This jacket touts that it is “designed, patterned and styled specifically for women” and truly this jacket fulfills its promise! At the beginning of my riding career, there simply was not any women’s gear to choose from and as a result, I was left with wearing the smallest men’s motorcycle gear I could find. With time, the industry has finally realized the need to create women’s specific gear but this change has happened slowly. Even now, most of the women’s gear is very limited in choices and rarely fits as promised. This jacket, however, is a rare exception.
The Cortech LNX Ladies Leather Jacket ($219.99) has quickly become my favorite leather jacket of all those we have hanging in the closet because it has all the features I think are important, including perforated arm panels that provide both comfort with an easier break-in and awesome cooling without sacrificing protective characteristics. It also has ample vents to further facilitate terrific air-flow. Another feature that really impressed me is the jacket does not come with a meager vest liner, but a full-on, full sleeve removable liner for when the weather turns cold. It does make the jacket a little bulkier but well worth it on a cold morning. I would have worn a fleece or light jacket beneath the Cortech LNX if it didn’t have the full liner so this helps me pack less.
But my favorite feature of the jacket, simple as it may be, is that it is lower in the back! This means it fits great both when I’m hanging out at our local bike-nite and when I’m actually leaned over riding my motorcycle. No more exposed skin on my back while riding! Yay!
The jacket is constructed with a combination of perforated and non-perforated top-grain 1.2-1.3mm drum dyed leather. Thick enough to be reassuringly heavy, without feeling like competition weight race leathers. Removable CE rated armor in all the right places and a full circumference zipper for attaching to riding pants. The cut and the “styling” of the jacket is classic, understated and well thought out, right down to the tidy “Cortech” logo creatively placed near the left hip (as opposed to giant logo’s on the forearms or back).
The accordion-style expansion panels at the shoulder and waist provide a very good level of flexibility and maneuverability to a new jacket which usually takes time to wear-in and become comfortable. Even right off the hanger, this jacket fits like a glove! The LNX also has the simple snap/zipper wrist closures for minimum bulk beneath gauntlet riding gloves that we greatly prefer over any other style. The LNX has zipper expansions at the hips of the jacket allow it to remain narrow or flair out at the bottom to provide room for the female form while standing or seated. Regardless of whether you need it or not, the flaring retains an hourglass shape, keeping the wearer looking like a girl without the pink factor (although pink is available, as well as baby blue and leopard print).
We got the all-black version and we really liked the use of two sheens of black leather. A more traditional gloss black leather on the shoulders and sleeves, and a very nice looking matte black leather for the torso and back. This is the first flat black jacket I’ve sampled and honestly, I love the way it looks. Initially, I was concerned about the maintenance of the matte black leather, but ingeniously, the gloss leather on the sleeves that gets the most abuse from bug-strikes, while the matte leather is protected behind the fairing of most sport bikes. The gloss leather cleans up nicely, and the matte black stays looking nice. There is also a bit of reflective piping along the back for added nighttime visibility.
I would love to see what Tourmaster could do with women’s leather pants made with the same features! We rate this jacket extremely high, and think it is a great value for the price offering the features we feel are most important while not being cluttered with too much “bling”.
More information can be found on Tourmaster Cortech Section of their website, at www.tourmaster.com.
