Bering and Segura are sister brands that come out of the Trophy Group, a huge player in France that also includes Shark helmets within its portfolio. The respective brand managers will swear that the two brands are chalk and cheese. We are not sure that we are convinced. The two ranges come out of the same design office, and we see a lot of similarities. Okay, Segura tries to be a bit cooler in its design, but from a functional perspective there’s not a lot that separates the two brands.
Segura often produces jackets that try not to look like motorcycle jackets; and the Natcho is an example of that. If you saw someone walking down the street in a Natcho you would have no clue that they rode a motorcycle. The chassis is a softshell fabric; this is the material that is used in a lot of street wear. Softshell is very stretchy and quite insulating. You wouldn’t necessarily wear a softshell jacket at the height of summer; you probably would in the spring or autumn.
Down the front of the jacket you have what are known as ‘baffles’. This is how a down jacket is constructed, with the down contained within those baffles. Can’t really say what, if anything, is contained within the baffles down the front and back of the Natcho; presumably there’s something in them, but Segura doesn’t tell us what. But the impression that is created is that this will be a warm jacket to wear on a cold day. And we think it will. The fact that the jacket also incorporates a fixed, drop-liner membrane reinforces this message, as the membrane will also serve to insulate heat being generated by the body, and will help stave off the impact of wind chill. To cap it all off, the Natcho also has a removable, aluminium-lined, thermal, inner jacket.
Ironically, however, the waterproof membrane does not mean that this is the jacket you want to be wearing in heavy rain. The membrane will do its job. Technically, you won’t get wet, but the softshell fabric is quite hydrophilic, so in prolonged rain the jacket will absorb the rain, making the Natcho feel heavy and, over time, the rider feel cold.
The jacket is equipped with vents on the shoulders, but frankly they won’t be up to much. This is not the jacket you want to be wearing in really hot weather.
The jacket is rated A under EN17092, which is what you might expect of an urban jacket. It comes supplied with Level 1 armour in the elbows and shoulders; there’s a pocket for a back protector.
Other details include two external pockets, a pocket on the shoulder, two inside pockets, a thankfully removable hood, and zips at the ends of the cuffs to enable you to wear your gloves inside the cuffs.
We had dinner with the guys from trophy Group recently when they came over to the UK to see the importer. And so we took the opportunity to have a go about the fact that both Segura’s and Bering’s pants always seem like a bit of an afterthought; never, for example, coming in different leg lengths. Well, they explained to us, nobody in France really wears what we would call proper motorcycle pants. Those who do will buy a proper technical suit from someone like Rukka or Klim, or the like; but most of Bering’s and Segura’s customers just wear their jackets with jeans. And so that’s really how we need to look at their jackets, and particularly a jacket like the Natcho.
The Natcho is very much aimed at the urban rider, the guy who perhaps commutes a short distance into work, or who rides to the station, and leaves his bike there. The Natcho doesn’t set out to be a serious motorcycle jacket. Okay, it does all the things you would want, to a degree, but really this is a jacket for somebody who wants to look cool, but who just happens to also ride a motorcycle.
There is no designated bottom half. The Natcho is purely and simply a ‘standalone’ bike jacket, albeit a good-looking one. Don’t try to undertake a long daily commute in one. Don’t aim to cross a desert in one. Don’t go touring in one. The Natcho is designed for the short haul; not the long haul.
Accept what the Natcho is, what it does and does not do, and you will get yourself a very stylish biking jacket that will always be nice, comfortable and cosseting to wear; a jacket that will probably never let you down. And we can make this last point because we almost never get quality issues, or waterproofing issues, from Bering and Segura. They tend to do what, on the tin, they say they will do.
And they do it for a great price.
