hi, I have a question about jacket. One of my friend want to sell me an Xelement jacket and told me that it suppose to protect me very well if an accident occur. I look around and found 2 other brand name : alpine star and teknic. I was wondering, is the 3 brands are equal in protection or the more expensive the better?

Ho and another question about size. I'm 5`11" 180lbs, would a jacket size 44 fit me or not. I found some chart saying 44 is medium and some saying 38 is medium, very confuse here.

thanks

thanks that really  help

 
Considering I've been riding since the late '60's, there are always new info. and perspectives that can be beneficial and appreciated.

I know this topic is old, but in case someone comes along looking for the same info:
I've been riding a LONG time.  Here is what I know. 
Nylon has come a long way in terms of protection, but it has problems with keeping you cool when it's hot, and keeping you warm when it is cold.  No matter how strong the weave, the space age material it is made of, etc, it will not offer the same level of protection as a good set of leathers.  I am not married to brand name, I check each piece carefully for quality and fit.  I have a yamaha star touring jacket, Triumph leather pants, Harley Davidson boots, and a couple of different sets of gloves. 
The more padding in your gear, the better.  I speak from experience.  Padding on the knees really helps, padding on the elbows is basically a must. 
Choose pants over chaps.  I know I am going to get a tremendous amount of flak over this but I'm going to say it anyways:  Chaps are for strippers.  The two areas where you need the protection the most is totally exposed with chaps.  You might think jeans will offer enough protection where the chaps stop, but you would be wrong.  Unless your wearing the new motorcycle jeans (I still have my doubts) then jeans are not going to offer much protection, especially at speeds over 60 km/h.
A good helmet is a no brainer. 
I was involved in a head on accident on the highway.  Two broken ribs, some whiplash, ankles a bit messed up, messed up a tendon in my calf, but considering what would have happened without good leather top and bottom, I ended up in pretty good shape.  NO ROAD RASH! lol.
Hope it helps someone down the road.

Just don’t get textile and especially mesh. The jackets tend to have multiple layers so might be okay, but would still be single use only. The pants will always be obliterated by even fairly minor crashes.

I’ve had 3 spills which involved sliding of some sort at speeds ranging from pretty low to about 60-65kph. Textile is complete trash and very specific and lucky variables prevented me from scraping my skin up. Mesh will disintegrate almost immediately and you might as well be wearing shorts. Textile will do about as well as normal jeans I would think. In my spill on textile pants they were shredded within about 5 feet of sliding. Mind you the asphalt was more abrasive as it was on a racetrack, but the pants were complete shit. And they were thick grade touring textile. The fancy labels don’t mean squat.

Draggin Jeans fair a lot better. It took a sustained slide at 60kph to burn through it and I got a bit of a  scrape where it finally burned through but I was in the ditch by then.

And through all this…..I had worn the SAME leather jacket and even slid on the same place multiple times. If it weren’t for the fact the zipper doesn’t work anymore from the last crash, I’d still be using it. It is in very rough shape aesthetically, but all the leather and stitching can hold up to another couple spills quite easily.

Get leather. You can crash at any speed and slide for any distance and know you don’t need to worry about anything but hitting things or being run over.

I’ll be complementing my Draggin Jeans (which I repaired and use for riding around town as they look great for any situation really) with a set of leather pants.

So, the ranking goes:

Leather > Draggin Jeans > Textile > Mesh > Saran Wrap

when JR jackets came out back in the mid 90's with the "waterproof" and more than half the cost of leathers they sold like hotcakes. I myslef slide thru a intersection and a few of my customers had their fair share of mishaps. The jackets did come apart, but saved the skin. Leather would have had a slight blemish to it. I currently have a textile and a textile/mesh jacket and the Alter Ego Pants for my gear.
I have a friend who had a incident, going around the corner about 30-45 km and fell right over. Slide on her textile jacket and pants. And I saw her land on her forearm and do a health skid. Aside from a small tear in the jacket forearm area, and dirt marks on the pants, all was good.

http://www.newenough.com/browse/view_product_images/437
http://www.newenough.com/street/pants/textile_pants/joe_rocket/alter_ego_textile_mesh_motorcycle_overpants.html


Of course, If ever presented with a chance to purchase a leather jacket, but, the one I want. I would buy it.

peaking of leather.....

Looking around town on Sat... had a few hours to kill off. No that a lot of these guys have much on the shelf due to sleds gear still out I still managed to try on some jackets.

I tried on the Joe R gear, and I still do not like the big ass "rocket" on the front / back and side of the arms.. not to mention the pants. So, I found a set, full retail, asked the young gent at the desk for a discount, he gave me the blanket 10%... I said you need to do better, his buddy said 15% and my reply was a little more and his reply was they do not have the margins to do it. So, I kept the smile inside my head and then left them my number and said call me when you hit 25% and I would buy it.

I have it down to the following, each with their good,bad and ugly.

ICON
JOE
ALPINESTAR
CORTECH - if I could find any around here.

So I will keep on looking. No rush.

I've managed to take most of the stitching out of the ICON stuff I've bought. I hate all the labels too. I like things that are monochromatic without any text at all.

As for cost, I've always gotten decent deals well over15% off from dealerships when I just level with them. I tell them I really enjoy their dealership and have been coming there for ages. I really want to support them by giving them my business. Because they are local and there is convenience I am willing to pay a little bit more for the goods, but not the ridiculous mark-ups they charge.

I show them a price after shipping I can get the EXACT same item for brand new in the same packaging and tell them if they can do THAT price +~10% I would be willing to buy it from them. They usually see reason and agree.

And the thing is, it's not a lie either. I really do enjoy the one or two dealerships I frequent and the staff are great. I WANT to give them my business but I am a single father with a heroin addiction. Well, no I'm not and no I'm not, but still, money is tight.