Lewis Leathers Roadmasters vs. Belstaff Knockhill Trainmaster?

[Jeff M]

Uhm....?

Muhammad Ali.
Famous heavyweight boxer, fought mainly back in the 60's and 70's.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Muhammad Ali.
Famous heavyweight boxer, fought mainly back in the 60's and 70's.

The Greatest. 'Floated like a butterfly..stung like a bee'!

 

[richie1958]

That analogy wouldn't always have stood up on it's own. I bought my first Lewis jacket back in the late seventies and it was a great jacket. However, ten years later, my shoulders had got bigger and it no longer fitted. I took a trip up to the shop, which was at Great Portland street London at the time, around 1987. The alarm bells started ringing when on telling the shop guys I'd come to get measured up for a new jacket, They pointed to a rail of jackets and told me to see if I could find something that fitted. As soon as I touched the jackets, I knew Lewis Leathers were no longer the company they had been... I said to one of the guys serving "Can I see your proper jackets?" He said "That is our full range sir" I said "What those?? They're made of ruddy chicken skin!!" And stormed out expressing my disgust with a hail of choice Anglo Saxon expletives.
Don't worry though! The present people running Lewis Leathers are passionate about quality and you get what Lewis Leathers were always famous for (excepting their little quality crisis in the eighties and nineties)
Richie

 

[Worf]

The Greatest. 'Floated like a butterfly..stung like a bee'!

That you had to explain that makes me feel very, very sad... and incredibly old.

Worf

 

[HoosierDaddy]

That you had to explain that makes me feel very, very sad... and incredibly old.

Worf

Me too,Worf.
I listened to his Liston fight and don't think I missed any of his fights up until the end. You either loved him or hated him. I was in the first camp. If only he wasn't banned for three years....
HD

 

[dmdmorris]

I think that when I'm ready I'm going to work with Wade at Insurrection and have Aero customize one of their jackets to come as close as possible to Roadmaster. Will probably try making it out of FQHH with Nickel hardware. Right now my wallet needs a breather having just replaced the Hercules (although that didn't cost), just ordered a BK Dubow, Aces High Irvin, and am in line for a Good Wear SAT.

 

[Davy Crockett]

If Aero was originally mentioned that is the route I would have taken!

HD if you remember the Ali Dunn fight, Dunn started like a world beater but by the knockout about round 5 was hopelessly outclassed.

D

 

[P5640blouson]

To the original poster, your measurements appear to be a Lewis 38r for a snug fit and 40r for a looser fit (layering). Advise get with Derek Harris over the phone or email and he will make sure you get the right size that you desire. I had two from them made in the size that I needed. You should have no issues as you are a tad larger than I. They use the best consistent cowhides available in 1.3mm thickness so a size 38 weighs about 4 pounds for their shorter jackets. Not shabby by any standard. Best Regards.

 

[P5640blouson]

Belstaff is a fashion/marketing product it seems unless you go their moto specific highline collection. Incidentally they are still all over the movie industry. Seen the latest Twilight movie? They put their logo right on the big screen for all to see and get influenced. Several years ago they even copied several of the Lewis leathers designs including the Super Monza, but their tailoring and materials are not on par with what Lewis achieves. For the Lewis, what you see in the photos and what you get are exactly the same, first class all the way!

 

[pauleway]

Me too,Worf.
I listened to his Liston fight and don't think I missed any of his fights up until the end. You either loved him or hated him. I was in the first camp. If only he wasn't banned for three years....
HD

I was in the second camp. Loved it when LEON took him out!

 

[Sloan1874]

Having had a bit of a feel of Belstaff's most recent leathers - at least the fashion-ish ones they tout in their shops - I doubt it'd take a spill if you came a cropper on Knockhill - them's some challenging curves.

 

[Tony B]

Will at alexander leathers is making a jacket lets say inspired by the belstaff for someone now so I guess it will be available for general sale once done, and love him or loath him after the aero storse carry on and all the other stuff yet to emerge, it will probably be the best made of that type of jacket ever and sure as hell better than anything belstaff produce....hope they use a barbour international style collar rather than the belstaff "stab you in the throat" belstaff shape though.

 

[pipvh]

If Lewis Leathers is still making the Roadmaster to the same specs as they used to, it will be a beast of a jacket. I've worn a couple of ex-police Roadmasters and they were very, very solid (you can find second hand ones quite easily on the 'bay and elsewhere - might be a cheap-ish option).

The Belstaffs are visually lovely but the leather is flyweight on most of them. That being said, I saw someone in one of the older camouflage-finish Panthers the other day and did, admittedly, feel more than a stab of envy. But Lewis is function while Belstaff is pure fashion.

 

[l0fielectronic]

The Belstaff Pure Motorcycle range and the fashion leather jackets you see in the high end stores really are two completely different things. Having owned jackets from both ranges - while some of the fashion jackets are very nice to look at and are comfortable to wear the toughness and the finish on the Pure Motorcycle products is much more impressive. I don't know if the quality is exactly the same now as I know there have been lots of changes in the past few years but certainly last year the products on sale looked to be just the same.

I've not tried the model you mention here on but I have tried on the short leather jacket version, very nice and certainly very tough, these jackets are designed for comong off a motorcycle in, but they didn't have a large enough size in stock for me (Belstaffs L or XL isn't in line with what you'd expect even on this range) and I was put off by the size of the branding on the jacket, really huge logo on the arm, large writing on the rear. I do own the heavy wax version of this though and its a great jacket. Its about five winters old now and just starting to look like its not brand new, its watertight and the removable armour and inner lining are a big plus, meaning its great for autumn, winter and srping. I'm lost without a four pocket jacket now.

Theres a video review of the jacket you ask about here which might be of interest.

Not seen nor tried on the Lewis jacket so can't comment on that.

 

[l0fielectronic]

Whoops, just noticed the OPs thread was dredged back up from 2012 so above probably not that much use to them now, but I've written the post now so will leave it be.

 

[Sloan1874]

Will at alexander leathers is making a jacket lets say inspired by the belstaff for someone now so I guess it will be available for general sale once done, and love him or loath him after the aero storse carry on and all the other stuff yet to emerge, it will probably be the best made of that type of jacket ever and sure as hell better than anything belstaff produce....hope they use a barbour international style collar rather than the belstaff "stab you in the throat" belstaff shape though.

I see it's up there already. Any misgivings about AL and Will aside, I'm afraid that jacket just looks horribly off to me compared to Belstaff's Panther: the pockets look far too square and over-sized, and without the shoulder detail and the dirt racer collar replaced with a standard cord one, it looks more like some strange Barbour experiment. I appreciate that copyright issues mean that it such compromises are necessary and I have no doubt it'll be well made, but on this occasion it seems to be at the expense of aesthetics.

 

[Tony B]

Gawd 'elp us...they have made a dogs dinner of that one......the ONLY thing I liked about the belstaff was the shoulder and elbow detail and with that gone it is pointless. The angle of the left breast pocket makes sence to me as the belstaff ones are too high and too tight for my big irish shovels to fit in but if they are going for pockets that size they should have got some bigger pop studs in as those ones are just too small and look lost in the corners of the pocket flaps.....the collar is not even worth commenting on.

I'll stick to me home made ones, I have my wax one done and it is perfect for wax cotton but I want to smarten it up a bit here and there before doing a leather version or three....and none of them are going to have the collar off a barbour border attached to them.

I was going to be sending the pattern on to aero when Will was there but as he was trying to sell me a 41/2 oz horsehide jacket and knowing now waht that means I will be keeping it to myself but when I get round to replacing my old camera and have something worth showing you lot I will put some piccies up for people to laugh at.

 

[Sloan1874]

You should have a word with Ken at Aero. They're on a new design jag at the mo', so you might be able tempt him into adding to the list... But you're absolutely right about the AL jacket, I'm not sure who it's aimed at: gamekeepers or bikers?

 

[Tony B]

I have big compound feed sewing machine so I can make my own in quite heavy leather so I don't need to get someone to make me one it was just going to be as a courtesy to Will as he talked me through certain things about sewing leather garments but with all the things that I have heard since I am not really tempted to give anything to either side untill they get everything resolved......and all my jackets including the wax cotton one have a leather rubbing strip along the bottom hem which he might turn his nose up at.

 

[Sloan1874]