Modern Vespa

Unfortunately I have one of those jobs where I need to wear a suit and tie. I ride my Vespa several miles each day to and from my commuter train station to go to my job in NYC.

In the warm weather I take my chances and just ride with the suit & tie, no armor.

Once the weather turns colder, I would want to wear an outer jacket, preferably designed for scooters/motorcycles, and preferably with padding in the right places. But the short-waisted jackets out there with reflective material just don't look right with a business suit. Ideally, I would want a dark colored long coat with padding that is boring and conservative enough to wear with a suit. Even more ideally, it would be water resistant for drizzly days (I wouldn't take the Vespa in an all-out rainstorm wearing a suit!)

Does anything like this coat exist?

Try some of the stuff from Tucano Urbano.

http://www.tucanourbano.it/main/home.aspx

There are a few...

On the few occasions when I need to wear a suit or sportcoat, I fold the suit coat and carefully place it in my SX topcase, then wear my Corrazo 5.0, helmet, & gloves over dress shirt & tie. When I arrive at work, I take the suit coat out and put the Corrazo in the topcase,glove & helmet off--transformation complete!

I'm thinking about getting one of these:
from Olympia Motorsports

I have their AirGlide mesh jacket and love it. The BMW place in Metuchen NJ, Cross County I think it's called, sells them (and usually has a huge inventory)

I wear a shirt and tie every day but no jacket. However, the rare "jacket required" occasion does pop up and I either fold the jacket up in my bag or I wear a longer, non-armored, jacket, hence my contemplating the Olympia AST jacket.

All my suit jackets and a pair each of cordovan and black dress shoes stay at the office. When I get in, I hum 'its a wonderful day in the neighborhood' as I change my shoes and switch from scooter jacket to suit jacket.

Did have to stop by the office on my way out of town for a wedding!

If you are looking for something for the summer months try the Dainese line for city riders.



http://www.dainese.com/eng/coll_city_result.asp?lang=EN&cerca=1&id_mondo=9&id_famiglia=3&id_materiale=

Don't know if you can still find anyoneselling it but the BMW City Jacket was exactly what you're looking for.



http://www.bmw-riders-gear.com/BMWRA_products.asp?mm=Apparel&p1=1&p2=12&i1=ON&d1=ON&s1=72607704718-BMW&c=Suits&sc=Jackets&r1=&s10=&m=MC-Riders&cs=1&pl=1

You ever think of one of these?

On a serous note the M65 is a kick ass parka. Just got mine from TX, completely windproof, water resistant, and warm as heck. I love it.

I wear a suit every fecking day. Heat in the summer causes me to wear a tee shirt and a mesh jacket. Winter the suit jacket is folded and placed in the puppy warmer and I wear one of these:

Why not just leave your suit jacket at the office and put it on when you get there?

For me, the times I need a suit jacket are for meetings not at my school/office.

I do have a nice Alpha Industries N-3B parka (in black), which is awesome, warm, waterproof, etc, I am just looking for something with armor and some reflective piping...

I'm beginning to think that the best thing is to get one of the parkas (like you have) and then add the armor to it. There are places you can purchase just the armor, and adding the pockets to an existing coat that meets your needs seems a lot easier than trying to find the right armored coat.

The reflective piping would be a little trickier, but if you went with the narrow press/stitch on tape that would be doable.

He is quite attractive. Does he do yard work?

(Sorry but I am just killing time until 5:00pm.)

That cracks me up. An armored sports coat...perfect!

Killing time until 5? Isn't it 9:20am or so in Philly? That's a helluva lotta time to kill

(glad I could help...)

check out aerostich.

http://www.aerostich.com

Did it come with the Air Force Tech Sergeant stripes?

I've heard many positive things about the Firstgear Kilimanjaro 4.0 jacket.

http://www.revzilla.com/product/firstgear-kilimanjaro-40-jacket

are you talking about wearing a full suit under a jacket when you ride? If you are, I think you'll find that you'll end up ruining the suit over time and will notice your lapels, shoulders and upper back portions of your suit jacket getting shiny.

I think leaving the sport coat, blazer or whatever you're wearing at the office is a prime idea or folding it for transport is nice too, but I hope you're not trying to wear it in.

I've ruined ties by riding and not tucking them into my shirt, btw, so be careful of that, especially if they're woven.

You shouldn't ride with your suit jacket on (newer cuts will restrict arm motion) . Take it off and put it in your scooter luggage and just ride with any nice armored jacket.
None will go with suit pants, but if its cold, you can always wear armored outer pants as well (they snap or zip so putting them on/taking them off is easy).

Seth

I rarely have to wear a suit for anything, but I am a fellow NYC rider, and when I have to get snazzed up and ride I just wear the suit jacket under a larger size armored mesh alpinestars jacket, with the liner in for fall/early winter. try to find a shell that works for you, that is big enough to wear a windbreaker/nylon shell OVER the suit jacket to protect it and to keep you warm, and then a mesh thingy with armor over that. I ride all through the winter with a mesh jacket like that. On the really cold days I have to wear my rain gear over the rest of the layers, and it works amazingly well. Raingear over mesh with liner = winter jacket, assembly required.

Assembly required indeed. It's exactly what I do too (hence my contemplating a winter jacket - no assembly required )

I don't know if this is enough, but the latest Kilimanjaro from FirstGear is better than it used to be:

....got the same problem....

I have just bought some coats from Dainese (continental evolution, berlino and ibiza)..3 because of the different weater conditions here in Germany.....they all are perfect !!!! and with Dainese, you will have the best safety...

BTW, be aware that for the best safety you will have to wear your coat/ jacket with protection over your shirt (and have to take off your suit jacket)....indeed, the suit jacket is too soft and too large on the shoulders so that the inside protection pads of your coat/ jacket will not be so tight on your shoulders..in case of a crash, the optimal protection will not applied....;-(

Tony

I have 2 words for you: Barbour Beaufort.




Waterproof, weather resistant, windproof, and classic good looks to boot. I've commuted 40 miles round trip for 3 years wearing one over my suits in rain or shine and it's unbeatable for all round wearability.

To protect your shirt and tie, you turn the collar up and keep it upright with a snapping flap on the collar.

To keep my pants dry when it rains, I carry some nylon overpants in the back pocket.

The downside is that they're pretty expensive, but then again so are suits!

I found tucano urbano a little pricey. I settled on this instead. it even protects my wing tips.

how about a Drizabone?

http://aussiebushhats.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=50_112&products_id=559&osCsid=96c6fc3f6e751fe17b8a12e6528e8afe

That seems sensible.

+1

God knows how many ties I've ruined because I was in a hurry to get somewhere and forgot to tuck in it and got where I was going with a frayed mess hanging around my neck.

Nobody mentioned Belstaff?



http://www.britishmotorcyclegear.com/classic-trialmaster-jacket.asp



http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/belstaff/

Pricey, but if you can get one on sale, they don't come better (or cooler looking).

As an old mod, I used to wear a parka to protect my suits, but now days if I had a job that required a suit id prob do the following.


Put the suit jacket under the seat, wear some track suit pants over my suit pants to protect them and keep me warm,, wear an armored jacket with my trusty mod parka on top to protect me from the weather (after scotchcoating). Id prob throw my dress shoes under the seat and wear doc boots or shoes for protection of my feet.


Good Luck

Manny