How To Clean & Maintain Your Leather Motorcycle Gear at RevZilla.com
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00:00Spurgeon here with RevZilla and today we're going to break down how to clean
00:03and maintain your motorcycle leather gear.
00:09In this video we are going to show you how to clean and maintain your leather
00:13to make sure it stays looking new but also to make sure that it functions
00:17properly. Now I say functions properly because if you let your leather dry and
00:21crack out it's not going to protect you the same way it will if it's properly
00:25maintained and the whole reason you're wearing leather while you're riding a
00:28motorcycle is you want to make sure you're safe in the event of a crash. Now
00:32myself I like to let my leather wear out I like that nice patina to really have
00:36it just kind of worn in that old vintage look to it. However I don't want it to go
00:41so far that it actually damages the leather itself. On my left hand or on my
00:45right hand side rather this is gonna be my personal Revit Redhook jacket and
00:48I've noticed that after riding throughout this winter I've got a lot of
00:52salt on it from the Philadelphia roads here in Pennsylvania and eventually that
00:56salt will deteriorate the leather it'll cause it to dry out and therefore if I
01:01get into a crash it could render the leather useless so I want to make sure
01:04that while I want it to look vintage and worn and broken in I don't want it to be
01:09non-functional. So I did some research on how to clean and maintain this while
01:13still making sure it keeps that look that I'm going for. So in this video
01:16we're gonna break down how to clean and maintain leather pants, leather jackets
01:20and leather tracksuits to make sure that whether you're the kind of person that
01:24wants to clean your gear once a year or once a month we're gonna show you
01:28exactly what you need to do. Now on our BSD which is our beard scale of
01:31difficulty this is gonna be a 1 out of 3. This is something that anyone out
01:35there at home can tackle including yourself. Now you'll notice on my left
01:38hand side this is gonna be an array of different cleaners and conditioners. There
01:43are a ton of different cleaners and conditioners in the market and if you're
01:46having trouble choosing one that's right for you reach out to one of our Gear
01:49Geeks, give them a call, shoot them an email and touch base with them to help
01:53figure out what cleaner and conditioner is gonna work best for the jacket that
01:56you're rocking when you're out riding your motorcycle. Now in this video we're
01:59gonna break it down into three separate steps. We're gonna talk about interior,
02:03exterior and then also conditioning your jacket. When I was preparing for this I
02:07did some research by reaching out to the folks at Anthony's Leatherworks in
02:10Southern California to see what they would recommend. Now I went to Anthony's
02:13because that's who the big players recommend and that's also who managed to
02:18fix one of my personal leather jackets an old RS2 when I needed a new zipper.
02:22These guys are the authority on leather here in the States. After talking to them
02:26we decided that we're gonna start with the interior and then we're gonna work
02:29our way through the rest of this. Now for most jackets out there that are modern
02:33they're gonna come with an antimicrobial liner it's gonna help to wick sweat away
02:37and if you're a track rider in some cases your liner is removable so you can
02:41simply pull it out and throw it into a washing machine. For those of you out
02:44there that just need to air it out a little bit that's gonna be the first
02:47step. In most cases if you have that antimicrobial liner you can simply put
02:51your jacket on a hanger set it outside and just let it breathe for a few hours
02:55that'll do the trick in most cases. Now if you're a little bit more of a sweater
02:59and you need to get some of that funk out of there if you just want to go with
03:04the easy approach a little Febreze will help to mask the odors. Now our Febreze
03:08went with Gain and it smells nice. So that would be the step if you just need
03:13to quickly mask some of those odors that might be lingering in your jacket after
03:16a longer ride. For those of you out there that are pouring a ton of sweat into
03:19your gear and you really have an odor problem going on all the major brands
03:24Alpinestars, Dainese, Revit, etc. they're gonna recommend going with a
03:27desalter. Now when you sweat you pour out a ton of salt from your body into your
03:33leather gear. That sweat turns to odor it turns to mold so what you want to do is
03:38by using a desalter it helps to break up the odor break up the mold and remove
03:42that smell. So what you want to start with is you want to take all the armor
03:47out of your jacket, your pants, or your tracksuit. This is gonna allow you to
03:50turn the gear completely inside out with ease. Once you have the gear turned
03:53inside out you're gonna take the desalter and you're gonna apply a
03:56liberal amount to the inside liner of the jacket and then you're gonna hang it
04:00up and you're gonna let it dry. You want to make sure that that jacket is
04:03completely dry before you turn it right side in and put your armor back inside
04:07of it. Once you've completed that process the inside smells nice it's time to
04:11move on to the exterior. For most of you riders out there the exterior part of
04:16your leather gear, your leather jacket, pants, tracksuit, that's really the part
04:20that's gonna collect the most grime and it's probably the part that you're most
04:23concerned with making sure stays clean. With the leather jackets that you're
04:27gonna see or the leather pants you're gonna see or the tracksuits most of them
04:30are gonna be treated in a way where they don't absorb stains readily. However you
04:34want to make sure when you're choosing a cleaner you're not going to use
04:37something that could risk damaging the actual color patina or shell of that
04:41jacket so you want to stay away from anything that's gonna include silicones
04:44or waxes because that can dry out the leather. You also want to make sure you
04:48stay away from animal oil products. I used to always clean my jackets with a
04:52mink oil paste. After talking to Anthony's I realized that's a big no-no. Using an
04:56animal by-product can actually cause the leather to discolor and in most cases
05:00you don't want that to happen. So you want to make sure that you're choosing a
05:05cleaner that is appropriate for leather use. Like I said earlier there's a lot of
05:08cleaners out there in the market and if you're having a struggle or
05:11trouble figuring out which one to use just reach out to one of our gear geeks
05:14and they'll steer you in the right direction for the leather that you're
05:17cleaning. Regardless of which cleaner you choose you want to make sure that you
05:21always follow the instructions listed on the bottle and you always want to take
05:25note of the instructions listed in the actual garment itself. Whether you're
05:29doing a jacket, pants, or a tracksuit just take note of what the actual cleaning
05:33instructions say on the garment as well as the cleaner that you're going to use.
05:36In most cases you want to use a soft cotton terrycloth rag. You're gonna apply
05:41the cleaner to the rag not to the jacket itself because you don't want to
05:45put all that excess cleaner on the jacket where it can be absorbed and then
05:48once it's on the rag you're just going to use small circular motions. Start at
05:52the front and work yourself through the body of the jacket. As you're doing this
05:56you're going to notice that dirt will be absorbed into that terrycloth rag. You
06:00can use some warm water rinse that out and make sure the rag stays nice and
06:04clean. A little bit of warm water you don't have to worry about it damaging
06:06the jacket. Once you're done with the body you can work with yourself onto the
06:09arms then turn it around. Usually the back of a jacket isn't going to be as
06:13dirty as the front because you're not getting splattered with all the bugs in
06:15the back but you still want to make sure you go through the process of cleaning
06:18the back as well. When you're finished you're gonna have a jacket that looks
06:22nice and clean but it is going to be a little bit wet. You're gonna want to make
06:26sure you let the jacket dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step which
06:30is conditioning. So in some cases it takes up to 24 hours before this jacket
06:34is gonna dry out so I've got some time to kill. Luckily I've got a few beers
06:38handy. I'm gonna go find Lemmy we're gonna have some fun. Now Lemmy and I have
06:46a chance to enjoy a couple of cold beers and this jacket has had a chance to dry.
06:50So I am left with a nice clean dry jacket and now it's time for you to move
06:55on to the next phase which is conditioning. When you're conditioning
06:59leather what you're doing is you're giving all those essential oils back to
07:02the jacket itself or the pants or the tracksuit whatever it is that you're out
07:06there working on right now. You don't want to over condition. Over conditioning
07:09can lead to discoloration and it can clog the pores which can prematurely
07:13damage the leather. Rule of thumb condition your gear about once a year. If
07:18you're aggressively using it using it every single day you might want to do it
07:21twice a year but again rule of thumb about once a year for conditioning the
07:25leather. Now as I mentioned earlier with the cleaning products with the
07:29conditioning products there's a slew of different options out there for you as
07:32well. Once you choose one you're gonna want to make sure you follow the
07:35instructions on your particular conditioner explicitly. With the
07:38conditioner that I've chosen it says to apply a liberal amount to a damp sponge
07:42and then I'm going to work it into a clean leather jacket. I've got a clean
07:46leather jacket here so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna spray a liberal amount to a
07:49sponge and the same way I started with the body I'm gonna do the same thing
07:53with the jacket on my right hand side. I'm gonna work this through the body
07:57making sure to stop rinse out the sponge with warm water the same way I did with
08:01the terrycloth rag and then reapplying back to the jacket. Once I finish the
08:05body I'm gonna work my way down the arms turn the jacket around and work down the
08:10back. You never want to condition just a certain section of a garment make sure
08:14you complete the process giving an even amount of conditioner throughout the
08:17entire piece. Now once you're done conditioning it set it aside in a nice
08:22ventilated space let it dry and once it's dry you are ready to ride. You can
08:28take your nice clean jacket tracksuit pants go out and get them all dirty
08:32again but wait a second like we said in the beginning of this you're only gonna
08:36want to do this once maybe twice a year so what are you gonna do for the rest of
08:41the time? This is what we're gonna talk about continued care very briefly. For
08:44continued care you don't need to re-clean your entire jacket pants or
08:47tracksuit every time you just need to spot clean and for that recommend baby
08:52wipes. If it's good enough for a baby's ass it's good enough for me that is my
08:55life motto and I stick to it. So keep a set of these in the top of your toolbox
08:59and when you get home from a ride pull one out and give a quick spot check to
09:02any of the leather you're wearing and you'll keep it nice and clean for the
09:05one time a year that you actually have to give a big detailed cleaning and
09:09conditioning of your leather gear. Now as I mentioned in the beginning this entire
09:13process is no more than a one out of three on our BSD or beard scale of
09:16difficulty so if you've been following along you probably have some really nice
09:20clean shiny leathers hanging in your closet. If you have additional questions
09:24on how to clean or maintain your gear maybe you want to learn how to wrench in
09:27some projects hanging out in your garage make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube
09:30and keep up with all the how-to videos that we have rolling out here at
09:34RevZilla.com. If you have questions that we haven't hit on this video always
09:38remember you can reach out to one of our Gear Geeks directly by phone 877-792-9455
09:43or simply shoot us an email CS at RevZilla.com. Thank you for joining us
09:48for this look on how to clean and maintain your leather gear. I'm Spurge
09:52enjoy the ride!