Jacket: Harley Davidson Luminator 360

I’ve had owned five Harley Davidsons in my life to date:

• 2003 Anniversary edition Sporty – silver and black and shook the heck out of my hands
• 2006 V-Rod
• 2007 Road King
• 2008 Super Glide Custom
• 2010 Fat Bob (my current bike)

In that time I’ve probably had 30 different jackets from amazing Dainese jackets to Belstaff to Vanson and beyond.

I love gear – I’ve said it before – so just like bikes I’ll buy one I love and sell it a while later to get a new love. In that time I’ve only had one Harley jacket. One. Now I don’t have anything against Harley jackets, but I’ve never really been one for huge logos, flames or skulls. I always admired them, but they just weren’t for me. I also like jackets with built-in armor for better protection.

When I got the V-Rod, I saw a jacket at the Harley dealer that really wasn’t anything like the jackets I saw at bike night or parades. It was all black with nary a flame shrouded logo, and had a very cool, subtle look to it. It was an FXRG, which stands for “Functional Xtreme Riding Gear,” and it certainly was all of that and more. It was heavy when you held it, but once you had it on it was just a very good jacket with armor, good wet weather performance, a great warmth liner and even a kidney belt.

I bought that thing for over six hundred bucks and it was the only jacket that I’ve owned for more than two seasons. I only got rid of it last year when I sold my Super Glide – to the lucky guy that bought the bike. I still miss it and have been thinking about getting another when I came across the Luminator 360.

Now some of you might be questioning my getting this jacket, what with the huge Harley Davidson logo across the front – so did I, actually. But the more I looked at it, the more it appealed to me. Sure it’s got a big logo but it’s actually kinda subtle since the logo is also black, with a little reflective outline. What’s even better is that unlike most Harley jackets it had – like my FXRG – armor and a kidney belt. OK, so it doesn’t have the awesome liner, but we live in Erie and by the time I usually need it we’ve got six inches of snow on the ground.

It’s also almost $200 cheaper than my old jacket, and feels to be about the same quality. It doesn’t have the FXRG lifetime warranty, but for the price I really consider it to be a bargain. And the feature that gives it its name – 3M Scotchlite reflective tape, piping and graphics — make this all black jacket really stand out at night. This is great for those of us that want to look all bad-ass but still be noticed by cars while we’re riding in the dark.

In my opinion this is one of the better jackets out there. It sells for $495 at the local Harley shop (less if you’re a HOG/Abate member) and gets you great quality leather, good armor, terrific design and all that reflective stuff to make you stand out.  The other great thing about buying at the local shop is the service – Harley Davidson of Erie really has stop-notch service at their parts, gear and service counters.  They go out of their way to really help you find what you need and stand behind their products.  They also have some really good sales from time to time – I just had cams installed and they credited 20% of the bill to a gift-card, which I then used to buy an LED tailight for my awesome Fat Bob/Fat Glide conversion that I’ll be talking about soon.

Anyway, check them out and enjoy the ride.