Regardless of what gear producers can have you imagine, nobody motorcycle jacket will carry out properly in each doable situation. However some jackets can play a handful of roles properly, providing sufficient versatility to earn a spot in your gear closet. The Icon Slabtown is one such piece.
Named after the district in Portland, Oregon, USA the place Icon Motosports relies, the Slabtown jacket is pitched as a three-season avenue driving jacket. It’s not waterproof, neither is it designed for very sizzling days. However for something from chilly to heat climate, it really works a deal with.
Aesthetically, the Slabtown is all enterprise, that includes a barely subdued tackle the city brawler styling that Icon is known for. It’s reduce with Icon’s ‘sport’ match, which suggests it’s boxy relatively than tailor-made, with beneficiant hook-and-loop waist adjusters and pre-curved sleeves. It matches kind of true to Icon’s sizing chart, with the caveat that it leaves quite a lot of room to layer up (so measurement down if you’d like a
figure-hugging match).
The Slabtown’s building makes use of a mixture of heavyweight and stretch nylon panels, with additional cloth in high-risk areas. Geared up with a full cache of versatile D30 armor, the jacket rides the road between consolation and security, providing loads of articulation whereas driving, however retaining a hefty really feel. Accordion panels behind the elbows add additional flexibility (and an additional hit of retro bike jacket styling), whereas a slight drop within the tail protects your modesty.
Shade-wise, your decisions are black, gray, or inexperienced (pictured right here). Icon’s branding is refined, with a stable steel emblem stitched into the chest and a sublimated emblem on the decrease again. So whereas the Slabtown jacket isn’t fairly informal sufficient to drag date night time responsibility, it doesn’t scream for consideration.
The quilted vest liner presents a outstanding quantity of heat on colder days. As a result of it’s sleeveless, it’s a breeze to zip out and in—and it doesn’t make the jacket really feel cumbersome when it’s in use. It’s additionally compact sufficient to go away in for crisp morning rides and stow in a backpack because the day warms up.
Air flow is courtesy of two zippered shoulder vents, two vertical zippered vents on the again, and two-way cuff zippers that permit air in through the sleeves. There’s additionally a intelligent entrance vent system that’s engaged by unzipping the primary closure and connecting it to a second zipper on a mesh panel. It’s exhausting to inform if it’s an efficient design by itself, however the entire system works properly sufficient when every part’s open—though you do must take care of the jacket billowing considerably.
The place the Slabtown skimps, is on fussy frills. The collar is a straightforward non-adjustable affair with a delicate cloth alongside the ridge that provides consolation; a design that’s repeated on the cuffs. There are two discreet hand hotter pockets on the sides and a Napoleon pocket contained in the jacket (with a Saint Christopher medallion tucked inside, as is Icon’s custom), however not a lot else.
Whether or not that’s good or unhealthy relies upon totally in your wants. When you like to regulate each final inch of your jacket and stuff your pockets like an over-zealous marsupial with an EDC obsession, this in all probability isn’t the jacket for you. (And in the event you’re treasured about your bike’s paint job, the uncovered YKK zipper on the entrance will probably put you off.)
But when simplicity is excessive in your listing of must-haves, the Slabtown qualifies. I’ve used it for every part from testing the Yamaha XSR900 GP in moody Portuguese climate, to grabbing it for a day of mixed-terrain journey driving in South Africa. Like a bowl of porridge match for a precocious blonde intruder, the Icon Slabtown just isn’t an excessive amount of, not too little, however excellent.
Icon Slabtown jacket | Photos by Devin Paisley
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