REV’IT! is moving into the world of dirt riding. After years of selling jackets, pants, gloves and other kit for moto-touring, adventure riding, or just tooling around town, the Dutch gear manufacturer is now moving into the world of offroad.
The new line of offroad gear is called the Dirt Series (rather unimaginative, but at least no faffing about there!). It seems to be aimed at enduro and dual-sport riding, certainly not motocross. All the marketing images show REVIT!-clad riders tooling around on big trail bikes, and REV’IT!’s marketing says “Our DIRT Series collection is designed around the concept of modularity, offering maximum flexibility and variety for the most demanding off-road adventure rider.“
“Modularity,” eh? What that means is, you’re getting a layered gear riding system. The system starts with a soft armour jacket, similar to what other manufacturers have sold for a while. Basically, it’s a mesh compression shirt, with padding built in. REV’IT! adds a back protector and knee pads to the base layer, and also recommends a neck protector.
From there, REV’IT! adds a selection of jerseys or jackets to pull over the the armour, or layer. Note those words, “pull over.” Most motorcycle jackets have zips that run up the full front, but the REV’IT Dirt Series jackets are only quarter-zips. Or maybe they’re half-zips. They’re designed to be pulled on quickly. REV’IT! offers mesh and waterproof options for jackets, and same for the Dirt series pants (which also have in-the-boot or outside-the-boot options).
Finally, REV’IT! also offers a series of mesh gloves with rubbery armour. You can see the whole lineup here.
A new style of gear
Dual-sport, enduro and offroad-focused adventure riding gear is very much moving towards this layered approach, and REV’IT!’s new lineup appears to avoid some of the problems with earlier gear. CMG tested Alpinestars’ old Erzberg suit back in 2012, and found it lacking. Of course, that was nine years ago, and no doubt A-Stars has improved its formula since then, but it’s good to see REV’IT! focused on breathability and an easily-packable design from the start, as well as offering road rash-resistant Cordura in some of the gear. CMG’s tested older versions of the REV’IT! Sand adventure riding suit (both male and female versions) and it was good quality. Hopefully this new stuff is the same.
