We see a lot of motorcyclists riding around in regular street clothes, nothing but hopes and dreams protecting them from nasty road rash should things get tumbly. Well, maybe not all of them — hopefully, some will be wearing Crave’s kevlar-lined Axe shirt, which looks like a normal work shirt but probably won’t shred like toilet paper in an asphalt encounter.
Street clothes with hidden Kevlar reinforcement have been around in the motorcycle world for a while, and Crave’s offering follows suit with a layer of kevlar between the inner lining and outer shell on the back and arms. But the Axe line works in some nice details that put it somewhere between a shirt and a dedicated riding jacket. Zip-open armpit vents give you some cooling airflow on hot days, and inner and outer smartphone pockets make sure your device doesn’t have a crash of its own.
Plus, the shirt has pockets for CE elbow, shoulder and back armour, to get you even closer to the full protection of a serious jacket, along with zippered arm pockets for things like toll money (or ski passes — this doesn’t have to strictly be a motorcycle shirt).
For the best protection, you really should ride with a full jacket (and Crave has a nice one of those too). But if limited storage, sweltering weather, or your uncompromising sense of style make you want to ditch your jacket, a well-built riding shirt like this will at least do more for you than the t-shirt your dealership threw in with your bike.
At a starting price of nearly $US300, this ain’t no Dickies — but when the pavement’s whizzing by underneath you, that’s probably a good thing. [Crave via Road & Track]