Motocross Pants - Evaluating Safety, Durability and Style

Selecting a pair of motocross pants might seem like a simple decision. Find some pairs that fall within your price range and pick the best looking ones. Except it's not exactly that simple. Dirt bike pants come in many different cuts, styles and sizes. And there are other qualities to think about, like ruggedness, heat resistance, abrasion resistance and others. We'll run down the qualities you should think about when selecting a pair of pants to help you arrive at a good choice.

MX Pants Safety
The safety of motocross pants boils down to three factors: what they are made of, what sort of built-in safeguards they have, and how well they accommodate additional padding.

You'll find pants in a variety of different fabrics, each with its own pros and cons. Leather offers good abrasion resistance, but can be overly warm. Perforated leather offers an improvement in circulation, but it comes at the expense of toughness. Cordura is permeable and provides excellent abrasion resistance, but is rather inflexible so may not provide a snug fit. Kevlar offers superior protection, but is often costly.

Extra protection, in the form of knee or hip protectors, is accessible in a variety of pants. When these are called "panels", it indicates that reinforced material is incorporated to provide additional strength. This extra protection still might fall short of your needs, however. If you wear extra knee protection, look for pants that are designed to fit them.

Safety is obviously the most important criteria in deciding on motocross pants so you should spend extra time on this one.

Fit
You'll need pants that provide an adaptable, flexible and snug fit.

You don't want superfluous material moving about and bogging you down, so snugness is key. Spandex is a serviceable pick but Spandura has the same tight fit of Spandex in addition to the protective quality of Cordura.

You'll need a flexible fit so that you can move freely without being restricted by your pants. search for flexible stretch panels within joints that flex as you move.

If varying environmental conditions require you to swap in safety pads, consider an adjustable fit, which will also provide extra room for equipment such as a kidney belt and boots.

Durability of Dirt Bike Pants
Because you may spend a good chunk of change on pants, you'll need them to last. Look for pants that offer double or triple stitching on seams. This permits the pants to suffer some amount of deterioration without ripping. Note the type of material used in the rear and the knees -- these two sections receive the heaviest wear so are more susceptible to damage.

Airflow
Airflow usually does not go together with safety. The more durable the material, the safer it is at the expense of being more warm. Pants will frequently have strategically placed air circulation panels that help with cooling without giving up protection. Some pants provide mesh panels. Spandex and Cordura also provide this kind of ventilation.

Motocross Pants Style
Of course you'll need to look good in your pants too, right? Notice how the pants match-up with your bike's colors. Will they look okay alongside each other? Are you trying to match other equipment, such as a jersey or boots? How will the pants look when you're off the bike? If you look nice, you won't be in a hurry to change out of them when you dismount. While pants that change to shorts might not be a good choice for fit and safety, they will allow you to wear your pants off the bike, even in varying weather conditions.

Other Factors
The reasons already listed are perhaps the most important to look at when selecting Dirt bike pants. But there are still others too. search for pants that are light so you're not held back by your equipment. Think about the pockets -- are you trying to store a few essentials while you travel? If so, you'll need a few of them.

Youth Motocross Pants
A brief comment about motocross pants for the children: The same considerations as above apply for youth pants as well as for adults. Pay close attention to sizing, of course, since kids do grow fast! And you may wish to prioritize safety even more instead of styling. That ought to be easy nowadays, since many pants are now available in children's sizes as well as larger versions.

More Info
This article gives additional info on dirt bike equipment in general. Fox Racing and Answer Motocross are among the leading dirt bike equipment manufacturers.

All in all, choosing a pair of dirt bike pants can be a difficult decision. Do not worry, however. Consider some of the criteria we've mentioned when deciding and you're certain to come to a suitable decision.