Klim Artemis ladies trousers in grey / wintermint

The Artemis pant, as the name might suggest, is the lower half designed to match with Klim’s Artemis jacket. Klim has positioned the Artemis as an adventure suit, and indeed it will work very well in this role, although as a laminated garment it will be difficult to stay cool in if you are riding in the very hottest of conditions, or if you are working up a serious sweat off road. But whilst adventure is what Klim may have had in mind when they designed the suit, we think that the pant, like the jacket, is equally well suited to road riding and touring.

The outer chassis uses a material known as a Performance Shell. This comes from Gore-Tex; it’s their name for their two-layer laminated construction. And what this means is that the pants will never ‘wet out’, even in the most heavy and prolonged of downpours.

For extra strength, the material is faced with an Armacor-style fabric made from 630 denier Cordura in the bum, on the knees, at the ankles and on the pockets. For even further abrasion resistance you get SuperFabric on the knees. Down the insides of the knees you get goat’s leather for protection and grip on the tank. Level 1 armour comes as standard in the hips and knees. The pants are rated AA under EN17092.

For ventilation, always a Klim strongpoint, you get zips on the front, and on the backs, of the thighs. Storage is also important to Klim, so you get two billow cargo pockets and a Molle-compatible utility panel on the thigh.

Laminated garments tend not to be the softest and most pliable, so to counter this the Artemis pants are festooned with adjusters. There are quick-adjusters below the knees and on the calfs. There’s another that allows you to adjust the waist. A gusset at the crotch aims to make the pants more comfortable for walking and riding in. Finally, you get long zips on the legs to allow the pants to go over an off-road boot. And there’s a poppered belt arrangement to cinch the hem of the pant at the ankles.

Now all this is well and good, but there are a couple of things you need to know.  First, like many Klim garments, the Artemis does not come with any thermal liner. You need to supply your own, which is fine by us, as most manufacturers’ liners are usually not up to much.

But the other important thing you need to know is that the Artemis pant will not fit everybody. This is explained in Sara’s video review, but the problem is that the pant is relatively low waisted. Now what this means is that, if you are more curvy, you may well have a problem getting the pant that is your designated waist size, past your hips. And this is not made easier by the fact that laminated fabrics don’t give much. Now in such circumstances you might hope that the solution would be to go up a size. And if you do, this larger size may go over your hips, but then when you pull them into place you will find that they gape horribly at the waist. And this, of course, you might expect because you then have on a trouser that is not your waist size!

In all honesty, it’s a not uncommon problem with ladies’ motorcycle pants of all descriptions. But it will mean that the Artemis pants will not work on everybody. They will work better on those who don’t have wider hips. Now, in some instances, braces will help. And the problem will become less apparent if you zip in. But it’s not ideal. And it will be less ideal for some than for others.

But, fit aside, these are highly functional pants with a very broad range of capabilities. If you are looking for a trouser that is going to be totally waterproof, well vented and highly protective, you should look at the Artemis, but they are most definitely more for the ambitious, high-mileage traveller than for the occasional, weekend rider.