Bering Freeway jacket in grey / blue

The styling of the Freeway is pure ‘adventure’, although every brand does this look reasonably well these days. Even the cheapest, budget brands can make a jacket look as though it’s up to a round-the-world expedition. And so you usually get a mid-length jacket with lots of pockets, multiple vents and waist adjuster straps. These jackets will inevitably come in an array of ‘adventure’ colours: greys, blues, browns, greens, and so on.

One of the things we really like about the Freeway jacket is its fabric. Its chassis is a combination of a cavalry twill with panels of soft and stretchy softshell. The result is a jacket that is just about as comfortable as anything we’ve come across. The Freeway reminds us of the Halvarssons Wien that, for many years, we considered to be the perfect jacket for 90% of motorcyclists. That was until Halvarssons discontinued it!

The Freeway comes with Level 1 armour in the elbows and shoulders. This could be upgraded to Level 2 if you wanted. There’s a pocket for a back protector. The Freeway comes with a fixed, drop-liner mwembrane. Inside the jacket, there’s a removable thermal liner, but whilst it will do a job, we’d probably remove it, put in in a drawer somewhere, and replace it with a down jacket of some description. It will be warmer, more comfortable, wearable off the bike; and you will never have to wrestle with zips and poppers ever again.

There is lots of pleasing detail with the Freeway. The Magneto main zip is one of them. Once you get used to it, it’s very clever, and easy to use.

You get two vents on the chest; and what’s interesting about them is the poppered straps that allow the vents to be held open. The zips at the cuffs will also double as vents. There’s a large exhaust vent across the back. Now everybody talks about the direct-to-body venting that you get with a laminated jacket; and that is true. But the problem is that if the zip fails, or if it’s left just partially open, you will quickly get wet. Not so in a drop-liner outfit like the Freeway. If the rain gets through the vent, you won’t get wet because there’s still a membrane that needs to be negotiated.

There are zips at the ends of the cuffs to enable the cuffs of a waterproof glove to be fitted inside the sleeve ends. On the arms you get volume adjusters. There’s a neat belt arrangement at the waist that allows the jacket to be cinched in, or relaxed, dependent upon what is being worn beneath it.

Pockets are very much part of the adventure look. And so, in total, there are six on the outside. You get two more inside, one in the lining; one in the thermal. You also get a removable neck collar that attaches to the jacket by zip, but fastens by means of Velcro. Finally, as you would expect, you get a zip to enable to connect the jacket to the matching pants.