I looked at the Overpass in the Sportsbikeshop in MK before I bought the Nivala.
It comes up much looser for the same size as other Rukka kit as it’s designed to be worn over full body armour for offroad riding.
So it’s not sold with any armour , though there are pockets if you want to fit some.
(Hence it’s called ROR-Rukka OffRoad, in other markets).
Another reason why it’s got so many vents and some of them are designed to vent best when standing on the pegs.
It’s explained quite well here :
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The guys at the shop said it wasn’t the best to be worn as a stand alone suit as it didn’t come with armour, and if you fitted your own then it wouldn’t stay in place as well as other suits designed to be worn on their own.
It’s been branded as the Overpass in UK as it also works well as a commuter suit, to wear over normal clothes,which help to keep armour in situ.
Motolegends claim that Rukka invented it for them !
Some years ago we spoke to Rukka about creating a laminated suit that could be worn over work clothes by those who people commute into work, but who don’t have the facilities to change their clothes when they get there. It was something a lot of customers were asking for. The only company that really produces a suit that works for commuting is Aerostich in the US, but their technology is not very twenty first century. Their outfits are a bit clunky, and their prices are high once you add in duty and VAT. Getting the sizing right can also be a challenge!
A lot of commuters wear a normal motorcycle suit over their work clothes, but it’s rarely a comfortable solution. And that’s because motorcycle suits are not really designed to be worn like this. In the summer the chances are that you’ll end up arriving at work all hot and bothered. Walking around off the bike will never be easy. In a drop-liner suit, you’ll sometimes find yourself putting on a damp jacket on the way home. But with the stiffness of a traditional Gore-Tex Pro, three-layer, laminated outfit you’ll barely be able to move. It just wouldn’t be nice.
What we wanted, we told Rukka, was a lightweight, laminate suit with a slightly looser fit, but with excellent venting for summer commuting. Well the suit that they have released, the Overpass, is pretty much exactly what we were looking for.
First, it does have, as we requested, a slightly more relaxed fit. It’s in no way baggy, but wearing a shirt, a lightweight jumper and a pair of trousers underneath the Overpass should be easily manageable.
Commuting in the summer, you can become extremely hot, particularly in slow traffic, and especially if you’re wearing your work clothing underneath, which is why we asked Rukka to make this their best vented suit ever. And we believe it is. There are ventilation openings in the chest, on the sleeves, up the flanks and across the back of the jacket. On the pants, there are large vents on the thighs.
Of course, wherever there’s a vent, there’s somewhere where the rain can seep in. A suit with no vents may, in prolonged heavy rain, be marginally more waterproof, but it will not work in hot weather. On the Overpass, the vents are protected with zips with rain flaps. Nobody can guarantee that water will never find its way in, but on an hour and a half’s commute, it’s most unlikely. And certainly the membrane itself is guaranteed to be totally waterproof.
But what makes the Overpass so appropriate for wearing over normal clothing is that it’s made not from Rukka’s normal three-layer, Gore-Tex Pro fabric, but from a two-layer laminated material. We’ve spoken at length with Gore about the material, and they tell us that, in the future, two-layer laminates will probably become the norm. And that’s because the material is much softer and more flexible.
lads. (excluding armour & braces)
