes us how much technology goes into rider gear.

 

The cut, fit and comfort is great.

Biggest one, the pants didn’t ride up. It’s a natural fit. Fitting the pants over your boots is also pretty simple stuff. The outer “Hydradri” fabric initially gave the impression that it was stiff, but it isn’t. You can Google it, high tech fabric for sure. Like we said earlier, winter is sneaking in, so we didn’t even play with all the venting on the jacket, only unzipping the front vents on the pants. That was good enough, and the chilly air snuck in in the morning… Naturally the jacket came off at our stop and we had a fair amount of stomping around to do in pants and boots. Comfy, natural, just like regular clobber. And that’s important. The Braces are just…. lekker!

Remember we removed the liners? 

Both the inner and outer layer can be used independently as light, casual jackets for either insulation or waterproof protection. You can also roll them up and carry them in that big rear pocket for when the cold or wet weather hits. We didn’t need them and were completely comfortable throughout, in the heat of the day, we didn’t get overly warm and travelling back in the late evening was just fine.

Zips:

Are all accessed easily with big tabs and drawstrings. Convenient for gloved hands.

Pockets:

Mostly you’ll use the front two on the jacket and the ones on the top of your legs. The Velcro flaps are easy to rip open and grab whatever you need. The small utility pocket on the sleeve is spot-on for those pesky toll gates when you need quick access to a credit card. 

Visibility:

For evening visibility, the folks at Leatt have included quite a lot of reflective detailing into the design. So you are the shining light in the area to other road users… all about safety, but still looking cool.

All in – what’s not to like?

You can tell that Leatt has taken their time and included all of the practical stuff that a rider might need. The fit and finish is excellent, the gear is comfortable, and they tick the boxes when it comes to the protective bits and bobs. Once again, it’s all new, so we have no idea on wear times. Experience suggests that they have done their homework, and the fact that they guarantee the goods speaks volumes.

Available at most Adventure dealerships.

www.Leatt.com

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