Yeah, been thinking about that. By all accounts these suits last a long time - ie guys still wearing them 20 years later kind of thing. You might go through a number of cheaper pants/jackets in that time. What seems expensive might actually be cheaper in the long run.
I have a mesh jacket that I paid $100 for on sale at a Kawasaki dealership. It's been 5 years of year round riding, dozens of falls (all off road) and me not taking particularly good care of it, and it shows absolutely no signs of wear. I imagine it will last me the rest of my life unless i get too fat to fit in it or tear it up in a bad wreck.
It's this jacket actually.
https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/firstgear-mesh-tex-jacket
In the AZ summer this jacket keeps me cooler than if I wasn't wearing a jacket at all in temps up to 118F. On the days it got to 121F+ I nearly roasted, but that's not the jackets fault.
I don't have riding pants. I've been wanting to get some but so far I can't find any that are in my price range and don't fit like skinny jeans/girl pants. Also, I'm not a huge fan of wearing clothes over my clothes that I have to spend time getting in and out of and worrying about a place to put them when I go places. That's just a PITA. So I'd also need the pants to be something I could wear all day at work. And my job requires black BDU pants. I haven't seen that type of riding pants.
I gave some thought to buying leather chaps for protection. They seem easy enough to get on and off and can easily roll up and store in a saddle bag, but I couldn't find any that weren't a$$less. Nevermind the stigma about a$$less chaps, but if I were to go down on the street, isn't it highly likely that I'd be sliding on my butt? What's the point of lower body protection that doesn't protect the most likely place to make contact with the ground?
So another reason I'm not into the fully body suit thing is, where would I put it once I got to where I was going? I know my mesh jacket won't fit in my saddle bags, nevermind a full body suit. Even on days where I am just riding with no real destination, I still make stops for food and whatnot. It would be far too hot to have a full body riding suit on unless I'm actually on the bike and moving.
I think the only time I could see a full body suit being useful to me is if I'm doing multiple day rides, like across the country or something where I'll be riding for 12 or more hours a day and I won't have a reason to be changing in and out of the suit multiple times a day.
I don't mean to hijack your thread. I'm just throwing my 2 cents in.
