Roadskin Armoured Hoodie review | AA-rated casual motorcycle jacket

Date reviewed: July 2025 | Tested by: John Milbank | Price: £149 | roadskin.co.uk

Not only is the Roadskin Armoured Hoodie on review here (also known as the Easyrider II) protective, the thoughtful design is almost certainly the result of the experience of Ian and Mark – the two guys behind the company – in their early lives as dispatch riders.

I’ve been wearing it in a variety of conditions on my BMW R1250GS, 1999 Kawasaki ZX-6R and 2001 Honda VFR800 to find out if it’s any good…

Pros & Cons

Construction and Fit

The Roadskin Armoured Hoodie Easyrider II has hints of traditional café-racer leather bike jackets with the channel baffles at the shoulders (the ribbed bits to you and me), but overall it’s a fairly simple and unassuming design that works well both on and off the bike.

The white embroidery on the chest, left arm and right sleeve do shout ‘motorbike kit’ so might not be to everyone’s taste, but they don’t offend me.

The hood is fully removable, with a single zip attaching it securely to the jacket. While the style will be appealing to some, especially when off the bike, I took it off pretty soon after getting the jacket and haven’t bothered putting it back. Still, in a move that no doubt comes from years of painful experience, the drawstring is fixed at the back of the hood, meaning you can cinch it up if you want, but you can’t pull it through and have to take it to your mum to ask her to ferret about with a knitting needle to retrieve it. A thoughtful detail.

The Roadskin Hoodie fits comfortably in my usual size large (though I am pushing towards an XL in some gear) and is a decent length, with the added security of a belt loop at the rear to help keep it down in a slide. There is just one loop and it’s right in the middle, so could be annoying to use with jeans that have a central loop on them at the rear. Roadskin’s own excellent Taranis Elite and Paranoid X jeans have two loops – one on either side of centre – so it’s not a problem to use with them.

Handloops are also attached to the sleeves. If you don’t want to use them, they tuck away (or you could cut them off), but they’re very comfortable and slip over your thumb easily when putting the jacket on, helping to keep the sleeves pulled down if the worst happened. Having said that, the sleeves are well retained anyway and only move about three inches up my forearm if I pull on the sleeve without the loops in place.

The Roadskin Armoured Hoodie Easyrider II is available in men’s sizes XS to 4XL, or women’s XS to 2XL.

Protection and Certification

The Roadskin Armoured Hoodie is certified to the middle Level AA under EN17092’s abrasion resistance, seam strength and tear resistance tests. AAA is the highest under this standard, but AA is fairly typical for a lot of textile jackets.

The armour is soft and comfortable, Level 2 – the highest impact protection – from Smoothways, in the larger Type B template at the elbows and the smaller Type A at the shoulders. Both sit in the correct positions and stay there. The supplied back protector is also Level 2 with some degree of ventilation. If you want more ventilation, Roadskin offers the excellent Rheon Level 2 back protector as a £49.99 option.

From April 21 2018, all new motorcycle clothing is deemed to be Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). To meet this legislation, it must be tested to a recognised standard. For more information on the new laws, click here.

Pockets

The Easyrider II’s outside waist pockets have vertical zips and are well positioned to tuck your hands in when walking about. They’re also big enough for keys, wallet and my large Google Pixel 7 Pro phone. Inside you’ll find a zipped pocket in the mesh on either side, which is smaller but still capable of securing closed over my phone.

Fastening

The Roadskin’s main zip is a smooth-running, chunky plastic YKK Vislon. It secures well and locks in place, which is handy as I find it pulls a little too tight around my neck so I tend to have it open a crack.

Some hoodies are a pullover design with no zip, but I prefer being able to open my jacket up to get some air when I stop riding in hot weather.

Adjustment

There’s no adjustment built into the Roadskin Hoodie, but the stretch material means it’s really not needed. As always, check fit for yourself, but I’ve had no problems.

Ventilation

This is where I think that – arguably – the Roadskin Armoured Hoodie could be improved. For Spring and Autumn rides it’s great, but as temperatures reach – and move beyond – the mid-twenties, I find it gets a bit hot and sweaty when I’m not riding. The waterproof membrane will be stopping what could be some great airflow, though on the other hand it does make it ideal for the temperatures that we tend to see most in the UK.

Warmth

Thanks to that waterproof membrane, the Roadskin Hoodie acts as a decent wind-stopper, and with a down jacket underneath and the Alpinestars Tech-Air 3 V2 on top, I was very comfortable during a long ride at 10°C.

Liner

The Easyrider II has a comfortable, lightweight mesh liner, with very soft and stretchy ends of the sleeves and thumb loops.

Waterproofing

Ironically, despite the waterproof membrane being something I’d prefer not to have in the Roadskin Hoodie, water resistance has proven to be pretty disappointing.

It’s okay in a shower, so perhaps good for short urban rides, but I find it wets out almost instantly and that soaked material makes you feel colder while restricting the membrane’s ability to breathe effectively, potentially making you damper on the inside.

There’s also no guttering on the storm flap behind the main zip, so rain soon finds its way to the font of your body.

Cleaning

Once you’ve taken the armour out, the Roadskin Hoodie can be washed gently at 30°C and should be left to dry in a well-ventilated and shaded area. Don’t iron it or tumble-dry it.

Four alternatives to the Roadskin Armoured Hoodie

Here at Bennetts BikeSocial we need to catch up and get some more hoodies reviewed, as we can’t yet compare the Roadskin to any others. Here are some we’d encourage you to check out too though…

• Spada Blade, £139.99 | We had hands on, but haven’t tested this yet. This highly breathable hoodie is certified to Level AA and comes with Level 2 protectors at the elbows, shoulders and back. Available with a zip front or without, it looks great in a range of colours, especially Coral Blue. Expect a full review as soon as possible. Manufacturer’s link here.

• Oxford Armourlite Lockon, £149.99 | Another hoodie we haven’t tested yet, this is also AA-rated with Level 2 armour, though the back protector is optional. Manufacturer’s link here, it’s also available in a women’s cut here.

• Merlin Stealth Pro, £229.99 | A pullover rather than zipped hoodie, the Merlin is AA-rated and incorporates Kevlar for abrasion resistance. It uses slimline D3O Ghost armour for the most ‘un-bikey’ styling. Manufacturer’s link here.

• Rev’it Spark Air, £229.99 | This ventilated hoodie is AA rated and has Level 1 armour at the elbows and shoulders. We’ve just started reviewing Rev’it kit and have been impressed so far. Hopefully we’ll cover this in future. Manufacturer’s link here.

These are just four of many alternatives – you can find all the textiles we’ve tested here  and be sure to regularly check for the discounts available through Bikesocial membership.

Roadskin Armoured Hoodie review: Verdict

If the Roadskin Hoodie didn’t have the waterproof membrane I’d love it more, but in a large proportion of the British weather it proves to be versatile and comfortable. I’d argue that it’d be better without the membrane so it could breathe more freely in hot climates, though in Spring and Autumn you’d then likely want to wear something with some wind-stopper qualities too.

At the price, the AA protection and Level 2 armour throughout are great, and you could perhaps consider a mesh jacket for those extremes of temperature. For the majority of dry days that UK riders enjoy, the Roadskin Hoodie is well worth considering.

Second opinion: Duncan Sutcliffe

I’ve had mine for two years and worn it a lot – I’ve probably ridden 7,500 miles in it on road and green lanes. It’s been on the R1250GSA, the Street Scrambler, the old K1200RS, and the R1250R… it just works for every type of bike and every type of ride.

The hoodie is so easy to wear that I tend to reach for it on almost every ride unless the weather’s really cold or really hot – I recently took it to the Ardennes.

The sizing is really generous; I bought it at a show and the medium fitted me well even though at the time I was buying an L or even XL in other kit. Nowadays I’m an M in regular casual clothing and the Roadskin is a little bit baggy on me, but I like it that much I’ll be buying a replacement in a smaller size.

The armour feels fine and sits in the right places. I’ve switched to Rheon for the back protector this year, which is cooler and less intrusive to wear, so I’d say this is a beneficial upgrade. It might also be nice (but not essential) to have Rheon at the elbows but I wouldn’t bother at the shoulders.

The thumb loops are comfortable enough but they have become a bit ragged looking over time although they’re still perfectly intact. The popper stud on the belt loop failed (tore out of the fabric, probably me being careless) very early but it doesn’t bother me enough to have done anything about it. And I took the actual hood off the first time I wore the jacket and never put it back on – I can’t see what the point of it is and it looks better without it anyway.

I do find that if I do the front zip right up it’s very tight at the throat, so I usually just leave it half an inch open and the zip pull has never worked down at all.

I don’t remember being caught in the rain with it, so can’t comment on that. I usually wear it over a Zerofit or a Uniqlo Heattech base layer in cooler temperatures, and over a merino t-shirt on hotter days. This works for me right up to the point I would be switching to a mesh jacket and down to the point I’d be in a thick leather jacket with multiple layers.

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