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Brief The mesh jacket offers a cool, flow-through fabric design for hot weather riding without compromising safety. The style has been out for a while now and there are many manufacturers to choose from. I went out looking for the best combination of style, color, padding and armor available. For my needs the AGVSport AeroMesh Jacket was the best jacket for the money. Overview My first look revealed high quality mesh, far superior to the likes of Joe Rocket or any of the other's on the market. The AeroMesh is fitted with both foam padding sewn into the jacket and hard CE armor in the shoulders, elbow and back. The jacket also came with an inner weather-proof liner which, at the time, was the only jacket that provided this at no additional cost. The snaps are all covered in rubber to keep the clanks to a minimum while maneuvering around the bike and they also have two position cuff snaps for a loose or tight fit. Details I had to wait quite a while to get out and test this jacket. I picked up the jacket over the winter and the weather didn't get warm enough until many months later. I usually ride to work daily, just a short ride six miles round trip, but it still gets hot enough around here to warrant the cool summer mesh. The mesh on the AGVSport AeroMesh jacket is truly high quality and the weave appears to be tighter and seems much sturdier than most of the competitors'. The fit is great and the inner liner comes in handy if you're caught out after hours and need just a bit more protection from the cool summer nights. The jackets also come with a little zipper area in the back that can easily fit the liner so you don't have to throw on the tank bag just to carry it. The jacket also has a rear zipper that can be sewn into your favorite riding pants to keep the two together and stop it from rising up when tucked. The only negative thing I can say about the fit as when the side adjustment belts aren't kept tight the rear flap will rise up and begin creeping up your back. Unfortunately, after only a few weeks the jacket developed a broken snap on the cuff. I first contacted AGVSport through their website and was surprised to find my query returned by the owner of the company. He mentioned that all of the mesh jackets manufactured today are made in China and he has only heard of a few problems with snaps. He offered me a few options including AGVSport paying for me to have it fixed locally or sending it to him for replacement. I chose to return the jacket to the store and have them replace it. A few days later, the jacket came in (Thanks, Cycle Gear) and I took it home. After further inspection, I noticed that the CE hard back armor had been replaced with just a simple foam pad. I contacted AGVSport again through their website, and after a short wait I was sent a new CE back armor to replace the cheap foam pad. I was content that this was just an isolated case and that somehow the jacket was fitted with the wrong back armor. Meanwhile, a fellow rider and soon-to-be SBR contributor purchased a jacket for herself. To our surprise, we found her new jacket also arrived with the cheap foam backing rather than the advertised CE back armor. I again contacted AGVSport and informed them of the problem. At first it seemed AGVSport was reluctant to respond to my question about why these jackets were being sold without the advertised CE back armor. After a few follow up emails, they finally responded, stating that all their jackets are shipped as advertised but I still did not receive a direct comment as to why the last two jackets we received did not come with CE back armor. To make things worse, the same snap on the new jacket cuff broke again. Despite AGVSport's comments that these are isolated problems, I'm began to feel that specifically the cuff problem is a defect that will continue until they change the way the snaps are mounted to the cuff. I think I will have a local seamstress attempt to reinforce the area and put another snap on it. Although I have lost the same snap on two different jackets, I have not heard of any other problems and both my wife's and friend's snaps are all still intact. I feel like I'm dwelling on the negatives here, when this jacket has a lot of positives to focus upon. I like this jacket so much and feel confident in recommending it to other riders. I do a lot of riding and I may be a little rougher on my jacket than others. I will say that my wife's identical AeroMesh jacket has had none of the problems my jacket has. If you have one of these jackets, please send me a quick email and let me know if you have experienced any of the problems I have. At $129.95 I feel the AGVSport AeroMesh jacket is well worth the price. The company seems to care about us riders and have been pretty helpful through every step. I look forward to checking out more of their products very soon.
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