BMW Venting Machine Mesh Riding Outfit Evaluation Yesterday, I finally picked up the pants half of BMW's new "Venting Machine" textile riding suit to go with the jacket I purchased earlier. BMW describes this suit as having an "unbelievable ventilation effect" due to "the intensive use of gauze." The "gauze" they are referring to is protected by a "high-strength polyamide" (i.e., Nylon) mesh. However, the seat, knees and most of the front surface of the pants is a more tightly woven Nylon (but it is not windproof). The more open mesh is primarily on the back of the legs. There is removable, dense rubber padding at the shoulders, elbows, and knees. The jacket has two inside zippered pockets and two outside zippered pockets. The pants have zippered front pockets, no rear pockets. Pricing is typical BMW, i.e., painfully high. The jacket lists for $399. The pants list for $325. BMW doesn't yet have anything about this suit posted on their U.S. websites. Here is what's on the bmw-motorrad site: http://www.bmw-motorrad.com/com/en/index_frameset.html?content=http://www.bmw-motorrad.com/com/en/products/riderspoint/motorcycle_suits/textile_suits/textilesuits_venting.html The comment on this site about it being comfortable at temperatures above 25°C (77F) is obviously a typo; I assume they meant to say 35°C (95F). The pants are NOT overpants. The pant legs have a relatively snug fit when the waist is sized to fit. The zipper at the bottom of the legs makes it easy to put your boots on, but the zipper does not come up anywhere near high enough to put the pants on without removing your boots. I wore the pants with a pair of cotton gym shorts underneath. In the future I will probably wear them with conventional underwear, which would be more comfortable. Like the pants for the two piece Aerostich Roadcrafter, they are sized based on jacket size, e.g., size "44" is the waist size that normally goes with a size 44 one-piece suit, it's not a 44 inch waist. (Since the pants and jacket are sold separately, you don't have to have the same size jacket and pants.) The size 44 Venting machine pant is much tighter fitting than the size 44 Aerostich pant, which is sized to be worn over blue jeans or fleece. I did a back to back comparison with my Aerostich Roadcrafter riding my K1200GT with an Aeroflow windscreen. The jacket has a very high level of ventilation. The difference between the Venting Machine jacket and the Aerostich jacket being most noticeable at low speeds. At higher speeds, there is still a ventilation advantage for the BMW jacket, but the advantage is less because the Aeroflow has good ventilation at speed with the back and underarm vents opened and sleeves opened up. The pants do not work nearly as well as the jacket. There just isn't enough of the open mesh material. They are similar to riding in blue jeans; with blue jeans being a bit cooler. Compared to the Roadcrafter pants, the Venting Machine pants are cooler, but not quite as comfortable against bare skin because they don't have a liner. On a bike with less wind protection, the ventilation advantage of the Venting Machine outfit would undoubtedly be more significant. When I would stand on the pegs and into the airstream, the air flow through the jacket was dramatic. There is no way I would ever use the Venting Machine on a long trip. It is not sufficiently versatile. It's strictly for hot, dry weather. I would also never use the pants for commuting in hot weather because I would have to change pants at the end of my ride. The jacket plus blue jeans is a very comfortable hot weather combination, if you are willing to ride with the relatively poor level of abrasion protection provided by blue jeans. The jacket provides almost as much ventilation as riding with no jacket at all. For short day-rides in hot weather the pants and jacket combination is pretty good. They are so light that you can comfortably wear them when walking around off the bike. The same cannot be said for the Aerostich. The combined weight of the Venting Machine jacket and pants is 5 pounds. For comparison, my 2-piece Roadcrafter in the same size is 9 pounds. Living in the Sacramento area, I expect to get a lot of use out of the Venting Machine jacket, but it won't get nearly the miles that my Aerostich gets over the course of the year. Regards, Tom Austin August 25, 2004