As Your Humble Servant, I have done my best to thrash this Olympia Moto Sports X Moto Suit in all kinds of conditions. It has been exposed to cold and hot, its vents closed and opened, its liners inserted and removed and its pockets filled and emptied many times. It has been thrown around, crumpled up and stuffed into gear bags. It has even been crashed in and skewered with cactus needles while blitzing the sandy Mojave Road. And it has suffered the indignity of our locker room shower, not having any real rain handy for a more honorable test. Yet the X Moto has stood up to it all.
As it should—Olympia’s new suit is aimed at adventure/dual-sport riders, a demanding bunch that abuses gear relentlessly. Greeting the outside world is a shell of 500-denier Cordura, with 2,000-denier at impact areas. Tough stuff. The pants have soft leather panels inside both legs to protect your bike. Sweating my way through technical desert trails, the MVS Mega Vent Panel System kept me cool. On both sides of the chest, 8- x 7-inch panels can be unzipped and tucked into hidden pockets, revealing free-breathing mesh. Long, narrow panels down the sides of the back provide cross-ventilation like open windows on either side of the integrated, removable half-liter hydration pack with its own backpack straps. The pants have 6- x 14-inch vent panels on the thighs that tuck into ultra-deep pockets (beware of unknowingly dropping items in there…thought I had lost my cell phone until my shin starting vibrating!). Add in generous upper arm vents and cool mesh inside, and the only way you’ll get more airflow is by going commando.
Removable CE-approved Motion Flex armor at elbows, shoulders, back and knees (height adjustable) and foam hip pads provide impact protection. About that crash: a minor mishap on a hard-packed trail, when my bike’s front tire got caught in a rut. The suit took the scuffs in stride, though the left knee pad rotated to the inside and wasn’t covering my knee when I hit the deck. This is a common weakness among jeanslike textile overpants—perhaps some kind of adjustable straps like those on the arms to better locate the pads are in order. Offroad I normally wear knee/shin guards or braces, and recommend doing the same.
The neoprene collar is cozy, and hook-and-loop tabs seal the neck area and adjust the fit at the wrists and arms. The pants have much-appreciated belt loops and stretch panels at the waist and knees. Waist-to-ankle zippers make it easy to put the pants on over jeans, MX boots, knee braces, etc. Pockets abound: seven on the jacket, four on the pants, not to mention the bonus storage possibilities of the vent panel pockets.
Zipped inside the waterproof jacket liner is a Thermolite insulated liner. It kept me warm at freeway speeds with temps in the low 40s, and it doubles as a windbreaker off the bike (the pants liner makes for great lounge wear at your campsite, too). In lieu of rain, I subjected the suit to a 10-minute shower test. The liners kept water at bay, as did the two upper chest pockets labeled as waterproof. But the jacket’s front cargo pockets have only flap closures with snaps and seeped a bit. Adding zippers might do the trick.
With first-rate fit and construction, complaints about the X Moto are few, its nearly everyday use proof of its tough, stylish goodness. The first hydration bladder leaked, but Olympia promptly replaced it with a new one that’s been watertight. Also, beware that really dusty riding may cause some of the zippers to bind; a few drops of silicone lubricant frees them up.
The Olympia Moto Sports X Moto jacket comes in sizes S-4XL for $429.99; pants in sizes 30-44 for $249.99; colors include sand (shown) and pewter.
For more information: See your Olympia Moto Sports dealer
