I had not been riding for long when it became clear to me that I needed a motorcycle jacket. My standard black university duffle coat seemed fine to me, but it wasn’t cutting it with other riders—or, more importantly, the girls I was hoping to impress with my CB72. At least it was black, not the camelhair colour that was the alternative at the time.

I headed down to the edge of Sydney’s Chinatown in George Street to my usual men’s outfitters, Stoliar Brothers. The sign on the front of the shop might have said ‘Army Surplus’, but I could usually find any clothing I needed in the claustrophobic product-choked tunnel inside. Eventually I even bought a motorcycle helmet there. Stoliar Brothers offered a selection of leather bike jackets, all ‘Brando’ style named after the jacket ‘Johnny’ wore in ‘The Wild One’. When I say ‘selection’, I mean different sizes. They were all black and identical in all other respects with a diagonal zipper across the front, two slit pockets as well as a chest pocket and a tartan lining. They were the epitome of cool.

虽然没有想到肘部，肩膀或背部保护器，但夹克的皮革很大。我认为那是马皮革，猜想它厚约3毫米。这意味着夹克停止看上去好像您在佩戴它时对您的人分泌的大衣，这花了一段时间。但是一旦这样做，这真是令人印象深刻，我怀疑也非常保护。奇怪的是，即使我在自学要骑车，我也没有掉下来，这不是我建议任何人的过程。令人惊讶的是，当您这样做时，您可以获得多少不良习惯；确实，我认为我什至发明了一些新的。

购买了白兰地夹克后，我甚至都不需要考虑其他任何夹克。我想，我想起了约翰·斯坦贝克（John Steinbeck）的故事，那里的一位学科告诉他的老师，他所有的饭菜都是玉米饼和豆类。当她在这种有限的饮食中表达恐怖时，孩子说：“你想要什么？”

I wore my jacket in rain, sun, snow and even, on one memorable occasion, hail. That resulted in a cut on my face and livid bruises on my jeans-clad legs, but the jacket absorbed the impact of the golf-ball-sized hail stones quite nicely. The only time it let me down was when I was riding with the sleeves undone because the zips had stopped working, and a hornet flew into the gap between glove and jacket and stung me several times in the crook of my elbow.

I suspect there are elderly drivers around Sydney who still dine out on the story of the motorcyclist who suddenly cut across two lanes, threw his bike down into the roadside ditch among sparks and a screaming engine (non-return throttle) and did a frenzied tarantella while he tried to get his jacket off. I couldn’t get my swollen arm back into the sleeve once I had detached the hornet, so I rode home with one arm in a sleeve and the other sleeve flapping loosely in the breeze. Adding, I suspect, to the populace’s opinion of motorcyclists as … eccentrics.

The good old days. Things, as I’m sure you’re aware, are different today. At last count, a few minutes ago, I had five motorcycle jackets hanging in the garage, not counting the pair that go with my ADV riding suits. And do you think that’s enough? Well, obviously the answer is no. So I looked around for a ventilated summer jacket, and came up with the Bering Riko.

This attracted my attention not only because it seemed to have all the requisites of a summer jacket (lots of mesh), but also because it was not black. Well, not entirely black. Much of it is a fetching grey, which does not absorb the sun’s heat nearly as readily as black.

这件夹克在中国制造，并在中国制造，内外有100％的聚酯夹，并带有一些苏格兰反光材料。合适的人称为“常规”，对我的身材柔和地量身定制。它有三个口袋，两个外部和一个内部。它们不是防水的，这是夏季夹克的预期。主要拉链来自YKK，口袋拉链是未品牌的。总体印象是一件优质的服装，并带有整洁的缝纫和整洁的装饰。感觉就像它将提供相当数量的服务，并保持良好状态。

Inside, the Riko has CE Level 2 protectors from Omega in the shoulders and elbows. This offers the highest level of protection under CE but still feels quite light. As usual with jackets, there is a pouch for a back protector, but no protector is supplied.

悉尼在天气中一直在玩其通常的愚蠢游戏，这意味着我能够在一天中尝试34℃阳光下的夹克，而下一天可以在14℃的恐惧中脱颖而出。如果您正在测试夹克，请方便，如果您只是想继续生活，请烦恼。结果是，我知道它在热量中非常有效，并具有非常好的气流和防止阳光加热的保护。当寒冷时，您可能不佩戴它（除了碰撞保护外），随着风的切开。这正是您从一件好的夏季外套所期望的。

我非常喜欢Riko，而且我没有将其交给提供评估的分销商。如果他们愿意，他们可以给我发送一张发票。

(Credits: photos by or of The Bear)