The basic requirement of racing suit design is to achieve a maximum pilot’s protection when keeping the comfort, unlimited free movement on the motorbike. These two on first view very conflicting requirements are successfully met by up-to-date materials and a sophisticated design of particular parts.
The essential parameter of the racing suit is its weight. Each gram that is „driven“ on the motorbike, is necessary to slow down in front of the bend and to speed up again on the driveway from the bend. For this purpose there is a need of the engine performance, and it is never enough of it. The weight of a standard suit is about 5,4 kilograms, the weight of a racing suit is from 3,6 to 4,8 kilograms, it depends on the size and designation.
The improvement of any product is quite impossible without exact measurement therefore we apply all available measurement methods for development and improvement of our suits. Starting from the scratch test, we also measure transmitted impact force of the protectors, we define heat maps inside the clothing, accordingly the suits are vented, or we measure aerodynamic drag in the wind tunnel to remove wastage due to agitated air.
Among the „features“ which make the pilot’s “hot moments” behind the handlebars more pleasant we rank, for example, a small bag for „a drink“, that is situated in the „hump“ of the suit, or sandwich (multi-layer) solution of suit parts that are often in a contact with the runway. These compound layers with high heat resistance to prevent a high heat transmission to the rider’s skin, hereby they prevent a burn.
Karel Abraham, Jakub Kornfeil, Ondřej Ježek and other pilots help us very actively with the solutions and tests of not only of these improvements.
Cover photo: Ondřej Ježek in the wind tunnel, 2013.