Bill Muneio

By Bill Muneio 8/1/2009

I had always thought that the BMW apparel was nice but way overpriced. After looking around and finding that most mesh gear justdidn’t offer much more armor/protection than what I had, I decided to give the BMW Air Flow pants a closer look.

Right away, you can see that the Air Flow pants are radically different than most summer/mesh pants. For one thing, there’s not much mesh. Unlike my Olympia Air Glides, they are not an over pant. Their cut is much more tailored; they are not baggy at all. I have a 36” waist and the Euro size 52 fits me well. The velcro straps at the waist band allow for some adjustment.

The materials used are functional and impressive and are no doubt proprietary. You can tell that these are built for performance, not the lowest price point. The pants also have a softer mesh lining sewn inside, which is made from a material rather like taffeta.  This keeps the heavier outer fabric away from the rider’s skin and offers some comfort and provides space for a bit of air to circulate against the rider’s skin.

As I mentioned above, there is very little of the open weave mesh that you customarily see in summer pants. What mesh there is, is very robust not like your ordinary mesh. It is found in a small area mid thigh and two areas on the back of the leg calf and thigh (dark grey areas on silver pants, lighter grey area on black pants see pictures).

With the limited amount of mesh (especially compared to the Olympia’s), I couldn’t see how these were going to work. There would have to be some kind of super magic engineered high tech fabric thing going on otherwise how could they possibly have much airflow, right? Needless to say, I was initially a little concerned that these pants would not provide the necessary air flow to be comfortable in hot summer temps.

Now having ridden in them for a few months in temps up to 110 degrees, I am amazed at how well they work! You don’t feel an extreme amount of airflow, but enough to remain comfortable. This makes me wonder if all that hot air blowing through my Olympia pants actually made me feel hotter?

I got the silver grey color because it seemed to me they would be cooler, reflecting more heat than the black. According to BMW, the black version features intelligent coldblack® technology, which prevents the material from overheating; and the silver version features a NanoSphere® coating to prevent the accumulation of dirt. I can’t really say I can vouch for the NanoSphere® coating because they still get dirty but maybe they would be getting dirtier if they didn’t have it? And I haven’t tried the Black so I can’t comment on the overheating or lack there of. I can say that they work good in hot temps, fit very well and look great. More importantly, the armor is some of the best I’ve seen; it stays put and the knee protectors wrap way around each side of your knee. With the combination of a special Kevlar© three-layer laminate fabric and removable NP protectors (knee and hip), I feel very confident in their protection ability. I hopefully will never find out.
Conclusion: I love these pants and think that with a pair of Patagonia capilene long johns or the like, these pants could be worn year around here in Southern/Central California or anywhere with a similar climate. The armor and protection seems to be at least equal to or better than most of the regular riding pants out there, so you don’t have to sacrifice safety for comfort which is obviously a huge plus. The only thing they don’t offer is protection from the rain but that’s easily remedied with some rain overpants. I have no doubt I will be wearing these pants for a long time as the materials and construction are top notch thus making them worth the extra upfront cost.

Comments and suggestions appreciated, please leave below.