This blog highlights three Aerostich Roadcrafter one-piece suits: Suit 1, purchased in 2008; Suit 2, made in 2011, but I got it secondhand in 2021; and Suit 3, purchased in 2025. These are referred to as S1, S2, and S3. S1 and S2 is the old design, and S3 is the new design.
In preparing for my cross-country road trip in the summer of 2008, I knew I needed to level up my gear game. I’d mostly been riding with leather garments from various discount providers as a young 20 something trying to get a start in his postcollege life. As money became less tight, I splurged on a Vanson motorcycle jacket, which was fantastic for Bay Area riding. However, this jacket wouldn’t cut it with all of the different climates crossing the continent, particularly the humid southeast. I wound up purchasing an Aerostich Roadcrafter (S1) for that trip , which I saw as one of the best investments in my motorcycling career – right after the motorcycle.
As a post-note, Aerostiches are that good. I probably have 100,000 miles on S1, and Aerostich reports it’s halfway through its usable life.
However, as time and distance passed, I got larger. The Aerostich gently reminded me of this fact and the suit and I had a tit-for-tat relationship. Summers were easier. Winters were harder as I needed additional layers to stay warm. It was the battle of the bulge combined with getting older, lol. A few years ago, a buddy of mine was selling his Aerostich Roadcrafter. He decided that motorcycling wasn’t for him. He sold the bike and gave me a deal on the Aerostich I couldn’t refuse. S2 was two sizes larger than my current suit, S1 – but it had a back protector that consumed a nontrivial amount of real estate inside the suit. He couldn’t have had more than 5,000 to 10,000 miles on the suit, and I paid a tiny fraction of what it would’ve been new. Win all around – or so I thought. S2 and I were on the road, and S1 was now in the closet.
Then years passed. Lots of during and post pandemic drama, changes at work, lots of economy bumps, political changes, etc. All of this was not lost on me. Like the rest of the world, I had my own hard times too.
When prepping for New Zealand, I realized that my Aerostich was getting a little bit long in the tooth. It was dirty from lots of road miles in 2024. Washing it had been hard on the materials. About one every in eight pulls, the main zipper got stuck, fortunately right at the top. The velcro closures for my pocket were separating from the garment. Unfortunately, this version (S2) of the Aerostich doesn’t have the roadworthiness that my old one did, as I picked this one up from a buddy of mine who put less than 10,000 miles on it. In total, this suit had ~20,000 miles on it. A far cry from the bulletproof nature of S1, Aerostich admitted they changed the materials that made up S2. S1 had been bulletproof, but ,S2 fell short. The zippers weren’t good and the craftsmanship was a far cry from S1. The customer service rep admitted that the generation of the suit wasn’t as durable as the S1. Since I purchased the suit secondhand at a steal of a deal, I didn’t push as I would if I purchased it new full price. It was just the cost of doing business on the secondhand market. I didn’t know the full story of that suit, so it’s hard to know what might have happened to it by the other owner.
I called Aerostich again to understand what my next steps might be. They had built a completely new suit that solves common water intrusion points (like the crotch) in heavy rain. The zippers were a known weak point, and while they didn’t get YKK zippers (the gold standard, in my opinion), the new zippers were far better than the ones I had on v2 of the suit. We both decided an upgrade would be the right fit to have the colors I wanted, with all new materials, and reset the clock. Since my current suit (S2) was a touch too big, I ordered one size larger than S1. I liked Aerostich and wanted to support an American company; thus, I’ve made the $2300 investment in a new suit.
One of Aerostich’s big kudos is their ability to deliver on timelines. My departure to New Zealand was just outside of their standard shipping policies, but they were willing to make an exception for me so that I could take the new suit on this adventure. I had a bunch of custom sizing I needed, and I forgot how ill-fitting the S2 suit really was. Aerostich flexed to get S1 done for that trip, and I’ve appreciated them since.
In the evening, my suit showed up (S3), and I eagerly took it out of the box and put it on. As they pulled the zipper up from my ankle towards my chest, I could feel the suit getting tighter and tighter. Somewhere around my waist, the painful reality appeared that this wasn’t going to fit. I wasn’t off by a small amount that I could fix my clothing – I wasn’t going to be able to take this with me. That crushing reality began to sit in. I could hear S1 from the closet letting me know I should’ve never bought S2. I should have fought to keep my svelte inside of S1. I used the Aerostich to keep me honest with my fitness, weight, and activity level. I didn’t explicitly acknowlege it, but when I purchased S2 I moved to that goalpost in a big way. S3 made that reality painfully clear. Damn, that hurt.
I could feel the sadness, regret, frustration, and a flood of embarrassment swept over me as I set S3 next to S1 in the closet. I would have to make S2 work for me in New Zealand and pray that the zipper did not fail as I was crisscrossing the South Island. As it turned out, New Zealand was fine (As they say it), a trip of a lifetime as we Americans say it. S2 held up. I basically ignored S3 for the foreseeable future. I wasn’t ready to deal with those emotions. S2 was still working, and I didn’t want to face the reality that I didn’t fit inside S3. I accepted that S1 was a lost cause, but S3 stung.
I recently saw Aerostich coming to the Bay Area with one of their pop-up stores. I had a chance to meet the factory face-to-face. I didn’t want to believe I was too far off fitting into S3. Did they measure it wrong? Did they build S1 rather than the newer measurements of S3? I remember telling them I wanted everything just like S1 with one size up in the trunk. Maybe they missed that latter bit of info.
I took S2 with me to talk through the premature wear of that suit. I also asked if there was a way that I could measure to see if S3 was built to the correct size. We measured and off the rack suit in a couple of different dimensions so that I could confirm if it was correct. The rep offered to take the S2 suit back, clean it, and repair all the damaged items. I didn’t think too much of it and said sure. That would save me quite a bit of shipping and hassle.
I was headed to the South Bay to celebrate Easter with some good friends. We hung out, socialized, and celebrated the holiday weekend. About halfway through that party, I realized my mistake.
I just put my only motorcycle gear on a truck back to Minnesota. Thus, I had nothing to wear for my favorite ride of the year. The Oh shits in all flavors instantly started pouring over me—a few other four-letter words followed in repeated succession. My mind started reeling, thinking of all the ways I could fix the situation. The truck had already left Pleasanton, so I wasn’t getting the suit back. Could I borrow something? Who might have something? Uggggggh! I had a buddy’s leather gear in my closet that he had abandoned. Would that fit?
A little later into the evening, my friend remarked, “You’ve lost weight.” I instantly denied it as I didn’t think I was materially smaller, nor was it a focus during an intense season of intense business travel. She pushed back, noting that my pants were a fitting loser. Maybe she was right. Maybe I have lost weight. What factors was I not considering?
When I returned from New Zealand near the start of March, a new desk treadmill appeared. I eagerly got it unpacked and set up right as another round of business travel spun up. I was away from home for another month before I could earnestly use the treadmill. As I went from event to tradeshow to event to tradeshow – I made sure I did a lot of walking. After a few weeks, my Apple Watch “noticed a new trend in the number of steps I was walking.” By the end of that stint, I was walking over 10,000 steps a day. When I got home, I used the treadmill to ensure I met my continued daily step count goal. I was pretty consistent with my steps – generally putting in at least 250,000 steps a month since I returned from New Zealand.
I remember opening my closet with all kinds of emotions—but feeling in my stomach that this was the moment of truth. If I don’t fit into S3, I’m not going riding tomorrow. I felt all kinds of emotions aimed right at myself: judgment, curiosity, nervousness, (false) hope, regret, shame, begging… anything and everything.
As that zipper moved up its track, I could feel my nervousness increase. What started up at my ankle moved past my knee, up my thigh, and then to my waist. As I pulled, I didn’t feel the zipper tighten or get stuck in the track. It kept moving. That zipper passed my bellybutton, across my chest, and past my shoulders—settling right next to my Adam’s apple, right where it should.
I am not going to lie—it was tight, but I was in that suit. My treadmill was starting to pay off. I wasn’t going to get a heated jacket and a back protector underneath that suit, but I was geared up. I’ll take that accomplishment, and I’m okay with celebrating myself. I have reset that goalpost back one size. I’ve got a good summer of activity ahead of me to keep the trend moving.
I’m going to get to the place where S1 becomes my summer suit and S3 becomes the winter suit, leaving S2 in the closet—or better yet, sold on the Facebook marketplace.
As noted in the Easter Sunrise blog, it was truly an amazing morning – suit and all!
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