Love me some Alpinestars... but......

[OreoGaborio]

has anyone else had problems with their durability?

I really like their stuff, but I guess I'm just tough on equipment? Granted, I wear this stuff ALL the time and I do 5-10k street miles, 10+ track days and 6-8 race weekends a year, so I've certainly gotten a lot of use out of it all, but...

All 3 pairs of Alpinestars gloves I've owned wore out in the left palm through normal use after a year & 1/2.... first my GP Plus, then the GP Pro, then the GP Techs.... all 3 pairs.
And both pairs of boots... first my SMX Plus, now my Supertech R's have had zippers go after about 2 years.


You guys think this is normal?

[Paul_E_D]

No, I think their a style oriented company. Durability is not their strong suit.

[OreoGaborio]

I agree, their stuff is kinda style oriented.... but this is supposedly their top of the line race stuff, I figured it'd be able to take a beating.

Great protection though. Their boots have saved my feet & ankles a few times & aside from my broken wrist (which I really don't think any pair of gloves could have prevented) they've saved my hands a few times as well.



btw, I'm currently looking at Rev'It or Held gloves and Sidi Vortice boots. If anyone knows of any hook-ups, feel free to PM me

[bluej511]

My velcro tab ripped off after a yr or so on my mx1 jacket. My gp+ gloves are doing just fine, there wearing out on the velvet type stuff but other then that theres just fine.

My 1piece suit is gonna be a teknic or so and boots will be Sidis.

[schleppy]

That's too bad. At their prices that stuff should last a lot longer. I have a $20 pair of IXS gloves that looked brand new after 1+ year of motorcycle AND bicycle use.

[obsolete]

Stop being such an animal!

[BMFR6]

might be unloading my a* gloves. they're the tech's i think, the ones with the ring and pinky stiched together. probably my sidi vertigo corsas as well if you're interested.

[ThisBitch]

I bought the techs before my track day last year. The velcro on the gauntlet came unstitched the 2nd day I used them. I sent them back and got a new pair, no problems thus far with the new ones.

["Dangerous" Dan K]

I love my A* dirt bike boots, countless crashes and abuse and muddy buckles being pulled through and they're still fine. 6 Fingered Man has a real heavy A* leather jacket that's seen quite a few crashes and is still intact and fine. My A* race boots & back protector are both awesome, but only have a few weekends and one crash on them. Only time will tell how they hold up.

OTOH, I recently purchased a second hand set of Held gloves that appear to be crash-tested at least as well as my 2nd hand Vanson suit, and they're still nice and solid. I'd say they can take a serious beating. I'll have them this weekend if you wanna see how a beat pair of held's holds up Pete. They're not for sale though!

[bigred875]

A*'s is throw away gear...if you want them to last pony up the bucks for some helds..imo of course

[LaRNZ]

had problems with my techs as well, after 1.5 years the were coming apart in the palms, sent em back got a free pair of the new model, which were then too small because they now fit "truer to size" i guess, i sold mine and are gonna use my plus's until they were out, then grab some helds

[OreoGaborio]

Chris, who & how did you contact about the gloves?

[Pittenger5]

My Icons are holding up strong after 25000 street miles. I guess posing comes with durability? I dunno.
I considered some AStars, but ... no thanks, better options abound.

For what its worth Two Wheel Steals has got a few AStars gloves on sale and stuff.

[LaRNZ]

Chris, who & how did you contact about the gloves?

i called one of these numbers...

http://alpinestarsinc.com/contact

i spoke with someone and told em the deal, they gave me an RGA(returned goods authorization) said they will look into it, meaning see how the wearing is, if it looks like its their fault, they'll replace em, if it looks like normal abuse and they say sorry not on us, they will atleast give u a discount on a new pair.

like i said i had mine over the one year warranty shown by the date on the receipt, but i explained to them this aint cali, we can only ride soo much out here compared to them with the winters here, got a new pair with no bill so i was happy in the end, even tho they were smaller than the model i owned because of re-sizing.

[SVRACER01]

on my 3rd pair of SP2s in...uhhh....well...at least 6-8 years...maybe longer

[markbvt]

I picked up a pair of Gericke armored gloves that were on closeout a number of years ago. I've used them for probably 30,000 street miles and they're still in great shape -- leather's a bit faded but completely intact, seams are good, etc.

A friend of mine had a pair of Joe Rocket gloves and shredded the leather with a minor tipover in a sandy parking lot. So don't get those.

--mark

[OreoGaborio]

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Lube.... Er, Glyde: Mozilla/5.0 440x240 Samsung SCH-U940 NetFront/3.4)

I'm only considering 3 options... Contacting Alpinetars about some replacements (I already wrote to them and they told me to give them a call), some RevIt Jerez gloves or Held Phantoms...

[ultraTwist]

My leathers seem real tough, the zipper pull on the jacket did break, I use a zip tie now. The zippers on the jacket are plastic, so the sleave/wrist zipper is melted. I have a pair of gloves, SP-1 large they seem ok, but I don't wear them much because they are made for super models or something.

[brendanp]

Get rid of the death grip! hahaha

[Nix]

I've definitely had durability issues with their shit, but my SMX4 boots have held up nicely. The SMX5's are awesome too but you may be looking for shtuff more track oriented. dunno. Cortech and Joe Rocket (I know whateva) have made me very happy.

[sandman]

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Lube.... Er, Glyde: Mozilla/5.0 440x240 Samsung SCH-U940 NetFront/3.4)

I'm only considering 3 options... Contacting Alpinetars about some replacements (I already wrote to them and they told me to give them a call), some RevIt Jerez gloves or Held Phantoms...

there gloves suck. i did the same thing your doing now 7 years ago.

the alpine gloves didn't even last the year and they wouldn't warranty them seeing as they "wore out"

btw: i just wore out my helds galaxys (after 7 years) i finaly wore a hole through the clutch finger.

i just replaced them with a set of phantoms and hope to have them for the next 7 years

[Mondo]

Have all alpinestar stuff...MX-1 Jacket, Track pants, SMX+ Boots, and GP pro gloves....

only issue i've had (and I've had all of them for 3 seasons now) is that the the seam on one of the fingers went, but they said they'd replace it!

I think the stuff is pretty good...but im not a racer so this is just my experience riding with it

[schleppy]

I've been rocking some Held Ninjas for a year now. Once low-side and they barely got scuffed. I'm a big Held fan now.

[wiggeywackyo]

I'm just noticing some of the posts about actually wearing through the gloves during just normal use and it seems to me that there would be a certain point where the gloves would no longer be effective in protecting your skin in the case of a really abrasive crash.