It is not without reason that the professional riders at the top of the world motorbike championships wear custom-made suits. The customised designs with their own logos and team colours are of course not the only reason for this, as customised leather suits offer safety at the highest level from various aspects. The following five safety factors make a significant contribution to this:
- The leather used
Different types of leather can be used for leather suits, whether you wear a one-piece or two-piece leather suit. The most commonly used types of leather are cowhide with a thickness of about 1.2 mm and the slightly lighter kangaroo leather with a thickness of about 1.0 mm. Regardless of whether it is cowhide or kangaroo leather, leather is generally ideal for motorbike clothing, as its high abrasion resistance provides excellent protection in the event of a crash. In order to optimise this abrasion resistance even more, Mithos tailored suits have double leather inserts in the areas that are particularly at risk in the event of a motorbike crash.
- Protectors
Even if we don't desire this to happen - crashes happen, and that's exactly why joint areas such as shoulders, elbows, knees and hips, but also the back, should be specially protected with a leather suit. For this purpose, protectors made of soft foam are used in the appropriate places to soften the impact and, in extreme cases, also offer additional abrasion protection. When choosing protectors, always make sure to use products that comply with EN 1621-1 for shoulder, elbow, knee, hip or chest protectors, or EN 1621-2 for back protectors. These standard specifications should be noted in the product description of each leather suit using protectors and it should also be communicated by the manufacturer. Mithos therefore uses protectors for tis leather suits that comply with the norms, as standard from the SAS-Tec brand. If desired, the even higher-quality protectors from Paramount can also be integrated into your own leather suit at the time of ordering.
- Slider
When riding a motorbike in a more sporty manner, it is not uncommon for knees or elbows to touch the asphalt - especially on the race track, of course. Therefore, an important safety aspect of leather suits is that these areas are well protected with appropriate sliders. It is generally advisable to use sliders made of abrasion-resistant but not too heavy material. It is not uncommon for these sliders to be made of magnesium, as an example. Mithos uses only TPU D64 hard shells for all suits, which are used on the elbows, knees and shoulders. The hard shells used are already in use in the Moto2 World Championship and have a honeycomb structure on the inside, which promotes stability while still keeping the slider light in overall weight.
-
The manufacturing process
The raw materials used for leather suits can be of the best quality - but all this is of little use if the manufacturing is not properly done, because the seams in particular are among the biggest possible weak points of a suit. Especially in the areas that are primarily at risk in the event of a fall, there should therefore be no seams. But you can't avoid seams completely - that's why all seams in Mithos tailored suits are sewn at least twice.
- The comfort
Not to be forgotten is the comfort factor: concentration while riding a motorbike can quickly drop if you don't feel comfortable in your one-piece suit. Not only do stretch areas on the leather suit contribute to a good comfort, but also strategically distributed perforations in the leather. Thanks to the sensible use of stretch, a Mithos tailored suit adapts dynamically to your movements, even during sporty riding, while the perforations ensure efficient temperature regulation inside the one-piece custom leather suit.
Mithos - if you love your life as much as you love your bike
At Mithos, we live the vision of making the best and safest motorbike equipment available to all motorcyclists. Thanks to the cooperation with world-class racers such as Sito Pons and his sons Axel and Edgar Pons as well as numerous other Mithos M-bassadors, all Mithos products are constantly being developed. Discover our leather suits, racing gloves and lifestyle products now in our shop. By the way: the made-to-measure suits and gloves are not only produced to measure. If you wish, you can also create your own design for your peresonalproduct.