Held Starien leather jacket in black

New for 2022 is the Starien jacket from Held.

We are going to be frank about it; the Starien is a lookalike leather Belstaff Brooklands Mojave.

Now the Belstaff is an amazing jacket. Like many people, we probably use the term ‘work of art’ a little too freely; but we don’t think we’d be exaggerating too much if applied that epithet to Belstaff’s leather jackets.

The Starien is made from a soft, oiled, matted cowhide. Like the Belstaff it has a belt and buckle collar. As on the Belstaff you get quilted panelling at the elbows and shoulders. There’s concertina stretch at the hem and a couple of elasticated volume adjusters too. The back of the jacket is very slightly lowered. There are six zip pockets on the outside of the jacket. Two of them are flap pockets. Two of them are slash pockets. Just like on the Mojave. There are four pockets on the inside of the jacket. There’s a placket down the front zip. It fastens with poppers, although those poppers are not rubberised as they are on the Belstaff.

The armour in the Starien is not D3O, but it is really soft and flexible; indeed you won’t really feel the armour. It comes as standard in the elbows and shoulders, obviously. There’s no back back protector, but there is a pocket that will take a D3O protector in size eight.

The big difference between the Belstaff and the Held is the price. The Starien costs £365. The Mojave cost £1225; ie: well over three times more.

In all honesty, whilst the leather on the Held is nice, it is not in the same league as the leather used by Belstaff on the Mojave. The Belstaff is a lovely jacket. In some respects it’s probably too nice to wear on the bike. The Held is purely and simply a very nice biking jacket. It looks like the Belstaff. From 20 metres, you might even think its a Belstaff. Because the Held is an out-and-out motorcycle jacket, it might even be a better jacket to ride in. But what is beyond doubt is that the Starien represents great value. It’s a great bike jacket, and it’s pretty cool-looking too.