These lighter weight pants fit like a comfortable pair of jeans and they’re a good match for the British Motorcycle Gear Adventure jacket.
I briefly mentioned the British Motorcycle Gear Adventure pants in my review of the BMG Adventure jacket, Part 1 of this two-part review. The Adventure pants were designed as a match for the jacket, but of course either the jacket or pants can be worn separately.
The Adventure pants have a light stone color, perfect for summer, and an equally light weight at only 1.5 lbs., which is lighter than some of the street jeans I own.
The 500 denier fabric matches the stone-colored fabric of the same weight used in the Adventure jacket.
This means that the pants are also biased towards warm-weather riding.
British Motorcycle Gear says that the Adventure jacket and pants outfit was designed for Dakar Rally types and serious two-wheeled exploring as a full-coverage solution that provides better protection than other off-road designs.
While it may sound counterintuitive to wear full coverage clothing in desert riding, notice that you’ll never see a Dakar Rally rider wearing anything but.
Something like a mesh jacket would pass too much dry air over the body, creating too much evaporation which could quickly dehydrate the rider.
The Adventure pants use the same design philosophy as the Adventure jacket. They’re both designed to be a “shell” and the owner can mix and match liners, insulating liners and padding or armor as desired.
I like this concept and I think it helps to make the clothing more comfortable and I like the idea of creating my own “bespoke” fit.
I usually end up removing the insulating and water-resistant liners in most of my motorcycle clothing anyway.
The Adventure jacket and pants can be purchased closer to the desired size and each can be fitted with exactly the types of liners and protection necessary for the job at hand.
The Adventure pants do have the typical open-weave taffeta mesh lining found in just about every motorcycle jacket or pants. But other than that, there is no other liner, insulated or otherwise, included.
BMG Adventure Pants Sizing
The pants have pockets for optional Knox knee and hip armor, but I’m not sure that the roomy jeans-like fit of the pants would allow the inserted armor to fit tightly enough against the rider’s body to allow it to be as effective.
I think the best way to wear the Adventure pants is with a pair of Bohn “Cool Air” Bodyguard Adventure Pants underneath.
Too bad Knox doesn’t make an equivalent — the Bohn armored undies are my favorite and I’ve gone through two sets!
The Bohn underwear has built-in protection for the shins, knees, hips and rear and the thin flexible stretch pants keeps the armor tight to the body. The lining in the Adventure pants slides very easily over the underwear, making a comfortable combination.
The Adventure pants are sold in waist and leg inseam sizes.
The pair shown here is marked “L” and it’s the 35-37″ waist with 32-33″ inseam. It’s slightly narrower in the hips than I expected.
So I think it best fits perhaps a 35-36″ waist and the leg length is sized for a normal 30-31″ inseam with the added inch or two of length to accommodate the riding position.
The waistband can adjust the pants smaller, but it has almost no adjustment to make it wider, despite the hook-and-loop adjusters on the side.
The elastic on the sides expands out only about 1″, so potential owners may be better off going with the larger waist and then cinching it down with the waist adjusters.
Since I’m at the upper range of waist size for these pants, they’re a little tight in the waist only when I’m also wearing the Bohn underwear. If the waistband allowed another inch or so of outward adjustment, I think I’d be fine.
The legs are cut just like a pair of loose-fit jeans and I have no problems with that.
Bottom line here is that I haven’t been able to try the different size combinations to determine which one might fit best, but overall the light weight and jeans-style fit of the Adventure pants makes them very comfortable.
Waist
The Adventure pants have a standard zipper fly with a single snap at the top. The zipper is covered with a flap that secures with hook-and-loop.
The waist does not have a metal hook and loop, which is a negative.
We zinged the REV’IT! Sand pants (review) for this reason and I’ll do it again here; motorcycle pants definitely need a metal hook and loop at the waist, and should additionally have some type of extra belt loop that covers the hook at the waistband.
This would help keep the pants more secure in case of a crash.
The single button at the top of the Adventure pants just doesn’t hold the waist tightly enough, especially when the waist fits snugly, as it should. I can bend over and the snap pops open.
The pants have a higher waist in the rear for a bit of extra protection and coverage. The back of the waist has a zipper that attaches to the Adventure jacket for security.
Pockets
Vertical hand pockets are located on each side of the waist. They close with GRT branded zippers and the hem on each side of the pocket features reflective piping. The pockets are lined with a solid taffeta-like material.
Legs
The Adventure pants include a vertical zipper on the outside of each lower leg that runs about 15″ long up from the pant cuff.
This allows the lower pant leg to expand so the pants can be pulled over some motorcycle boots, although the pants are not designed as overpants.
The bottom 8″ or so of the inside of the pants leg is lined with the taffeta material. This zipper opening is also outlined with reflective piping.
A wide section of pleated elastic material provides a large amount of flex over the knees and the pants are cut in a way that allows them to bend with the elastic as the hinge point.
This helps make the legs feel very comfortable and flexible compared to other types of motorcycle pants.
Vents
Both legs have a single zipper-covered vent about 6″ long at the upper part of the outside of the thigh.
As always, it’s difficult to tell whether the vents in this location are efficient because they lay more or less horizontally when the rider is in the sitting position, but these pockets are located in an area that gets the most amount of air flow available on the legs
Safety
The pants have a thicker-feeling black abrasion-resistant material surrounding each knee; BMG says it’s Nomex fire-resistant fabric.
The black-colored fabric located at the side of the hips and in the rear is called “Texland”, according to BMG and the hip section has a “Hitena” label on one side.
I believe Texland is the company that manufacturers Hitena textile under license. We’ve seen the Hitena brand used previously in motorcycle jackets and pants.
So the pants appear to have the added abrasion-resistant material in the right places, but it’s up to the owner to make sure that the desired amount and type of armor or padding is correctly located.
The stitching on the pants is very accurate with tight tolerances. The stitch lines are mostly single row and the stitches have been laid down very close to the edges of the material on each section, giving the pants a sharp and clean look.
Conclusion
The British Motorcycle Gear Adventure pants have been purposely designed as a shell to be looser fitting for comfort during those Adventure Touring and off-road excursions.
This allows the owner to choose the correct fit, add the desired level of protection and decide which types of underlying layers will be best suited for the weather conditions.
I find the pants and jacket combination to be very comfortable in a way that most other motorcycle garments are not.
Part 1: British Motorcycle Gear Adventure Jacket
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wBW Review: British Motorcycle Gear BMG Adventure Pants
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| Manufacturer: British Motorcycle Gear | List Price (2010): $199.00 |
| Colors: Stone/Black. | Made In: China |
| Sizes: Waist: 23-46. Inseam: 26-37. | Review Date: June 2010 |
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