Whether it’s a casual jacket that is robust enough to wear a bike, or a bike jacket that doubles as a casual jacket, the Halvarsson Seventy has been my go-to jacket when I’m switching between bikes in decent weather for three years now, and any reservations I might have had about its suitability for riding have long since vanished.
Having grown up with heavyweight leathers that would do you an injury if you picked them up carelessly, this feels like a fashion jacket, but it’s goatskin outer shell gets the same triple-stitched seams as Halvarssons’ more obvious riding kit. It is also reinforced by Hi-Art – their own high abrasion resistant textile – is pocketed for armour at the elbows and shoulders as well as a back protector, and attaches to any of the Jofama group’s riding pants with a zip that goes about 270-degrees round your waist.
But for all that, it isn’t obviously a bike jacket, visually. It is light, cool and as comfortable as casual wear as on a bike, and has certainly travelled enough miles in planes, trains and automobiles for that very reason. And if I’m caught out without a helmet and gloves – as in the unexpected opportunity to take out the new Scout when I went to the opening of Krazy Horse’s Indian showroom in February 2014 – at least I didn’t need to find a jacket, as I was wearing this
The vibrant red of the stripe on its sleeves has toned down with use, but it was intended to, and the good news is that it is not fading to rose or pink, just an older red. By contrast the red lining is as vivid as ever, and is standing up well to the onslaught of gloved hands rummaging through its pockets – a zipped one just inside the opening, and two in the lining, one each side. Actually, there’s a fourth: an iPod-sized one that was obviously intended for something like an iPhone 4 which is way too small for my phone, but perfect for the iPod Touch.
Returning outside, the leather’s more exposed seams and openings have taken as much of a battering as the sleeves, but they are doing so with good grace, and while the leather is losing some intensity of colour it has lost none of its suppleness.