For folks on an extended road trip or that have to endure living garage-free, motorcycle covers may be the only option for protecting your steed from the elements – and there's something to be said for taking your goods out of the window display in high theft areas. Astric is a motorcycle jacket with a folded-up bike cover stowed away in the back so you won't forget it.
The water-repellent bike cover, which is currently the subject of a crowdfunding campaign, is folded into a compression bag that attaches inside the back of the jacket. Thus, if the cover gets dirty, it stashes in a manner that doesn't get you or the rest of the jacket wet or dirty.
When you park the bike, the jacket folds up and more or less sits on the seat of the bike, from what I can tell, which you then put the cover over. And when you come back to your bike, you get to spend some time folding up a motorcycle cover into the perfect shape to fit in the compression bag, or else resign yourself to riding with a bulge in your back.
It's not the world's most protective looking motorcycle jacket either. There's no leather, Kevlar, Cordura, or other high abrasion-resistant fabric, rather it's 65 percent nylon, 35 percent polyester with a polyester lining. There's no armor, unless you count a folded up bike cover in the small of your back as armor.
Let's call this what it is, shall we? An urban scooter jacket – but not for scooter riders, who can stick a bike cover under the seat. Its best qualities might be its dashing bomber-style design, a soft looking liner and a bit of wind resistance. I personally wouldn't want to be crashing in this jacket.
But its creators, a group of bikers and designers from Hong Kong, likely know their market. Asian motorcycle commuters don't strike me as ATGATT types and in this case something might be better than nothing.
The Astric will cost you HK$1,312 (US$167) if you buy it for half price during the Kickstarter campaign. That's unless you're super fired up about this whole idea and get the quad pack, which will give you four motorcycle jackets with built-in bike covers for just HK$4,198 (US$540). Enough for your whole local motorcycle cover enthusiast's club to have one each.
Check it out in action in the video below, complete with stylish giant red keychain attachment.
Source: Kickstarter