I recently received a Scorpion All-In jacket and was immediately impressed with the cut, styling and fit. I'm tough to size — 6'5" and long, but not massive at 230 pounds. I needed a tall jacket, without the girth of a 50-gallon drum. However, the jacket hung around 'cause we weren't sure if it was destined to be given away, or what.

I poured a tall Bulleit Bourbon over two cubes and took a searing gulp. A delicate mission had just been entrusted to me. Could I handle it? Riding jackets are like girlfriends. You get comfortable with one and it's a bastard to set it aside -- unless of course, the next one has bigger tits. Hmmm, not sure that analogy works, but when I ride, I generally reach for a comfortable cloak that fits the weather pattern. In fact, some bikers I know have been wearing the same damn jacket for decades.

No riding plans were etched on the social calendar this weekend, but Mr. Soto was under pressure preparing for the 2009 Redwood Run and he wanted to use the Bikernet shop to build a rigid frame luggage rack. He needed to pack leather saddlebags, a sleeping bag and a tent. He wasn't fuckin' around! He showed up with steel bar, a plan, clamps and two tabs to create a custom rack.

In a couple of hours we successfully bent the steel bar and welded it into a functioning item, capable of packing a Smart Car on the back of his Shovelhead hot rod. He was so pumped about it that we decided to take a test ride around the Los Angeles harbor at breakneck speeds.

I'm sensitive about current motorcycle noise issues, but once in awhile it feels good to let it rip. I try to keep it down around citizens and in residential neighborhood, but riding through industrial wastelands is wide open. I recently re-jetted my Mikuni carb and needed to test the results. I adjusted the idle, the mid-range air jet and cracked the throttle.

My 93-inch S&S configured hot rod rigid splits the harbor air like a deadly armor piercing bullet through an eggshell. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, like heroin addicts' needles. On top of a razor sharp V-twin crack, I slipped on the heavy Scorpion All In jacket and my golden Lee Parks deerskin gloves. It immediately felt like a motorcycle jacket should: tight, thick and secure. I felt incased in an evil, tough- as-nails, protective shell. It made me want to go fast.

"Basically the All-In is a good all-round leather riding jacket explained Robin Hartfiel." Despite the vintage leather appearance, the jacket is actually constructed of a race-weight 12-14mm drum-dyed top grain leather. Function follows form in this case, so CE-approved body armor is installed at the shoulders and elbows (also note the "EXO-Tec" armor is removable and vented... cost a little more, but Scorpion brand founder Eric Anderson insisted on it)."

I immediately noticed that no air could slip up the sleeves, no-how. The jacket was snug, and wouldn't balloon on the freeway. An adjustable waist gusset allowed for a custom tailored fit to further keep your shirt tail from flapping in the breeze.

Soto and I dropped out of the Bikernet headquarters onto a Port Boulevard and nailed our throttles, as if all the cops in town were in Vegas for an armor-piercing Kevlar convention -- unfortunately that wasn't the case. Soto has straight pipes, strictly against the Code Of The West in today's regulatory atmosphere. I swear I can hear him fire up his bike in his garage five miles away.

Straight pipes notwithstanding, we bobbed and weaved across town as if there was only one cold Corona left at Walker's Café at Point Ferman and Carol, the blonde bombshell, had only given me five minutes to fly across town before she would offer it to the next drooling patron.

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