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Roadcrafter versus Darien


Aluminum_Butt

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Aluminum_Butt

I'm in the market for my first Aerostich (love that wife who values my skin above all else, and doesn't care what it costs to protect it thumbsup.gif). I initially leaned away from the one-piece Roadcrafter because I'd like the versatility of having a two-piece suit, but I can't get the two-piece Roadcrafter in my size. However, I can get the one-piece Roadcrafter or the two-piece Darien.

 

So, some questions to the group:

 

1. For those that use the one-piece Roadcrafter, do you wish you had the two-piece instead?

2. The Roadcrafter has some extra protection in the impact zones - opinions on how much safer it is?

3. The Darien comes standard with a thermal liner. How effective is it in cold temps (20 - 40 degrees F)?

4. If you ride to work in either suit, how do your business casual clothes look when you arrive (e.g. wrinkles)?

5. I can't really identify any other differences between the suits. Am I missing anything?

 

TIA!

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1. For those that use the one-piece Roadcrafter, do you wish you had the two-piece instead?
Nope. Love the onesie.
2. The Roadcrafter has some extra protection in the impact zones - opinions on how much safer it is?
I figure everything between me and the pavement is a good thing & the more the better. But I don't have any real data - just anecdotal.
4. If you ride to work in either suit, how do your business casual clothes look when you arrive (e.g. wrinkles)?
No wrinkling for me. But I've got a casual office so I wear Dockers for slacks and some type of cotton permanent press shirt.
5. I can't really identify any other differences between the suits. Am I missing anything?
In hi-viz yellow I look like a banana on a bike. smile.gif Seriously, I get extra space between myself & cars. Maybe it's the suit, but for some reason they back off more than when I'm in standard leathers.

 

Jim

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3. The Darien comes standard with a thermal liner. How effective is it in cold temps (20 - 40 degrees F)?

4. If you ride to work in either suit, how do your business casual clothes look when you arrive (e.g. wrinkles)?

 

I love my Darien jacket and pants. My jacket is Hi-Viz, and people do seem to notice, but I try not to take that for granted. I "tested" the suit in a relatively minor get-off in gravel and it did its job admirably, both in abrasion and impact resistance. After that, I've been a confirmed Cordura Commando.

 

3. The fleece liner is nice, but below 40 degrees you won't stay warm for long, especially if you're exposed to much wind. My commute is short, so I've gotten away with it down into the 20s, but if I'll be riding for more than 30 minutes at temps under 40 (or even 50, for that matter), I'll use my heated jacket liner too.

 

4. Ditto on no wrinkles. For my build (6'4" & 220#), my XL jacket has ample room so it doesn't compress my clothes but doesn't flap in the wind either. I ordered the pants one waist size larger than my dress pants, just to be sure. That has worked out fine. With my 35" inseam, I had the pants altered to +3" below the knee, which was a selling point for me since most of the competition can't or won't do that.

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Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs

I had a two-piece and now a one-piece Roadcrafter. I wouldn't buy a one piece again because I get some leaking at the crotch during moderate rains in under a one hour ride. Yes, I have sealed the seams, but it didn't really help.

 

The two piece never leaked, my theory is that the extra material of the jacket overlaps at that critical area.

 

If you are concerned about the abrasion resistance of the Darian, they do offer the AD-1 Pants which feature a tougher fabric than the Darian pants.

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I had a two-piece and now a one-piece Roadcrafter. I wouldn't buy a one piece again because I get some leaking at the crotch during moderate rains in under a one hour ride. Yes, I have sealed the seams, but it didn't really help.
Interesting. Never had the problem. Might be the amount of protection the tupperware on the RT gives vs. your GS?

 

Jim

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One of the biggest things to consider when thinking of a 1 piece Roadcrafter is the fit. They are very hard to size over the phone and just the way you sit on your bike can make all the difference in the world between comfort and misery. If I was to buy a Roadcrafter again, I would take advantage of the 10% discount and try to ride in for a fitting. These things do not fit like other motorcycle appearal. However, it's pretty hard to miss sizing on the Darien and I think they would probably protect just as well in a get off.

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Seeing that you are, like me, a northern Illinois boy, I'd recommend the Darien. I've got a one-piece 'stich and a Darien suit with an electric liner. The Aerostich one-piece is much easier to get in and out of; it really can be done in ten or fifteen seconds. However, I find it to be too hot for most summer days, particularly as the humidity climbs or if I find myself in traffic. It's a brilliant design, but I see the upper limits of comfort being somewhere in the 80's and not much beyond that.

 

As far as handling cold temperatures, either will do well. They pretty much eliminate the wind chill effect over the entire portion of your body that they cover. however, once the temps get down to around fifty, you'll be happier if you have an electric liner.

 

I haven't crashed in either thumbsup.gif , but I think that you'd fare about equally well in either. Of course, there are advantages to a one-piece design.

 

The big difference in construction, apart from the one vs. two-piece thing, is the fact that the Darien doesn't have a liner layer. This is what seems to make it cooler in warm weather--it's more air-permeable, and the pads hold the fabric away from your body, allowing more airflow over your skin.

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1. For those that use the one-piece Roadcrafter, do you wish you had the two-piece instead?

 

Nope. Have two peice and hardly ever use it.

 

2. The Roadcrafter has some extra protection in the impact zones - opinions on how much safer it is?

 

Went down doing about 70 last month, slid for about 50 yards and got up.. hurt only my ankle, but otherwise I was ok. The suit has one small hole through the outter skin but the gortex is intact..

 

4. If you ride to work in either suit, how do your business casual clothes look when you arrive (e.g. wrinkles)?

 

I ride to work each day, leave the suit in my bike (parked in a garage in downtown Seattle) cross the street to my office. There I change into shoes. No one know if I ride or drive.. (I do drive when there is heavy frost, first day of rain after a long dry spell or ??)

 

 

For my money, the Roadcrafter is absoultly the way to go.

 

Hope this helps some.

 

thumbsup.gif

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2. The Roadcrafter has some extra protection in the impact zones - opinions on how much safer it is?

 

Went down doing about 70 last month, slid for about 50 yards and got up.. hurt only my ankle, but otherwise I was ok. The suit has one small hole through the outter skin but the gortex is intact..

Wow! Those are the stories that make me a happy happy boy even if I look like a banana on a bike.
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I have the Roadcrafter one piece suit, and I really like it. If you decide to go with the Roadcrafter, I recommend going to Duluth to get fitted for it. I am 6"1"" and I was fitted in a short suit with the legs and sleeves lengthened. I would have never been able to get the proper fit over the phone. The short size better accommodated my broad shoulders and beer gut. I never thought I would be in a short suit, but there was differences in fit between the shorts, regulars and longs. The shorts seemed to have more room in the shoulders. The end product that I got was excellent and I really love the suit.

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I thought the 2 pc Roadcrafter would be perfect for me, but when I called Aerostich to order, the nice lady recommended the Darien since I live in the South. I ordered both, figuring to return one (probably the Darien) after checking the fit. I really liked the look and the fit of the Roadcrafter, but the Darien really was cooler, since it lacks the taffeta lining. I also got the fleece liner for the Darien, which makes it pretty comfy in cooler temps (last year I added an electric liner for serious Winter weather). I wear the Darien combo year round; I'm very happy with it.

 

I do wear it over a suit on occasion, and have no problems.

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Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs
I had a two-piece and now a one-piece Roadcrafter. I wouldn't buy a one piece again because I get some leaking at the crotch during moderate rains in under a one hour ride. Yes, I have sealed the seams, but it didn't really help.
Interesting. Never had the problem. Might be the amount of protection the tupperware on the RT gives vs. your GS?
Actually, the leaks occured on my RT. Since I purchased the GS, it has not yet rained.
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Here's a slight twist: I use Darien pants with a Roadcrafter jacket. I like the fit of the Darien pants much better than those from the 2-piece Roadcrafter, and I wasn't convinced I wanted a 1-piece Roadcrafter. The biggest downside is that the Darien pants and Roadcrafter jacket don't zip together.

 

Jim

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Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs
Here's a slight twist: I use Darien pants with a Roadcrafter jacket. I like the fit of the Darien pants much better than those from the 2-piece Roadcrafter, and I wasn't convinced I wanted a 1-piece Roadcrafter. The biggest downside is that the Darien pants and Roadcrafter jacket don't zip together.
I wonder if this is intentional?
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I'm in the market for my first Aerostich (love that wife who values my skin above all else, and doesn't care what it costs to protect it thumbsup.gif).

If you are truly interested in saving your hide and having the best quality gear available, then you owe it to yourself to check out the Cycleport suits. They are far better than Aerostich will ever be and much for versatile. Stich's are hot and clammy and they do leak. They will wear holes through exposing your precious hide to the road. Cycleport uses a kevlar blend fabric that is tougher than even leather. In fact, Cycleport suits are approved for professional racing by the various racing organizations.

 

Like I said you owe it to yourself to at least check it out. I have no interest in Cycleport, just a sold customer. The facts speak for themself.

 

SAVE YOUR HIDE

 

CYCLEPORT WEBSITE

 

Don't just take my word for it, ask around, including other forums. LIKE HERE

 

Here is a comparison between the Stich and Cycleport found on Web Bike World. ARTICLE

 

Yeah, I guess I'm kinda passionate about good gear. Hope you don't mind.

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I'm in the market for my first Aerostich (love that wife who values my skin above all else, and doesn't care what it costs to protect it thumbsup.gif).

If you are truly interested in saving your hide and having the best quality gear available, then you owe it to yourself to check out the Cycleport suits. They are far better than Aerostich will ever be and much for versatile. Stich's are hot and clammy and they do leak. They will wear holes through exposing your precious hide to the road. Cycleport uses a kevlar blend fabric that is tougher than even leather. In fact, Cycleport suits are approved for professional racing by the various racing organizations.

 

Like I said you owe it to yourself to at least check it out. I have no interest in Cycleport, just a sold customer. The facts speak for themself.

 

SAVE YOUR HIDE

 

CYCLEPORT WEBSITE

 

Don't just take my word for it, ask around, including other forums. LIKE HERE

 

Here is a comparison between the Stich and Cycleport found on Web Bike World. ARTICLE

 

Yeah, I guess I'm kinda passionate about good gear. Hope you don't mind.

I've had a DArien jacket for the last few years, and couldn't imagine something being better. A couple months ago, my new Ultra 2 Kevlar pants arrived from Cycleport (Motoport), and I now CAN imagine it being better. If I can find a Ultra 2 jacket used in my size, my Darien will be for sale.
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Here's a slight twist: I use Darien pants with a Roadcrafter jacket. I like the fit of the Darien pants much better than those from the 2-piece Roadcrafter, and I wasn't convinced I wanted a 1-piece Roadcrafter. The biggest downside is that the Darien pants and Roadcrafter jacket don't zip together.
I wonder if this is intentional?

 

Darien pants don't zip to anything including a Darien jacket.

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If you are truly interested in saving your hide and having the best quality gear available, then you owe it to yourself to check out the Cycleport suits. They are far better than Aerostich will ever be and much for versatile. Stich's are hot and clammy and they do leak. They will wear holes through exposing your precious hide to the road. Cycleport uses a kevlar blend fabric that is tougher than even leather. In fact, Cycleport suits are approved for professional racing by the various racing organizations.

 

Like I said you owe it to yourself to at least check it out.

 

The Cycleport/Motoport products appear pretty nice, and I think they're definitely worth checking out. However, I had less than stellar experiences with them a while ago, when I bought a pair of their pants. At that time, they offered alterations (I couldn't find anything on their website to indicate that they still do that) and their promised delivery date(s) came and went a couple of times without any communication from them. When I called, they never seemed to know quite what was going on, or they just made something up. dopeslap.gif

 

When the pants did finally arrive, the "alteration" looked like s#*t--they had lengthened the pants by simply sewing a strip of mismatched fabric on the bottom of each leg, and they deemed the pants unreturnable because they had been "custom-altered." Truly, it was a bad . . . no, make that horrible . . . experience (though I acknowledge it's the one and only time I've dealt with them). To be fair, this was probably three to five years ago, and a lot can change in that time (as I recall, they were advertising themselves as Motoport at that time and subsequently renamed themselves Cycleport, though a Google search for "Motoport" still yields links to their page).

 

On the other hand, my experiences with Aerostich have been uniformly excellent and, one of the reasons I like them is because of the fact that their suits are completely customizable, something that is a big help to those of us who are "blessed" with body proportions that don't quite meet the standard specs for homo sapiens .

 

The leather/Cordura/Kevlar debate will probably only ever be solved by The Almighty (if she's able to make up her mind, that is wink.gif), but here's a page from the Aerostich website, describing why they've decided to stick with Cordura, instead of switching to Kevlar. I'd note, that they don't seem to have any fundamental issue with Kevlar--in fact, they sell gloves, helmets, and pants that are constructed with it--they just contend that it's not as good a material for the type of suits they manufacture.

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1. For those that use the one-piece Roadcrafter, do you wish you had the two-piece instead? I had a two piece roadcrafter and I always kept it zippered together - go with the one piece, it makes life simpler and you don't look as fat.

2. The Roadcrafter has some extra protection in the impact zones - opinions on how much safer it is? Again - I've had both, and the roadcrafter is definitely more robust. I tried a Darien and ended up returning it becuase after a Roadcrafter it felt (to me) like I was wearing a windbreaker. The Roadcrafter is the gold standard - end of story.

3. The Darien comes standard with a thermal liner. How effective is it in cold temps (20 - 40 degrees F)? Plenty effective, but not as good as a Roadcrafter.

4. If you ride to work in either suit, how do your business casual clothes look when you arrive (e.g. wrinkles)? - Never ride to work - but I have a good friend who wears a two piece Roadcrafter every day and he looks decent.

5. I can't really identify any other differences between the suits. Am I missing anything? Ballistic thickness and impact ratings - talk to the ladies at stich or study the web page carefully.

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The Cycleport/Motoport products appear pretty nice, and I think they're definitely worth checking out. However, I had less than stellar experiences with them a while ago, when I bought a pair of their pants. At that time, they offered alterations (I couldn't find anything on their website to indicate that they still do that) and their promised delivery date(s) came and went a couple of times without any communication from them. When I called, they never seemed to know quite what was going on, or they just made something up. dopeslap.gif

 

When the pants did finally arrive, the "alteration" looked like s#*t--they had lengthened the pants by simply sewing a strip of mismatched fabric on the bottom of each leg, and they deemed the pants unreturnable because they had been "custom-altered." Truly, it was a bad . . . no, make that horrible . . . experience (though I acknowledge it's the one and only time I've dealt with them). To be fair, this was probably three to five years ago, and a lot can change in that time (as I recall, they were advertising themselves as Motoport at that time and subsequently renamed themselves Cycleport, though a Google search for "Motoport" still yields links to their page).

 

On the other hand, my experiences with Aerostich have been uniformly excellent and, one of the reasons I like them is because of the fact that their suits are completely customizable, something that is a big help to those of us who are "blessed" with body proportions that don't quite meet the standard specs for homo sapiens .

 

The leather/Cordura/Kevlar debate will probably only ever be solved by The Almighty (if she's able to make up her mind, that is wink.gif), but here's a page from the Aerostich website, describing why they've decided to stick with Cordura, instead of switching to Kevlar. I'd note, that they don't seem to have any fundamental issue with Kevlar--in fact, they sell gloves, helmets, and pants that are constructed with it--they just contend that it's not as good a material for the type of suits they manufacture.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, obviously I don't have an answer for that. All I know is that is not the norm from the many testimmonials I have read and ridiers I have communicated with.

 

Motoport and Cycleport are one and the same. The company name is actually Cycleport, the web address is www.motoport.com . Cycleport is now owned by a very affable fellow named Wayne Boyer. Their Kevlar riding gear IS custom fitted meaning you provide the measurements and they fit the suit to your dimensions, no extra charge. They do recommend that you let them help you with the measurements so they get it right the first time. Since things are custom made it does take longer. Their gear is not mass produced, but is produced in-house. The kevlar gear comes with a 7 year warranty! As for the Kevlar/leather/cordura debate, there really isn't nothing to debate. Cordura of the correct denier is good, kevlar is better. You will not find a cordura suit approved for racing.

 

I did not take your experience as negative slam for the Cycleport gear. You were just sharing your experience, which we all appreciate.

 

Everyone is entitled to make their own choices, I am just offering another option that is well worth exploring. Nothing more, nothing less.

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The Cycleport/Motoport products appear pretty nice, and I think they're definitely worth checking out. However, I had less than stellar experiences with them a while ago, when I bought a pair of their pants. ...

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, obviously I don't have an answer for that. All I know is that is not the norm from the many testimmonials I have read and ridiers I have communicated with...

 

It may not be the norm, but it's not unusual either. I ordered a pair of Motoport Kevlar pants several yaers ago and had a similar experience. My wife was able to make the necessary alterations, however, so I missed that part of the fun. But doing business with Motoport and their meaningless promises was exasperating. My bottom line: A decent product, but a very unsatisfactory buying experience. I won't order anything from them again. Aerostitch, on the other hand, has been very accomodating and straightforward every time I've ordered from them.

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The Cycleport/Motoport products appear pretty nice, and I think they're definitely worth checking out. However, I had less than stellar experiences with them a while ago, when I bought a pair of their pants. ...

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, obviously I don't have an answer for that. All I know is that is not the norm from the many testimmonials I have read and ridiers I have communicated with...

 

It may not be the norm, but it's not unusual either. I ordered a pair of Motoport Kevlar pants several yaers ago and had a similar experience. My wife was able to make the necessary alterations, however, so I missed that part of the fun. But doing business with Motoport and their meaningless promises was exasperating. My bottom line: A decent product, but a very unsatisfactory buying experience. I won't order anything from them again. Aerostitch, on the other hand, has been very accomodating and straightforward every time I've ordered from them.

Companies and their ownership can and do change. I have had nothing but stellar experience with Cycleport. What more can one say in their defense. I too have had bad experiences in the past only to find that over time the company in question got it together. Not always the case, but it does happen, as I believe it has with Cycleport.

 

I'll butt out at this point, rather than beat this part of this topic to death. Nothing to be gained by going back and forth on this line.

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Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs
Of those discussed I would like to know which suit is the coolest in hot weather. Thanks
NOT the Aerostitch Roadcrafter.
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"but I can't get the two-piece Roadcrafter in my size."

 

 

Not sure what you mean by this. I have a two piece Roadcrafter and I bought the jacket part for a size larger suit than the pants part, for example. This way I can comfortably layer on top for colder weather. It would seem that the two piece approach lets you mix and match sizes to get a much better overall fit. YMMV

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Of those discussed I would like to know which suit is the coolest in hot weather. Thanks

The Ultra II Airmesh Kevlar has been the coolest I have worn to date. It moves a ton of air through it. I have yet to use the liners, but from all accounts riders find the gear useable year round.

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