I have a really good motorcycle jacket. It’s a high-viz Fieldsheer “High Temp”. Without the liner, it’s livable in ninety-degree weather. With the liner, it’s comfortable down to thiry-five degrees on an unfaired bike. There’s just one little problem: it’s made overseas. In Pakistan, to be precise. I have no issue with Pakistan — I’ve raced for the “Pakistan Express” NASA team in the past and I count multiple ex-pat Pakistanis among my friends — but obviously I’d like to have a USA-made motorcycle jacket. And it would be even better if the jacket could be made from horsehide, of course.
Enter Hillside USA. They are far from the only American source for motorcycle jackets — Ronnie Schreiber will be furious with me if I don’t mention Reed, from Detroit, and there are others — but they’re relatively cheap and they are willing to put a fair amount of effort into getting you sized correctly. When you’re buying a horsehide jacket, the size has to be absolutely right because horsehide does not stretch.
Last month I got my “trial fit” jacket. I sent back corrections and now I have my very own horsehide Cafe Racer coat. It was thirty-seven degrees outside this morning and I rode the CB1100 in to work with no trouble. I suspect it’s going to be hot in the summer but it isn’t like I’m throwing the Fieldsheer out. I should also point out that the jacket has to weigh five pounds, possibly more. Putting it on is like suiting up for a joust.
Hillside also makes a very nice Cordura vest but I’m still working out the sizing on that one. Those of you who think no motorcycle ride is complete unless you’re carrying a pistol will note with approval Hillside’s right-hand-draw pistol pocket that makes it easy to draw and shoot from the bike.
No, I’m not riding around with a Glock. I understand that “Sons Of Anarchy” was fictional and I don’t expect to attend any biker rallies in Waco anytime soon. But the pocket also works well for a phone. Just make sure you don’t “draw your phone” in front of any trigger-happy cops, okay?
#motorcyclistlivesmatter
What if you’re a lefty?
They’ll make it that way, too.
I’m sure they’ll come up with a vegan, green version for lefties too. Or not.
Tough to beat Stuart Clurman over at Lost Worlds Inc. Either for his horsehide or his editorial content.
Back in 1967 I acquired a 250 Bultaco Pursang. Unlike later models, the ’67 Pursang had a high pipe, which didn’t tuck in. Riding/racing in Levis, my left leg spent an inordinate amount of time up against the expansion chamber, and I acquired sort of a perma-blister on my left calf. The scar remains to this day.
So for Christmas my parents got me a set of Bates leathers to protect my leg. Bates couldn’t furnish them in club colors so I for some reason settled on dark purple with pink trim. They were gorgeous and beautifully made, and I wore them for many years. I wish I still had them, although there is no way in hell that they would still fit.
But there was a problem. Riding in Levis, if my calf got hot I could always move it away from the pipe. But with leather pants, if the leather got hot, the leg was going to cook for a while. I finally had a custom pipe and heatshield made.
Anyway, Bates still makes custom American-made leathers that a lot of racers and some street riders use. They have gone through some ownership changes, but I expect they still make pretty a high-quality product.
I remember, right after 9/11/01, there was a French brand that did some big splash in selling Pakistani-made leather jackets here as part of a late night television infomercial blitz. I think it was Pierre Cardin; anyway, we were reminded that General Musharraf and his friends were the only thing standing between us and the fall of Pakistan to Al Qaeda from the tribal province of Waziristan, so, we better buy their jackets and keep them from turning terrorist. There were flags and screaming eagles and everything. I received one as a gift. It has lasted all this time, and it aged quite nicely.
I would have preferred an American-made one as well. I’ve tried to buy American leather, but it never aged/distressed well for me. Perhaps I didn’t get the real thing.
I have several Kangaroo hide watch straps. I know they make motorcycle jackets out of Roo hide too. I’ve wondered how well the jackets wear given how durable the straps are. The Roo hide does have some stretch tho vs. the horsehide.
Furious? Nah. Pleased that you mentioned them, though. Some backstory for your readers: The Reed & Silver families are old friends of my family. Before she got to an advanced age, my mom was an expert sewer and happened to have been the first friend Etta Reed made when she and Emil moved to Detroit after they managed to survive the Nazis. The Reeds and Etta’s brother Saul and his wife Rosalie started Reed Sportswear in 1950 and my mom says she helped sew some of their first products in the Reed’s basement. The Reeds, now both deceased, had a son, David, who is just between my brother Jeff and I in age and when we were kids my mom used to take us downtown to the Reed factory so she could hang out with Etta and Jeff, David and I would play in the factory amidst stacks of leather.
A while back I started to do some research on motorcycle leathers made in Detroit. Besides Reed, there was Brooks, which made racing leathers, and Buco, which started out selling accessories like saddle bags. It just so happens that Buco, Brooks, Reed, and Schott Bros, of Long Island, were all started by Jewish immigrants whose personal lifestyles were far removed from motorcycle culture.
According Schott, the leather jacket that Marlon Brando wore in The Wild One was made by them, but lots of online sources dispute that, saying that it was a Buco jacket. A number of companies made similarly styled high-waisted flap front motorcycle jackets and the actual jacket Brando wore no longer exists, so there’s no way of knowing exactly who made it. However if it was a Buco, than Reed made it. Buco, the Joseph Buegeleisen Co., made no jackets themselves and in the 1950s when that movie was made, they had their jackets made under contract by Reed.
Reed will still make you the same style jacket, using some of the same equipment that was used in the early 1950s. Though most of their branded apparel is imported these days, they still have a small crew cutting and sewing motorcycle jackets, varsity jackets and fashion leather apparel in Detroit.
Not sure if they’ll make you one in horsehide or not. Since those jackets are made to order, they probably can if you’re willing to pay for the skin.
Dammit, Jack, but my wallet has had enough abuse this month.
Is it possible to wear one of the classics and *not* look like the cop from the Village People?
Aside, re. R&T: “Let me wring its neck every day on the way to work without winding up in prison or the morgue.”
I’ve been saying this, nearly verbatim, for years.
That’s a good question. I don’t think that I could personally manage it, but only because I have a Seventies hairstyle.
Looks like several of the Hillside jackets do not have armor or even spaces for inserts. Just curious - how big of a deal do you take that to be?
I’d been riding without armor for twenty-three years. With that said, I’m still likely to wear the Fieldsheer, with its full armor setup, whenever I think I’m going to be going fast or in crowded traffic (or both!)
Armor is good ~ I didn’t have it when I was run over by a gypsy cab , wish I did as I’m now crippled . (still riding tho’)
American made is very good indeed ~ both my current leather Moto jackets were offshore , one is old but still in VGC as I keep it supple with applications of baby oil from the .99 Cents Store , I can’t afford that fancy-schmancy $20 / bottle crap that works no better =8-) .
If you need to carry a pistol (I don’t and I’m a cracker who rides in the very worst part of Los Angeles) , simply buy a Police Spec., jacket ~ they all come with very nice Pistol pockets , my lightweight summer Moto jacket is a ballistic nylon L.A.P.D. Spec. and it caries a Glock , 1911 or Model 10 M&P revolver nicely .
-Nate
Does that jacket extend to below the waist, or does it ride above your belt-line? My old Harley jacket would ride up when I’d lean forward and expose several inches of my back, which I hated. My new synthetic jacket (with armor) rides slightly below the belt-line and prevents that.
It’s not as long as my Fieldsheer, which has a sort of vestigial tail to prevent exactly the annoyance you mentioned, but it’s longer than a non-motorcycling jacket. It ends at my belt when I’m leaned over the VFR800.