Alpinestar zips are rubbish

rocketonarail

rocketonarail

Hero member
Location
Gloucestershire,England
They are .... absolute crap ........

Flimsy , lightweight things which cause trouble almost from the start ...... Why don`t they send a batch of decent heavyweight zips over to Pakistan so they can be fitted during manufacture , instead of creating a situation where customers have to get the zips replaced themselves ?

I`ve just spent over ten minutes struggling with a zip which keeps bursting open when you`re trying to do it up ...... then it refuses to release again without an almighty struggle .......... You then restart this futile routine again and again , whilst the sun slowly dips beyond the horizon .......

This was three o`clock this afternoon .... In the end I gave up , and swapped over to another jacket , also Alpinestar....... not textile but leather this time , which weighs a tonne with all the body armour installed , and is fitted with the same feeble zip , which will doubtless also cause trouble the first chance it gets .......

So it`s off to Brunel Tailoring at the top of Pigsty Hill in Bristol , to spend a very reasonable fifteen quid to have the zip replaced with something decent ...... something which Alpinestars should have done in the first place .

Both jackets are ok really ... ( I buy them because I like the name ) ......... apart from the zips ........ Although In even moderate rain , the textile one leaks like your gran...... but now I`m retired I can pick and choose when I go out , so I`m not too bothered about that ......... but those bloody zips .............

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Yup. Some manufacturers just scrimp on the important things. Cheeses me off as well. Don’t have that problem with Klim. Yet.
 
Zips fails on everything these days, cheap shit rubbish. Bike stuff needs to be robust. Not motorcycling but Decathlon zips are utter junk and so are Marks and Spencer zips. I have thrown useful garments away because of this.
 
So many zips are fitted with light material on the inside that it is really easy to catch in the slider, and fucking hard to get the zip open again, causing the little tag to get broken or pulled out.
 
I’ve got an RST textile jacket that is superb , I love it but it has two front zips that are a different gauge ( storm flap ..)and I literally have plugged the wrong one in which could really bugger it up. My old Alpine star textile is going strong with no complaints. My leather jacket with hugeTalon metal zips seem to wear out the fabric tab on the male side- I have a couple of ladies that do saddle repairs that do my zips and they are superb. Coming to think of it , I bought my leather jacket from Silvermans in the 80’s so it’s probably doing ok! Never thought I’d like textile jackets but for me they are the single best innovation in bike gear- I’ve got a jacket that is water/ wind proof that I can wear in sub zero or plus forty with all the vents open and has so many pockets that I’m still finding new ones. I can remember reproofing waxcotton Belstaff that was only shower proof at best and dripped black sludge on the back of a chair and was still damp the next morning.
 
Only problem I have ever had with an Aerostich was the first Roadcrafter "shrunk" in the closet. Now I have a "winter" Roadcrafter (insulated) and a "summer" R3 suit (shell only). Only problem I have had was about 2 inches of seam tape came loose on the R3. Aerostitch sent me a couple inches of tape and I replaced the old tape. But I do have a Zipper and Snap repair kit that I carry, but never had to use. Yet.🤞
 
Alzero said:
Is AeroStitch available outside of NA? It seemed to be near ubiquitous at one point in the US.
Click to expand...
I would assume they are available.
Aerostitch and the people that wear them have some sort of reputation; which I do not know. The first time I rode with a friend many years ago he said "Oh you're one of those guys." He never explained what he meant. I think their clothing is great; completely customizeable.
 
You want YKK number 10 plastic zips as replacement zips, which are bulletproof. Number 10 are the biggest and strongest ones they make and plastic doesn't rust. The best suppliers are for some odd reason in Canada. The Idiot Oz distributor is useless, apparently, their order time is 4 months. The Canadian suppliers took 2 weeks from an email, you just need to measure the length very carefully. https://zipperloft.ca/
 
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