Wednesday, January 11, 2006

MC Gear: Olympia

I saw an ad for Olympia in the latest Road Runner magazine, looking really good. I’m actually surprised. For the longest time I though that Olympia made the cheapest gear out there and not good looking either.

I had to go to their website to check things out olympiamotosports.com The ladies gear is looking really good, if you like textiles. I actually like this Airglide jacket and pant set.

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Olympia Airglide woman’s jacket and pants in grey (this would match the Ducati very nicely)

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Olympia Airglide jacket and pant liner

I would consider getting it. This is something that I’ve been looking for a while and never did find. It's stylish, not black in color (all woman's gear tends to be black), all the features I want and a price I like. But what is the Olympia quality like? In the past my theory on motorcycle gear was “you get what you pay for”. How would this stuff measure up to the Marsee and Vanson that I wear that costs hundreds more?

I also like this protective but yet casual jacket and pant set for women called Mustang. Not very practical for me since I don’t commute to work on my bike, I rather have the above Airglide set for touring, but seriously, you could wear this jacket and pants to work and not look like you pulled up on a bike. Although it looks a bit like one of them outfits you could wear on an African safari.

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Olympia Mustang jacket and pants for women in khaki

My experience with Olympia is from years ago. In 1999 when I bought my first new bike, when I knew nothing about MC gear and needed motorcycle gloves. I bought a pair of Olympia gloves at the same dealership that I bought the bike. They were really cheap, like $30. They were simple short leather gloves for women, no armor what so ever.

Two years later I bought my Vanson jacket and pants and wanted a gauntlet style riding glove. I remember having a tough time finding anything in my size, so I went back to the same dealership and got another pair of Olympia gloves. These were nicely padded but still no amour. They cost about $60. I only wore them for about a year. I kept looking around for better gloves and I ended up replacing them with a pair of Spidi gloves. I never went back to Olympia brand, never though about it until now.

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