Review | Motone Customs Revolver riding jacket

Motone Customs Revolver tested

While the classic vibe fits with Motone’s overall ethos and existing customer base the Revolver doesn’t go in too hard with the retro, striking a neat balance between tradition and more modern technical features. The devil is in the detail in terms of design, with a restrained look obviously lacking the external armour and reinforcement of racier jackets, the quilting and gusseting to permit freedom of movement integrated without looking too ‘biker’ in more casual settings. It’s still a serious riding jacket, though, with a figure-hugging fit and arms cut to an elbows-out stance for the bike, along with subtle venting and adjustment zips at the waist to fine-tune the sizing.

Straight out of the box the waxed leather feels stiff, thick and of very high quality, with the sense it will soften and become more comfortable once broken in. Our size small was certainly a snug fit, even for a slim-built tester used to sizing down with other brands. But it still feels very comfortable, the thickness of the leather confidence inspiring, ditto the quality of the metal zips and other fixtures and fittings. We’ll have to hope the rather tight collar loosens off enough to pop shut, though you can secure the fastener back to stop it flapping about if not!

RE ZRO armour is another talking point, this innovative brand making waves with its proprietary single polymer TPE protection used by an increasing number of clothing manufacturers. This is graded to Level 2 for the elbow, shoulder and back inserts, RE ZRO saying the shock-absorbing properties exceed the European EN-1621 testing standard. Our dedication to product testing doesn’t extend to throwing ourselves down the road to test the theory but the armour is slim enough not to spoil the sleek lines of the Revolver’s cut and we’ll have to hope, should the worst happen, RE ZRO’s claims bear out.

Verdict