Evolution of BMW Summer Pants

[Indy Dave]

Falcone BMW in Indy is having a a 50% off sale and I picked up a pair of Summer 3 Pants. Plenty has been written about the pants elsewhere, so I thought I would illustrate the evolution of the pants / armor, since I currently have one of each example.

 

Left to Right - Summer, Summer 2 and Summer 3 pants

 

 

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The original Summer pant has a greater hip area protection than either of the two more recent models.

 

With the Summer Pant 2, BMW used NP protectors developed by BMW Motorrad, with EN 1621 certification. The Summer 2 pants had knee armor with a longer shin guard, but smaller hip area coverage compared to Summer pants 1. When they mention 'expanded coverage areas, I guess they mean the addition of the shin area, since the hip coverage area is less compared to the original Summer Paint.

 

 

The NP standard was new to BMW gear: "The armor material hardens upon impact, plus expanded coverage areas significantly increase delay time to impact, increasing rider safety. BMW NP soft armor has a delay time that is almost twice that of PU armor competitors."

 

It looks like the NP 1621 standard originally was established in 1997 and then revised in 2003. BMW does not specify which year-standard the armor meets.

 

 

The Summer 3 pants have a lighter and presumably better pad. "Very light, removable SC protectors at knees and hips. The SC protectors are made of visco-elastic foam with very good impact-absorbing properties, certified to DIN 1621. "

 

 

In general - the pads are getting lighter and better at protecting - but they've shrunk in the hip area since the original design and the longer knee/shin guard doesn't come on the Summer 3 pants. It seems like the Summer 3 pant has been around a while, so perhaps we'll see some innovation in the Summer 4 version.

Edited August 30, 2016 by workin them angels

[moshe_levy]

Very nice report!

 

-MKL

[OoPEZoO]

I love my Summer 2 pants. The only problem is that as they are starting to get older, the armor is now hard as a rock. Especially those oversized knee/shin pads. They are getting rather uncomfortable. I'd love to find an updated replacement for them that has the same knee/shin coverage, but in a softer pad

[moshe_levy]

Try SAS-Tec. That's state of the art and they offer a variety of sizes, at pretty reasonable prices. (You can get them from Revzilla or wherever you typically buy gear - SAS-Tec is OEM in the higher end Euro gear like Held. Some midline models like Scorpion also use it.) I've been testing TWO jackets with SAS-Tec and came away impressed by the comfort and fit.

 

http://www.sas-tec.de/en/home/

 

-MKL

Edited August 31, 2016 by moshe_levy

[OoPEZoO]

Good stuff.....thanks for the suggestion. I may replace the armor in my Savannah 2 jacket as well. After years of use and abuse, the elbow armor feels like it is now molded out of concrete. Its my favorite jacket ever, but has got quite uncomfortable over the past few seasons do to the hardening of the armor.

[89quattro]

Not sure what the regular price is, can you share the final price? - thx

[moshe_levy]

Keith-

 

If it's hardened that much, it's not going to dissipate much energy upon impact. It may actually do more harm than good. Time for replacement asap.

 

-MKL

[Indy Dave]

List was $259, on sale for $129.50

[89quattro]

Great deal, thanks!

[Beemer Dood]

I'd suggest contacting Motoport. Their quad level padding gets good reviews from users.