Gear: Furygan Full Apex Perforated Racing Replica suit

Rs 70,000
apexracing.in

A one-piece leather suit has to do a lot of things – it must give you mobility on the bike, keep you ventilated, make you look erm… purposeful, and most importantly, provide you adequate protection if things do head south. We had a whole spread of Furygan Full Apex Racing Leathers for our Times evo Awards jury round held at the Kari Motor Speedway in March, 2017. The leathers were lent to us by Apex Racing Academy, who also import them in to the country.

Furygan is big, with the likes of Michael Dunlop using it for their racing and the Full Apex is their top-of-the-line leather suit. Quality is top notch and the fit was spot on (I wear a size 48) – they stuck to me well, without pinching anywhere. These leathers have been used before, and they had already been broken in so there was none of that constriction that comes with a fresh set of leathers. I could move around well, and squat with ease.

The suit is made up of 1.4mm leather, and that means it isn’t extremely bulky. The leather on the entire torso, shoulders and thighs is perforated and allows for good ventilation on the go. Heat-resistant Aramid fibres are used in the hip and seating region to delay heat transfer caused by friction in a crash. The areas prone to getting torn in a crash are reinforced by triple stitching. The external elbow and shoulder guards are thermoformed shells and get aluminium inserts. You also get removable elbow, shoulder and knee pads which are D3O certified, included in the suit.

I didn’t really test the crash protection abilities of the suit for obvious reasons but I did ride around the track with it on, a fair bit. On the bike, the suit does not restrict movement at all and the vents provided adequate air circulation and I didn’t feel suffocated on the go. Now Rs 70,000 may not sound like throwaway money but you can bet that in the world of top quality racing leathers this is rather reasonable.