RST Tractech Review
RST bring us affordable excellence once again. Looks good too!
The RST Tractech suit is all new for 2011 and comes in as a middle of the road suit across the RST leathers range. It has been made to come in just under their top of the range Pro Series suit and has more comfort bias features for track days, or even fast road riding bikers
What you'll find is that the RST Tractech suit won't differ a hell of a lot from the ever so popular RST Fusion suit released a couple of years ago, and although it's not been said officially, I believe this new suit to be the replacement for the Fusion as we're slowly seeing their lines become discontinued.
As with the Fusion suit, the focus for the RST Tractech suit is on providing excellent sports riding features, and combining them with comfort features that make wearing the suit easier over longer periods of time. We'll get to those feature in a minute, but first let's talk about the most important aspect of any one piece leather suit, is it flashy! No I'm just kidding, I mean the leather of course.
The suit is made up from 1.1mm to 1.2mm premium grade cow hide and as we have seen with many suit that have come before it, this level of leather has excellent abrasion resistance. I myself am living proof of this. I currently own an RST Fusion suit and I have taken two tumbles on track days at Brands Hatch, and other than being scuffed, the leather has stood up extremely well. How's that for consumer advice!
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All main impact areas are held together with double and in some cases triple stitching for maximum seam burst resistance, but just to give that extra added strength, the thread used for the stitching is 40's grade bonded nylon. I don't expect anyone to know how good it is, but trust me when I say, it's bloody strong.
In areas where a lot of movement is needed i.e. behind the knees and inside the elbows, the RST Tractech suit has been fitted with Schoeller Keprotec stretch panels for ease of movements. What's special about this material is that because of the way it is made it is extremely abrasion resistant, while at the same time being tear resistant and temperature resistant (so it's safe to say it's durable), but also it's easy on the skin, so from a comfort perspective it won't get uncomfortable when the arms or legs are bent, particularly for long periods of time.
Armour in the shoulders, elbows and knees is made to CE approved standards, but also made to RST standards meaning the armour carries their Contour Plus feature, which sounds rather fancy but it just means that they have moulded the armour to fit the body shape when in a given position e.g. race crouch. If the Fusion is anything to go by, I can confirm it works and I have never suffered any discomfort as a result of the armour.
There are other features worth mentioning on the RST Tractech suit, one of which is the aerodynamic race hump on the back, which I've said time and time again should be thought of more as a protection for the nape of the spin (a very important area to keep safe) rather than a means to gain one tenth a lap. Zips throughout the suit are the popular Max zips and knee sliders are included with the suit for when the scratcher in you arises.
Conclusion
Looking at the feature list above it's quite clear to see that there are many similarities between the RST Tractech suit and the Fusion. So knowing just how good the Fusion suit is and how well it has done me over the last couple of years (including my two excursions) I will have no qualms replacing my current suit with the RST Tractech suit, and when many other big name manufactures have their sports suits around £500+, it's difficult to find much else that matches it for pure value.