WHEN you splash out £1650 on leathers, you can't help wondering if they're worth it. And if they get damaged, will they be a write-off?
I answered all those awkward questions with not Just one but two high-speed crashes in my BKS one-piece leathers.
While testing a Suzuki GSX-R750 at Misano, Italy I was spat off at 110mph and performed more cartwheels than a Russian gymnast.
I was badly winded, but nothing was broken and there was little bruising. There was a lot of scuffing on the suit, but no tears in the leather and the stitching was sound.
Two weeks later, I was bouncing down the track again. This time I wrote off a Honda VTR1000 SP-1 at Cartagena, Spain, with a low-side slide from 100mph and a roll into a gravel trap. There was a tear in the bum but I walked away well impressed with the suit.
Given my startling ability to crash in them I asked BKS to spare no expense in repairing

the leathers. Several panels were restitched and the leather redressed. The waist stretch panel and bum panels were replaced, along with a holed elbow panel.
There were about 20 repair operations in all, plus some specialist cleaning to get soil and pieces of circuit out of the suit, which takes at least a couple of weeks.
It's no wonder the repair bill came to £592. That's more than most people spend on a suit in the first place. But what price your skin? BKS could have made a safe repair and done a light clean-up for only £150.
I'm convinced I would have had to throw away a lesser suit after just one heavy crash, so the BKS suit has proved it's not expensive in the long run. And, once repaired, I have total faith in the leathers again.