American-V
Reviews
JOFAMA FREJ
PANT
Sizes:
Men: 48–64 (30-36 inch)
Women: 36-48 (size 8-20)
Short leg sizes available
RRP: £207.00
www.jofama.se
Aimed more at the sport rider,
these composite goat hide / poly
canvas trousers might look out of
place in the pages of American-V, but
don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.
Leather pants with preformed armour
at the knees haven’t got a natural
association with American motorcycles,
with their forward controls and
traditional styling, but with increasing
numbers of people favouring mids and
being more pragmatic in their choice
of riding gear, such kit has a lot to
offer ... and remember that Harley’s
excellent FXRG trousers are a textile
and leather combination.
The major claim to fame of
Jofama’s Frej pants is that magic
word: waterproof. Not shower-proof
or water-resistant but waterproof.
That’s a red rag to a bull to me,
because I ride in the rain, don’t like
waterproofs and I’m not the biggest
fan of textiles despite knowing how good they are,
because I don’t find them comfortable.
All I needed to do was find some wet weather in
an English summer: piece of cake.
Beaulieu in flaming June sounded perfect, and
so it proved.
The clever trick when testing is to combine
waterproof stuff with gear that makes no such
claims but which you can estimate the resistance
of, and seeing that the Frej Pant zipped all the
way round to the Jackpot BC summer leather
jacket that we tested last issue ... well, it seemed
like a clever idea at the time.
As it happens I was going to the
New Forest on the Shovel, with
mid-sets so it would be okay
with the pre-formed (removable)
knee protection: result!
With the 2-piece FXRG
rainsuit stowed, to be on the
safe side, I headed south
into grey skies, which turned
black as I neared Hilton
Services on the M6, and then
the rain hit!.
It was just fifty yards off
Hilton, and within another
fifty yards the rain was
bouncing off the motorway,
and half an inch of standing
water! Another hundred
yards and the jacket
breached at the seams
and zip and the clever
idea was looking very
stupid – not least because
the opportunities to pull
over on a very busy stretch
as the motorways merged,
were few and far between. By
the time it was safe, the jacket
was so comprehensively soaked
that a waterproof layer over the
top wouldn’t have helped much.
The rain stopped by the time
I got to the M5 junction, and it
seemed much more sensible to
continue to Frankley and give the jacket chance
to lose some of its dampness in the warmish air
before protecting it – and me – from the wind.
And the pants? Bone dry! Not a suggestion of
seepage and, equally importantly, comfortable
enough for the 200 mile journey followed by
helping Lisa build up the stand and hump
magazines about, and then pitch the tent. I didn’t
even change out of them then because I couldn’t
be bothered but also because I was comfortable,
keeping them on throughout the evening – where
they also proved to be mayonnaise-resistant,
when I threw chips all down myself.
LINDSTRANDS
MECH PANT
Sizes: 46–60 (28-42 inch)
RRP: £114.00 plus £19 for optional armour set
www.jofama.se
Today, your choice of armoured jeans will be based on who you trust to make
a decent pair of trousers, because the armour will always outlast the denim
and its stitching so its worth paying for a decent outer skin, and then on who
understands what they need to do, because – hand-on-heart – we take that on
trust and hope to never put it to the test:
how the protective layers are stitched
into the outer garment can make all the
difference.
And then, of course, there is style. I’m
a simple soul and like plainer clothes,
and the extra stitching on many jeans,
securing abrasion resistent panels, just
doesn’t do it for me.
I broke from that idea a little with
Lindstrands’ Yago pants – reviewed
in AmV59 – but saw them more as a
functional trouser than a pair of jeans,
and the stitching as a feature more
than a necessity – and of course,
12
Other than concern for my cameras, I was
almost looking toward to the ride home in what
was forecast as being an end-to-end monsoon,
but in the event that didn’t materialise. They were
still comfortable for the ride home anyway.
So, they are a close-fitting leather pant with
a Dryway breathable membrane beneath the
outer layer, which provides that guarantee of
waterproofness. They have preformed, removable
armour at the knee and facility for armour at the
hips – which was supplied but hasn’t been fitted –
and removable braces.
They can be made even closer-fitting at the
calves, with adjustable straps, feeling more like
a second skin than leather jeans could, and the
necessary ‘give’ to prevent them riding up your leg
and untucking themselves from your boots when
you sit down is provided by an elasticated panel
above the knee.
A pair of zippered pockets on the hips are big
enough to carry loose change but haven’t been
designed to take anything that will pull them too
far out of shape – that’s what jackets are for.
As mentioned, they can attach to a compatible
jacket – which will include all such equipped
jackets from the Jofama group of companies
– and it’s much more than a short strip at the
back: this is more than 270-degrees, but don’t
get excited about it being easier to make that
attachment because it starts at the front: you’ll
need to know that the zip is there if you want to
find it, and being protected by a raised seam it
takes some starting, but that makes them much
neater when they’re not attached. A second
elasticated panel at the waist provides that ‘give’
at the back when leaning over, and the effect is
very much of a one piece suit.
The Poly Canvas material is confined to your
crotch, inner thigh, inner calf and outer ankle,
and has proved to be comfortable, waterproof
and breathable in use, but there is goat hide in
all areas where there is likely to be an abrasive
impact, or heat in the case of your inner ankles.
They are much less casual than Harley’s looserfitting FXRG leather and textile pants, in both cut
and style, and suit a sportier riding position, and I
can’t recommend them highly enough. /Andy
there are other options than jeans. Amanda has hidden her John Doe Kamikaze
cargo pants from me, in case I wear them out, but what about combats?
Functional, lots of pockets to lose stuff in, some with zips so you can’t lose
stuff out of them – both ideal for me – and easy to wear, they don’t show the
dirt, they’re easy to clean and generally look after!
What’s not to like?
Well, nothing, frankly, and I’ve gone from never having worn combats to
spending half my life in them and really putting a pair through the mill, and
they’ve stood up to everything I’ve thrown at them, and apart from urban camo/
grey showing the mud on their knees more
than khaki/beige – but much less than
black – I can’t fault them.
The knitted protective layer – HI-ART in
the case of the Jofama group – is sewn in
at strategic points, rather than a full liner,
but there is a consensus that it’s your butt,
thighs and knees that are going to cop
for it should you take a slide. The stitching
that holds is lost against the interference
pattern printed on the heavy cotton twill,
while the red detail inside is just ‘nice’.
Excellent for daily-use, and a sensible
choice if that day might involve riding a
bike.
/Andy
American-V.co.uk august•september 2013
AmV63.News.fuk.indd 12
08/07/2013 22:41