Review: VikingCycle Hammer motorcycle jacket
With so much junk and bad service around these days, it’s really nice to be able to pass on good stories. Last week, I ordered a new motorcycle jacket from my friends at Motorcycle House in California, and last Friday, I rode to Skagway to pick it up.
There are a couple of sections of the South Klondike Highway being resurfaced. This 10-km one is north of Emerald Lake – the view is to the south at Km 124.
Although it looks rather wintery, the temperature was nearing 15°C (59°F) by the time I reached Ptarmigan Point. About 10 minutes before, I’d made a stop to get rid of my bottom fleece layer, as I was too warm. It had been 4°C (39°F) when I left home.
It was gorgeous in Skagway – truly Spring! I picked up my package at the post office, strapped it and my heavy leather jacket to my luggage rack and cruised in my t-shirt for a while – aaaaahhhhh 🙂
Up towards the summit of the White Pass is a large, level pullout where I had decided to do the photo-shoot for this review. Viking makes several styles of jackets, and I chose one called Hammer, after comparing features and appearance. The first look and feel was very positive. It’s a great-looking jacket, and the quality of all of the materials actually surprised me given the low price ($79.95).
There was a stack of tags attached to it, pointing out many of the main features. The armor was probably the main consideration in choosing this jacket – it’s a special memory foam that’s light but still provides the highest level of protection.
The real test – how does it feel? After wearing my heavy leather jacket, it was wonderful! Light, with a more fitted look to it.
In an XL, I can still wear lots of cold-weather layers under it, and it offers lots of flexibility.
With motorcycle jackets, it’s the little things that can make a big difference in how useable it is. Things like having both zippered and velcro cuffs for ease of putting it on, and tight closure in foul weather and to allow gauntlets to slip over them easily.
And finally, a really small and really important feature for the riding I do – a zippered left-breast pocket to keep my bike registration and passport in. When I pull up to the border, I don’t want to be fumbling looking for my papers – this is exactly where I want them.
It’s a very warm jacket. With the temperature in the very low 60s, within a couple of miles I was down to just a t-shirt under the jacket with the zip-out liner in – that’s impressive.
Just because videos are rather cool, here’s my first wearing 🙂
I’m a big fan of “value”, and this is the prime point I’ll stress with this jacket. I simply see nothing in the Viking jacket that’s inferior to jackets that cost me almost 3 times the price of the Hammer, and I expect to be wearing it a lot. If I find anything that is inferior, I’ll post an edit to this review, but after my first 100 miles wearing it, and a good look at it on the table, it definitely gets 2 thumbs up, as does the level of service that I got from Motorcycle House.
About The Author
