Top 10 leather motorcycle jackets 2020

Every biker has to have a leather jacket. I’m sure there’s a law written down somewhere that decrees that every motorcyclist must, at some stage, be so equipped. By the same token, there are very few motorcycle clothing manufacturers out there who do not have a leather jacket in their range. Which means the choice is huge and overwhelming.

Of course, at Motolegends we have always done things a bit differently. We look at all of the brands, but like the man from Del Monte we only say yes when we come across jackets that work, that look right, that fit right and that, importantly, we’d be happy to ride in ourselves.

The problem is that a leather bike jacket is one of the easiest garments in the motorcycle world to manufacture. As a result, whilst some are very inexpensive, many are just not very nice.

Now here at Motolegends we clearly don’t sell every jacket brand on the market. We have no interest in the cheap and the nasty. That counts out probably half of the brands you see online or in the shops. There are some brands we won’t work with because there’s no shared vision or common ground. Some brands we avoid because we don’t trust their after-sales service. Some brands we steer clear of because all they seem to want to do is over supply the market. Some brands we won’t touch because they won’t embrace CE standards. And, to be fair, there are probably brands out there that don’t want to work with us!

This is our way of saying that our selection of the Top 10 leather biking jackets is highly subjective. Of course, we do talk to all the brands, and if ever we saw a leather jacket from somebody that we really, really liked we’d find a way to offer it. But we’re not going to suggest that the 10 jackets we have reviewed here are necessarily the best available. They’re just the 10 we like the most!

We should also point out that our focus is fairly narrow. We don’t tend to do very racey jackets; those jackets with logos and numbers on that look like the top half of a race suit. We do prefer understatement to overstatement. And although we have many, many Harley-riding customers, I don’t think we sell any jackets with tassels! I suppose it would be correct to suggest that most, but not all, of our leather jackets have some kind of retro or café-racer feel to them. But don’t tar us with the hipster brush. All our jackets have to work as motorcycle jackets, and be properly CE approved. We won’t get involved with those cool-looking brands with great heritage and credentials that only create motorcycle-fashion jackets. 

Anyway, it took us a long while to narrow our list down to 10 jackets. Now I’m not going to mislead you; Chris’s review is a bit of a monster. Bearing in mind that you’re probably going to need a pee break at some point, it’s going to take you around an hour to get through it. But you could be spending anything between £300 and a grand on a decent jacket. An hour’s investment in researching the market, in order to make the right choice, doesn’t seem unreasonable to us. We’ve done all the heavy lifting; all you’ve got to do is sit back with a cup of tea, and relax! 

The other point we would make is that, even if you don’t like our selection of jackets, you will almost certainly learn something that will help you choose a leather jacket that’s right for you.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the film!

For more information and to order online, click leather motorcycle jackets.