Hello! I’m RyanF9 and today we find out if leather really is better. This is a crash test of the AGV Sport Photon .
So I’m ready to terrorize the track, carve the canyons, drag knees and take names. Because this is a premium sportbike jacket with the 450 dollar musk of Italian leather. Mmm Mmm. Of course it’s not actually Italian. AGV Sport borrows their name from Italy but the company comes from America and the cows come from Pakistan. Oh well. This Photon is the United Nations of sportbike jackets and today it’s fighting nine torture tests.
The first of which is waterproofing, and our Photon is pitifully unprepared for SeaWorld. The YKK zippers on these rear exhausts are not the waterproof kind. The internal thermal liner is also not the waterproof kind. And the entire belly and biceps are dotted with perforations to improve airflow. Should we even bother testing a summer jacket for waterproofing? ***Camera nods yes*** Alright, fine.
So that went pretty much as expected. I got soaked through the front perforations, mainly along the zipper line, but it’s still a failing grade for waterproofing. On to puncture strength then.
Last time we tested a textile jacket called the Firstgear Kathmandu… shooting it with a BB, a lead pellet and a penetrating pellet at 500fps. Two out of three shots made it right through to BryanF9’s belly, which means the textile failed. But I think this 1.2mm cowhide will do better. Ready to bite the bullet my friend?
Alright so you can see the three holes from each shot, but let’s go into the mesh liner to see if it made it through, yep, then the thermal liner, then the T-shirt. Okay, so the penetrating pellet made it through – just the in the mesh liner but didn't go all the way through.
Since the Photon stopped the majority of our pellets, that’s a passing grade for puncture strength. Next we’re testing impact protection and that – of course – means it’s time to go to the batting cage.
This shoulder armor has nothing to be afraid of. Titanium plate, mounted onto plastic, stitched onto 1.4mm cowhide, covering a separate CE-Level 1 shield. The pad itself is hard plastic on top of dense foam… a very 1990s take on body armor.
Yep – score one for the 1990s. These might be about as comfortable as wearing a brick on each shoulder, but they are effective.
Now back protection might not go so well. I do have a speed hump on this jacket, but it doesn’t drop low enough to cover much of the spine. Then these foamie rib protectors won’t come into play either. So it’s up to 10mm of CE-unapproved memory foam to save BryanF9’s back.
Ah yes, that’s a home run. For me I mean… not the jacket.
So, our Photon picked up a point on shoulder protection… and dropped one for spine protection. Next we have abrasion resistance and seam strength.
Back in Rambo’s corner I mentioned that this was 1.2mm cowhide. Which it is…at least in the part we shot. But here on the main sliding zones, I have 1.4mm competition-grade leather. It should slide very well.
Wow, so I have a brand-new sheet of 40 grit spinning at 19km/h and it still took 58 seconds to grind through the leather. That’s amazing. The last textile jacket we tested lasted 35 seconds, to give you a reference point. Next we’re going to test seam strength. AGV Sport triple stitched the seams in all the sliding zones, so I reckon it’ll be a long while before we yank one apart.
So that took all but 3 seconds to bust the panels apart. I guess that's not Kevlar stitching or anything but still that's not very good seam strength.
Now, I’m standing on the tee box of Golf Town and this is my golf ball. It’s an elbow protector, made from outdated hard plastic just like the Photon’s shoulder armour. But remember that the Photon had titanium and plastic sliders on the shoulders to help get that passing grade. Well we don’t have the same luxury at the elbows, so this pad will have to absorb the G-force all on its own.
Well, looks like our elbow pad was up to the task. Less than 100gs got through, and that’s a passing grade for elbow protection.
Even still, I have to say so far so good. We’ve got 4 passing grades and that would already be enough to tie the Firstgear Kathmandu. I guess AGV Sport has two chances to pull into the lead. Let’s see if they can accomplish it in the burn unit.
The thing about leather jackets versus textile ones … they’re nowhere near as flammable. I mean you guys have seen me hold this torch to a textile jacket… it melted right through in seconds. But not with leather. I mean sure – proper fire suits like the ones F1 drivers wear are textile and they’re great. But for your average riding gear… I’d rather handle a hot situation in leather.
Zippers, perforations, neoprene, titanium, plastic, reflective strips, foam rib padding, accordion stretch, this speed hump might be full of foam… thermal liner.
So our Photon had a great heat resistance. I’d congratulate AGV Sport but I think the Pakistani cows had more to do with this one… leather always seems to pass the fire test.
And now it’s time for FortNine’s ninth test – build quality – where we ask the question what still works. It looks like the accordion fabric, elbow an shoulder pads are still working, even the little things like the zippers are still intact. Worse for wear but basically the way it started out so that's gonna be a passing for build quality.
That means we have just the 3 failures today – waterproofing, spine protection, and seam strength – and that brings the total score to 6 out of 9. On our leaderboard, the Photon did much better than the Firstgear Kathmandu jacket, but slightly worse than the TGP Rainier.
It’s a shockingly small sample size. But from what we’ve seen, leather is better. At least in terms of puncture, abrasion and heat resistance.
Next week we have an interesting one – this is a Nolan N44 and it’s one of those weird transformer helmets. I mean how safe is that gonna be? We’ll find out next time and until then, take care!