Modern Vespa

Who: Corazzo
What: Bomber Jacket
Where: Local dealers or Metroscoot
How Much: $210

Just got back from my first ride with the brand-new Corazzo Bomber jacket. The executive summary: It Kicks Ass.

Fit & Comfort
First, it's much more comfortable than the Men's 5.0 I've been wearing. It has a wonderful quilted satin-like liner that feels smooth and welcoming when you slip it on. The armor pockets don't catch on your hands, and the velcro closures on the armor pockets don't scratch your skin. This is a huge improvement. The liner is non-removable, which I actually like better than removable ones.

The fit is more relaxed than my 5.0, even though my bomber and my 5.0 are both XL in size. I have more room to move around in, for sure. I'd guess that it's effectively maybe half a size larger -- not so much that I'd want an L instead of an XL, though.

The sleeves seem kind of long when I'm not on the scooter, and hang down a bit. However, they're a perfect fit when I'm riding, and that's a tradeoff I'm completely happy with. The cuffs on the sleeves close with velcro, and these closures are perhaps a little less substantial than the ones on the 5.0 jacket. Interestingly, the exterior shell at the cuffs extends past the interior liner, which makes it possible to roll the cuffs up about two inches (one fold). This makes the sleeves shorter, but makes the velcro cinch unavailable. It might be useful to ride with the sleeves uncuffed (giving more length when needed) and roll the cuffs up when hanging around at rallies.

The collar and the waist are a soft elastic material, and very comfortable.

Armor
I'm happy to report that the bomber comes with Knox armor in the shoulders and elbows, plus a flat foam pad over the spine. The shoulder and elbow armor is molded and fits very well. It's also quite removable should you ever need to wash your jacket.

Exterior
The shell is made of 250-denier nylon for abrasion resistance, and has hidden patches of Cordura for additional abrasion resistance in the elbows and back. This makes the jacket much more pliable and lightweight than the 5.0. Did I mention it was comfortable? See above. There's a zippered armpit vent under each arm, and zippered hand pockets right where you would want them. There's also an additional zippered pocket on the left arm, and a vertically-opening interior zippered pocket just inside the main zipper.

The front zipper is sturdy and made of metal. Just inside the zipper, there's a flap that will keep wind from cutting through the zipper. It's touches like these that make me really like this jacket.

Visibility
The jacket is black, which is of course always in fashion, although black scooter clothing lacks night-time visibility. To remedy that, there's Scotchlite piping across the front, and a band of Scotchlite perhaps 1" wide all the way across the back. Given past experience with Scotchlite products, this should make it very visible at night-time when hit with a headlight. Fashionable and visible and immune to flash photography. Now how much would you pay?

Weight
This jacket is very light. It feels insubstantial at first, as it's pliable and doesn't have any heft that you would normally associate with a heavily armored jacket. However, it's made out of all the right stuff, and it is in fact armored. The quilted liner has a polyester fill, and even though it's not very thick, it's quite warm. It was cold and overcast today, and even with the zippered armpit vents open, I was a tad overwarm.

Conclusion
I love this jacket. I've been resisting sewing my rally patches on any of my other jackets, and now I know why -- this is the jacket that I was waiting for. Comfort, visibility, armor, and abrasion resistance. You just can't beat that combination.

I got mine from Barry at San Francisco Scooter Centre. Of course my wife had to get one too -- turns out they come in women's sizes as well.

Last edited by jess on Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:49 am; edited 5 times in total

Jess-

Any other colors? (Nice review, BTW)

In the words of Henry Ford, "Any color you want, as long as it's black."

As it happens, SeattleScoot (Sarah) and her partner Elaine came down to Portland today (see their scoots here), & we met up at P-Town Scooters, which has a new shipment of Corrazo jackets, incl. the Bomber. The Seattle krew both left with new women's 5.0 jackets, Sarah's in subtle light blue w white/ivory, and Elaine's in a snappy olive w red/white stripes. Very nice details, reflectivity on this jacket, and Sarah reported that it was improved notably from the earlier versions.

From Metroscoot's (in-need-of-an-upgrade IMHO) website:

Corazzo Women's 5.0



Hopefully they'll post pix soon!

Though my Dad was a Model-T enthusiast, I'd also love to see the bomber in a broader array of color choices. Picky picky.. Such a burden being a scooter fashionista. .

Very good review Jess. I wonder if the 2xl will fit my fat self? I really like the style, and looks, Beale.

I hear you, Beale. After all the posts about the 5.0, I went to buy one, and was disappointed that it didn't fit my stocky self. The shoulders were too broad and the waist was way too small. The Bomber looks great, but I wonder how it will fit, um, "stocky" folks like us.

I normally wear a 2XL and found that in the bomber the 2XL was too big and the XL would fit. In their regular jackets the XL won't come close to fit me.

When I saw this first picture of this jacket, it just screamed to me, sew on patches! I too, have been saving patches, waiting for the right jacket to put them all on. Thanks for the great review. I will have to check this jacket out when they arrive in Denver.

Glad to know SF Scooter Center has them, I've been looking on the internet since this thread began.

Jess,

I've been looking for a good summer jacket (San Diego style summer) and from your description, it sounds like the Bomber might be a little too warm for summer riding. Did I read your review correctly?

Len

Len, I inspected the Bomber when Sarah & Elaine were jacket shopping on Saturday, and I'd say it's more a spring/fall jacket than one for summer. Has a (quilted?) liner. It was 85F here today, & I'm glad I had my Joe Rocket mesh on--

On Corazzo jackets & changing seasons: Surprisingly, for jackets made in the wet Pacific NW, one of the guys at P-Town Scooters said they're water 'resistant' rather than waterproof (and that he's gotten soaked wearing them when it's raining). Maybe Bradford will weigh in on this--?

I can definitely state that my 5.0 stood up to hail really well last week! Hail on a helmet sounds really loud.

Yikes!! any dents on the scoot...? Oh, and are *you* OK?

Yes, that's correct. Definitely a bit warm for hot summer days. Today was in the low 50s, dark and overcast and a tiny bit of sprinkling. As it happens, I was going over the Bay Bridge, and it kept me perfectly warm. I then stood around outside in San Francisco with SFSG for an hour, and was still quite warm, despite the rain and the wind and the fog of San Francisco.

Note to those outside the San Francisco Bay area: "Summer" runs from May-August throughout the northern hemisphere-- except for San Francisco, which imports its June weather from Down Under.

Correct again. In the words of Mark Twain: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". It's still true today.

Seattle has it even worse with our summer not even starting until July 5th! At least that is the when it starts to be consistantly sunny.

Today is cloudy, cool, and rainy...gotta love these "summer" days!

Portland's summer weather's comes a little earlier, I think, except that it's a tradition that it rain during the Rose Festival.
It's drizzly today, but yesterday was sunny and 85F.

My wife wanted her own scooter jacket after I purchased my 5.0 two months back - so stopped in the local dealer : Scooterville located in beautiful Dinkytown, Minnesota.

She absolutely loved the new bomber jacket which had just arrived and were still in the box. Stylish and functional! So we are now a 2 Corazzo family.

Nope. Yep. It was only a couple of minutes, and not hailing too hard. I pulled under the 'porch" of an insurance company.

Wow, these posts just made my day. Thanks for your support you guys and gals. Sorry I cannot check in more, but we are working on new stuff like crazy and have been growing like crrrazy too.

So to address a couple of the questions, and make one correction to Jess's post.

Size: The Bomber flight jackets are much friendlier to the girthier folks. I fit in mine no problem when I stick my gut out. Mid winter, I could barley squeeze in to my 5.0, so I totally understand. That being said, if any of you folks get girthy and your 5.0 no longer fits quite as good as it did, we can put the same "Spandura" panel in the side as we have for the women's 5.0. That stuff rocks, it is a flexible stretchy cordura that helps accomodate Women's hips and now, men's bellies.

The womens bombers are cut for the ladies, and definitely have a different shape and are rather flattering, but not as flattering as the sassy new women's 5.0.

Waterproofability: All of our products are water-resistant. To waterproof a garment, the seams must be sealed. Seams can be sealed very inexpensively in china by people who are paid $1.20 a day, and even so, those garments like a Columbia snowboard jacket that I just looked at are $350+.
For us to do that process with our sewers who live in north america, have health insurance etc, would be extraordinarily expensive and nearly double the cost of the jacket as the time and equiment required are ridiculous. If there are many of you who are interested in such a jacket for $375-$400, please let me know and I will reconsider our strategy there. Right now we are trying to keep everything around $200, and this seems to be the level at which people are willing to pay for a jacket to ride their $3k-$5k scooter. Feedback on this is welcome. In the meantime, using a liquid seamsealer from REI or any other sporting goods store, in addition to scotchguard makes our garments much much more waterproof.

Construction: The bomber actually has hidden cordura in the elbows and back panel. The outer shell is not cordura, but a 250 denier nylon that has shown good results in abrasion testing. That being said we wanted to make sure that critical areas were well protected, so if you feel under the elbows, you will feel another layer of fabric (Cordura), and if you look in the back pad pocket, you will see where we have added cordura there too.

Thank You: This business is my joy, while I am just starting to be able to pay myself a little money, it is posts like these, and phone calls from folks
like Scotty at Vespa Cleveland who crashed and our jacket saved his tail, that make our hard days worthwhile. Keep on Scootin'!

Best
Bradford Duval
Corazzo Design
877.262.2997

PS Any of you who are in Portland, stop by the shop for a free pass to come see the Oregon Motorcycle Roadracing Association Races on Sunday the 25th of June. I have about $15 left. I race in the 250cc and 500cc Vintage class

I totally forgot. Yeah Metroscoot's website sucks, but it is all we have for now. We will hopefully develop a new one soon, but when faced with the decision to develop cool new jackets or a new website...
I usually choose jackets. Feel free to call or email ifyou have questions or want pics of colors that are not on the site.

As well for those of you across the pond, we have been sending stuff to England, France, Denmark, Norway and Finland like crazy, you just need to email us directly and we can get your order processed. We are actively looking for a European distributor, so if any of you folks know of anyone, please let us know.

Thanks!
Bradford

Thanks for the update, Bradford. I've corrected my original post on the Nylon vs. Cordura composition.

I just had my first fall, a stupid fall (very slow making a u-turn, and my foot slipped), wearing my Corazzo Bomber Jacket. My knee got a little skinned. I landed on my elbow, and I would be exaggerating to say it was like landing on a pillow, but it was close. Wow! I mean it would have really hurt otherwise.

Robyn

Bradford,
I know this is late in coming, but I just wanted to weigh in on the waterproofing issue.
I don't know about the rest of the country, but up here in the Pac NW, I bet you could find plenty of year round riders who'd gladly ponyup the extra dough for a year round water-proof jacket. I know I would.
And with the MP3 coming soon, I bet we might see even more scooterists willing to brave the elements.

BTW I love my 5.0! When I retook the MSF class recently, the instructor even commented on how nice it was. In fact, I'm ordering a bomber for the gf's bday, as soon as I finish this. (ran across old thread, while searching for comments on Corazzo sizing.)

thanks again for all you do for the scootering community!

2nd on water proofing. I retire my Corazzo during the winter which is a shame because I love how reflective it is.

BTW, The Metroscoot site is no more. The Corazzo site has been redesigned and now features info on each of their products and a handy list of dealers. From what I can find, SCOMO is the only online retailer for these jackets, but I've emailed Corazzo to ask about any others.

I believe Bradford told us when his web problems started, that we can still call and order directly from them while they are getting a new metroscoot website together.

Yup, he replied and just said to call them.

As it's a review of sorts of the Corazzo Bomber, I've cut & pasted part of a message I posted in the general discussion forum a while ago:

Now onto the Corazzo Bomber Jacket. I already have a Corazzo hoody in size L that I bought back when I only weighed 185# (only a few months ago, gained a bunch of weight thanks to new meds the docs have me on) and it fit me great, maybe even slightly loose back then. Now it still fits me in the chest area, but the belly area is kind of tight. I can still get it to zip up if I really suck it in, and once on it's not uncomfortable, but when I realized that it was going to take 4-6 weeks for Fox Creek to make my new jacket I thought I should get another jacket in the meantime. When I was at my local scooter shop (a Corazzo dealer) I had seen the Bomber, and thought it looked really nice, so I went back down, and bought one. I bought a size L and it fits great, even in the belly area it's got lots of room, so it truly is cut differently than the hoody (and 5.0 I guess). The Bomber is a great looking jacket, with armor in the right places (even has a thin back armor which I guess could be replaced with real back armor if you wanted), and for fat guys like me it fits great too, but there is one problem. Looking at the Bomber with it's quilted lining (not removable) I expected it to be much warmer than the Hoody, but I was wrong. It doesn't seem to be very air tight, and wind goes thru it! I have a friend that I gave my Draggin Jeans Jacket to (it didn't fit me anymore), and tonight he put on the Bomber, and said that both jackets seem about the same in ability to stop wind, that is to say neither is very good at it! Having said that, the bomber is going to be my replacement for my draggin jacket, that is I'll probably wear it most of the time, even when no riding (I think it's got lots more style than the hoody), but when it gets cold, I'll stuff myself into the hoody till I get my Fox Creek jacket.

I have the Women's Corazzo Bomber size M. I love it. The armor sits in the right places and it fits great. I like the reflective stripe on it too. Comfy and keeps me warm right now. Get's a little hot on hot sunny LA days, but I've worn it in the summer and just slip it off right away after parking.

Wow, I forgot to review my Bomber that I got a few weeks ago.

As Jess said: It is the Bomb!

I replaced the back foam pad with a articulated CE Armor for serious back protection and I shortened the wrist velcro straps by about 1/2 but other than those minor things its Soooo very comfortable and protective. I would say its my #1 all around bike jacket

Jess...

I'm surprised no one else asked you this: Do they give you a bottle of the potion with the jacket?

I didnt get any potion, but there was a handful of mulit-colored condoms included! I even got a 'curiosity' session thanks to the purple one!

Has anyone upgraded the back protector?
I tried to put a Dainese one in it but the back protector pocket was way too big and the protector just slid around.

just got my bomber in the mail today. such a perfect jacket. sturdy as all hell and somewhat understated at the same time. i love it!

i love MV for everything. thanks for your review of the bomber. i've been tracking one down for the longest time in my area... long story short, i found a corazzo dealer that accepted my GE card that had the bomber in stock.

vespa of 1000 oaks only had a small left. i'm about 6 foot tall and roughly 180lbs. i've been wearing M size shirts for the last year and was a little nervous about buying a small... but i read the reveiw and made up my mind... i'll risk it for a tight fit that i love

i ordered the bomber along with a pair of XL corazzo carbone gloves. my package arrived in the mail on monday and i LOVE it! it fits just right, not too tight at all.

my only complaint would be that the elbow protection pads start to hurt my elbows when i bend my arms for long periods of time... but besides that, all is well!

i rode to class all proper with my bomber, buttoned up ben sherman, boots, braces, on my silver modern vespa! thanks for the help on that one!


-cheers

I am a bit surprised by the enthusiasm I found here towards this jacket. My secretary and I both bought scooters this summer. When she showed up with the jacket in review I was aghast.

My impression:
1. It is black. Black is not a safe color. Period.
2. It seemed very light...which is comfortable, but not if you crash doing 50mph.
3. Reflective piping is minimal.
4. Seems cheap to the touch.
5. Italian flag badge is cool.
6. Armor is MINIMAL
7. $210 is TOO MUCH. Simply go online to search textile motorcycle jackets with armor... for $120 you can get a thicker jacket, in a safer color, with thicker and more prevalent armor.
9. Very, very few pockets. My textile motorcycle jacket has twice the number of pockets, mine has 8 pockets.

My final conclusion is that if you want a bomber jacket you should then buy one at your local military surplus shop for under a hundred bucks.

If you want to protect yourself in case of a motorcycle (and, yes, your scooter is a motorcycle) accident then buy a real textile motorcycle jacket with ample armor.

Of course, this jacket in review is better than no jacket at all.

Last edited by Katie Rides on Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:30 am; edited 1 time in total

As with many scooter-related decisions, choosing a jacket often represents having to find a balance between risk and benefits. Yes, there are jackets that offer better abrasion resistance—other Corrazos have 500 or 1000 Denier nylon—or have different features. The CE-approved Knox armor is good stuff, though—much better than what you find in a lot of motorcycle gear such as the Joe Rocket textile jacket I got when I started scootering. The appeal of the Bomber isn't just fashion, though that is a factor, it's also comfort. That's why I ride with the Corazzo Max. It's much sturdier and higher-quality than my old jacket, comfortable in almost all the weather conditions I have to deal with here, and I can wear it into the office without feeling like a total douchebag.

No, of course no one should sacrifice safety for style (though people do it all the time). But riders have a number of reasons for making their decisions about gear and helmets. These decisions don't always agree with others, especially those in the Toreador Pants camp.

Subjective observations about the product are one thing, but there's really no need for condescension and the heavy-handed, self-righteous rhetoric. It certainly does nothing to convince others or make your point.

Point well taken, thanks. I have updated my post to remove heavy-handedness.

I guess I am in the Toreador Pants camp. My wife is an ER nurse. The ER doc gave me a talking to the first day I came by with my scooter. I am glad he did. My senior administrative assistant crashed her scooter the first day she had it. Luckily I had convinced her to wear gear. That day she had on the bomber jacket and that saved her elbow.

Have you read the book Proficient Motorcycling? He explains that new riders crash more and also riders in the 2-4 year category crash more. Soooo, all riders under the 5 year category may want to seriously consider wearing Toreador Pants.

I took the MSF program class from the CHP as well...that is our safety class here in California. That class also helped to increase my awareness.

Ride safe!