Richa Retro Racing jacket Black Edition

Of course, no company is ever going to admit to such wanton plagiarism, but the Richa Retro Racing 'Black Edition' is very similar to the Ace Legende that is made for us by Helstons. It employs the same super-soft leather, the same tone-on-tone, twin leather stripes down the arms but, most tellingly, the same use of the upper zip pockets as vents.

 

But if you're designing leather jackets for motorcycling then everything is going to be derivative of something. When it comes to leather jackets there are no new ideas. You just have to mix the elements up in a way that makes the end result aesthetically pleasing. You have to make sure the jacket meets the required abrasion resistance standard. And of course the jacket has to fit well and be comfortable to wear, both on and off the bike.

 

Well the Richa Retro Racing jacket hits all those marks.

 

The stripes down the arms work well. The zips are sturdy-looking affairs from YKK. There's a removable, thermal liner which we would be inclined to take out. The CE rating for abrasion resistance under EN 17092 is AA, which is what one would always seek, although one might not have expected on a jacket with leather this soft. The armour is D3O. It's Level 1, and is the more traditional, shaped stuff. Ghost may be marginally more comfortable, but we have come to the view that in heavier garments like leather jackets shaped armour works better. The jacket also comes with a Level 1 back protector as standard, but it's D3O's very smallest oblong-shaped one, and again we would upgrade it given the opportunity.

 

There are two, lower, zip pockets. There's another one inside the jacket. As we have hinted at, the two, upper pockets on the jacket also serve as vents. You get a poppered adjuster at the waist. And zips with a popper closure at the ends of the sleeves. Finally there's a short zip that allows the jacket to be connected to a pair of jeans by means of Richa's connector belt.

But for us perhaps the standout feature of the Retro Racing, the thing they really have got right, is the leather. At 1.3 mm it's actually thicker than it feels, but the leather is crazy soft. It makes for an incredibly comfortable jacket. This is one of the nicest, most comfortable, leather jackets you will ever try on.

 

Okay there are a couple of super-nice Belstaff jackets, like the Vanguard. The Spidi Vintage will better suit some shapes, and some of Halvarssons' goat hide jackets are hard to beat when it comes to lightness. But right off the shelf there are very few, leather, motorcycling jackets that are as instantly comfortable.