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Shift Lowdown Street Jeans |
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Posted by Kenn Stamp
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Wednesday, 01 August 2007 |
 I am a big fan of wearing motorcycle specific jeans whenever I ride. Trouble is that most jeans that are designed to offer extra protection in the event of a crash, look like jeans that are designed to offer extra protection in the event of a crash. Catch my drift?
When I was sent a pair of these "Lowdown" riding jeans from Shift Racing I was expecting jeans that fit the above description. Boy was I wrong, and glad to be at that. These are some nice jeans! They are built with 14oz denim to offer good wearability and abrasion resistance.
As you can see in the picture to the left, they are a straight leg design. This allows the jeans to feel relaxed and roomy when you are off your bike and won't bind or cause any discomfort while on your bike. As an added bonus the denim is very soft and feels like jeans that have been well loved.The only way to tell from the front that these are spec built riding jeans is the seam that runs right over your knee.  In the rear the jeans have a small stretch panel right under the waistband/belt loop area. You can also see a couple of seams on the rear of the leg. None of these detracts too badly from the look of the jeans. The way styles change nowadays the only people who will probably know these are riding jeans are other riders.
Since all the fun stuff happens on the inside of a pair of jeans, I took some photos of the jeans while they were inside out. You may want to send your children out of the room as we are about to look at some naughty bits.
Here we are on the inside of the jeans, it's like the movie Fantastic Voyage but without all the shrinking and gooey body stuff going on.
See all that dark fabric? That is the backing fabric for the Kevlar sheeting that these jeans have in all the most critical places. You will also barely be able to notice, in the photo to the left, that there is a stretch panel in the crotch area too.
I decide to go out for a ride on Sunday even though I had a ton of work to do. I put on these new pair of jeans and set off for adventure and fun on the road.
The first thing I noticed was, well, nothing. Nothing? Yep, nothing. No binding, pinching, chafing, or rubbing. It felt like I'd had these jeans forever and had washed them a thousand times. These jeans felt more comfortable right out of the box (bag, really) then another brand of riding jeans, that I've had for 3 years, feel now.
As an added bonus, they also seem to allow you to move around a lot easier on the seat of the bike than other jeans do. I almost threw myself off my bike going into the first corner because I wasn't used to sliding my butt around so easily.
 By the way, here is a close-up of the Kevlar sheet that is behind that dark fabric.
Even though everything has a bad side (Kate Beckinsale? - Smoker/married) I was hard pressed to find one with these jeans. That is until my wife looked at them. Apparently they are a little "baggy" in the posterior department. As I am slightly lacking in that department anatomically, I cannot fully blame this on the jeans. I just thought you would like to know in case you happen to be self conscious about how your butt looks in a pair of jeans.
Shift Racing sells these jeans in two colors; Crinkle Worn (light denim) and Light Indigo (the color I got)
If you normally wear a size 34 pair of jeans then get a size 34 in these, as they run pretty true to size. The legs are cut long to provide better protection and comfort.
The Lowdown jeans run $69.95 and for that price you get a great fitting, great feeling, protective pair of jeans that you won't feel weird wearing when you are off the bike.
You can place your order at Shift Racing
You can discuss these jeans or other riding jeans in our forum
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