Good quality at sale price, some design flaws that should not be there. (30.03.2018)
Anonymous42418812
First time buying such an expensive piece of gear, first Rukka. Very high expectations, certainly normal considering the initial price of 1300 euro (top of the line in 2014).
My current old all-season jacket ($100 on sale instead of $300) is about 9 year old. Still in good shape after 64k km, except for the seams of the vents that came undone (the glue finally broke down...). Rain protection is ok, no gore tex, I'd get wet eventually, especially on the pants. Protections decent, nothing great, and after all this "flexing" time, the rubber at shoulders and elbows started to crumble. Also the textile quality did not seem it could take much of a slide.
I try to ride all year long. Very challenging winter conditions (upstate New York), -10c is pretty average. When it's not snowing or no freezing rain, the roads are clear and dry. The old jacket with the rain/wind and thermal liners allows me to ride in -10c for 30' for my commute, not nice but ok. Anyway in winter moto gear, the weak (and painful) link really is the gloves.
So I was looking for an upgrade: thoughtfully designed & practical, bullet proof water and cold temp protection, beefed up but comfortable crash and abrasion protection, and as a bonus, some reasonable venting in spring/summer. Surely that's what you get when you consider gears above the 1000 euro mark, for just one piece of gear!
The perceived quality of the Rukka jacket is impressive. The materials feel robust yet smooth, the stretch construction, the generous coverage of the protections, everything feels like it is well designed and built. The materials and design of the collar and cuffs are great, very soft and comfortable, no chafing. All the zips feel robust. Does it deserve its original cost?...
The first problem is that, for a touring winter bullet proof jacket, it seems quite short indeed. It barely covers the top of your pants. And indeed, if you need to layer up, layers will show up and get wet in case of rain. You have to tuck all of them under your MC pants, not great. A jacket taller or longer by 5 or 10cm more would do the trick and provide that feeling of extra protection.
Then, the Outlast thermal liner seems too thin to provide decent winter comfort. Finally, cargo pockets are the best to handle with bulky winter gloves, easy to access and close with gloves on. For some reason, Rukka put them on the higher part of the chest, instead of the bottom part of the jacket (like on my old jacket or other winter/touring jacket designs). At least for me, this makes it really hard to access the pocket, especially with a bulky stiff winter jacket and a backpack. For ex, when I go to work I have to show my badge. I have to stop, remove right glove, reach in the top left cargo pocket, flash the badge, put it back in. I can not do it in 10" with the glove on. etc. At this point my hands are already hurting from the low temps, so what's the pb right...Instead, the bottom half of the jacket gets zippered pockets, that also you can not access with gloves on. I saw that on the few pictures but I did not foresee how unpractical at all it would be. It feels like nobody at Rukka tested this jacket in real life, otherwise they would have realized this flaw.
I tested the jacket in my commute @-2/-3c for 35'. As my setup in <0c winter, I wear a tshirt, plus a Columbia light jacket (with shiny reflective liner, very warm and also does a decent job with wind), and then the moto jacket. With the Rukka, this setup was too warm and a bit bulky, but the stretch easily allows it. I'm 1.70m, 100cm chest / 85cm waist, I could have ordered a size 48 but went with a size 50 to fit extra layers. On the way back home, with temps up to 6/7c I took the columbia jacket off. Great comfort and fit, but by the end of the ride, I could feel some cold. I need to repeat this to see if it's consistent...but as of now, I'm not sold on the outlast thermal liner. I have yet to test it @-10c.
All in all, the quality seems outstanding, I'm still relatively excited about having bought that jacket. It was a good price on FC Moto. Still 7x more than my old jacket, and that's where I can not fully say that, even with sale price, I'm getting a lot of bang for my bucks...and on top of things I lost some practicality and maybe cold protection.
But time will tell, I need to test it in more conditions. Maybe I'll get used to the weird pocket layouts, and given some time, maybe the quality/robustness will blow me away. At this price level, should get close to perfection. 3 stars. I hope to come back and increase my rating.