Rokker Light Riding Shirt in black

 

Now riding shirts are not new. If you saw 'The Bikeriders' with Tom Hardy, a film that came out in 2024, you will have seen that back in the fifties a lot of 'Outlaw' types rode in their JC Penny shirts. Then again, some wore leather jackets, whilst others rode in cotton vests. Protection clearly wasn't such a big deal back then!

 

These days protective shirts are a popular option for riding in warm weather, although a shirt is still very much a style choice. You'd look daft in one on your Panigale, and they wouldn't look quite right on a GS. But if you ride a custom bike, a cruiser, a neo-retro or a genuine classic a shirt might well be bang on message.

 

A lot of brands do them. Rokker produces some lovely ones based on genuine, Canadian-style, lumberjack shirts. Held does some. As does Belstaff. And there are dozens of others out there as well, I'm sure. Truth be told, though, the riding shirt is core Rokker.

 

Now riding shirts come in different weights and in different constructions. The shirts from Held are made from a UHMWPE fabric, the same type of material that Rokker's jeans are made from. They are about as technical as a riding shirt gets. They are AA rated for abrasion resistance, but they are almost too light to feel truly reassuring.

 

Rokker's flannel shirts are very authentic in that they are basically genuine, flannel shirts backed with Armalith; again the material that Rokker uses for its jeans. And what we like about those shirts is their weight. They are a bit heavier. They sit somewhere between a jacket and a shirt; and nobody would have any qualms about riding in one of them; although you still wouldn't wear one on the track!

 

The good news is that this new shirt feels equally sturdy, but it reaches this position because it's actually made from a different combination of fibres. Cordura, cotton and Elastane. That's actually what some of our Spidi jeans are made from. Now there's nothing wrong with this, per se, but we would have expected a Rokker shirt to be a bit more technical than this; and although we're the last people to mindlessly chase the highest CE rating, with the weight of this shirt we might have expected to see three As on the label.

 

Now value for money goes out of the window perhaps when one talks about premium brands such as Rokker, Belstaff, Klim and Rukka, but on one level we think £330 is quite punchy for a cotton/Cordura shirt. But perhaps that's not the way one should look at these things. The price of 'designer' items, for lack of a better description, is not based on the cost of their constituent parts. If it were, Rolex watches, Tom Ford suits and Crockett & Jones shoes would all be a lot less expensive than they are!

 

In terms of the shirt itself, there's not a lot to report that you wouldn't expect. You get two chest pockets that secure with poppers. You get two hand pockets that close with zips. The jacket's got a mesh lining. There's a zip behind the poppered placket. The tail of the jacket sits a bit longer than the front. The collar is a button-down one. And that's about it.

 

The armour that comes with the shirt is Level 1, and is made by SAS-TEC. It's not just us being jingoistic, but we would have preferred to see D3O in a shirt like this. And obviously Rokker used to work exclusively with D3O armour, but for some reason that's no longer the case. Unfortunately, neither D3O Ghost nor D3O Diablo will fit into the shirt's protector pockets. If you would like a back protector we would still recommend a Level 1 D3O protector. (When you order online we will make sure that we fit the correct size for the shirt you've ordered).

 

We like lots of things about this shirt. It is nicely designed, it looks super-cool, it's protective and it's going to be reassuring to ride in. There's not really a lot that's not to like.