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BILT gear - good, bad or ??

MODS - Shouldn't this be in General, not classifieds (as there's nothing for sale, just opinions - and they're like arseholes)
 
One thing you'll also notice is that a lot of people that bitch about the Bilt products, are people trying to compare it to their current gear which is A* or Dainese or some other big name brand. you cannot compare it to A* or Dainese, there just flat out is no comparison.

Honestly, you pay for what you get. It's better then nothing but thats about it. I have a pair of the zip off dirt pants and they're great. Do I expect them to be equal to Fox or Answer? no, I don't, but for the price I paid for them, If they shred, I'll go get another set.
 
aram said:
No one will talk to you at four corners or the Starbucks in Saratoga if you wear BiLT gear. :(
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:laughing The main reason I never bought it is cuz I didn't wanna be that guy wearing BILT. The boots are a joke. Sedici felt higher end. Alpine stars is pretty junky mostly. I have no clue why its considered a top shelf label.
 
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KooLaid said:
Your friend lost two fingers because his BILT gloves wore through?????
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That was my thought as well. If he/she were wearing Alpinestars do you think they would have kept the digits? How can one assign blame to a glove for losing two fingers?
 
The bilt gloves are the worst gloves I've seen. I like a lot of a* stuff, especially boots, but their gloves aren't very good either.
 
Damn, I brought this up before but it would nice to see an independent test done for gear, similar to helmet tests so we can see how much better the expensive brands are at protecting *IF ANY* compared to the less expensive brands in a crash so we consumers can put it to rest.

It's easy to say this or that but not all crashes are the same i.e., impact, where, when, how, etc. It's not like Bilt/Sedici gear have not had an incident where it held up good or Dainese/A* have not had an incident where it sustained some tear in all the crashes. We are not going to know unless there's a gear test of all of these brands in an exact situation...kind of like how helmets are tested.

I'm glad there are some helmet test data because if there were none like gear, some would argue that the more expensive brands protect better than the less expensive brands. With those data available, it's not true. Plus, my personal helmets' prices over the years have ranged from about $150 (HJC AC-11) to about $450 (Shoei RF-1000) and the HJC is no better/worst at protecting than the 3 times more expensive Shoei imo.

More money doesn't necessarily mean 'better' or it's worth the price gap which is why gear tests are needed so we can put this to rest....hopefully one day.
 
Oh, my invalid guess at this time is Dainese/A* gear would hold up better in a similar crash but the big question is how much better? A little, moderately better, or extremely better where it's worth the price gap?
 
I have a bilt helmet, it let a lot of air in and is noisy buy it's DOT rated so I still use it, and for I think 80$ new, it's not a bad deal. I had Bilt gloves that fell apart in less than a thousand miles, I would say avoid the gloves at all cost.

As for thier boot, someone already posted here two post back about cortech largo race boots. Mine Is sweet!!! And for 140$ shipped they are amazing!!
I would just buy that over Bilt boots.
 
i picked up one of the flip up face helmets before the price went into the dirt oh well. its not a badly built helmet a little noisy they are supposed to have the strongest latches in flipup helmets. Im not planning on testing it out but who does? I will probabaly use it mostly around town in lower speed situations rather than on highway rides where id be riding at higher speeds. I have always stayed away from flip ups but its dot approved so im safer than 99% of the Hd riders i see.
 
I had Bilt gloves for a year. Didn't crash test them, but I just replaced them with some RevIt gloves. The Bilt gloves felt really comfortable when I bought them, but recently, I felt they were thin, and maybe not even leather (can't recall which they were), so I went glove shopping.

let's do a Mythbusters and do an experiment! Like put a 20-40lb mannequin arm in a glove and drive down the road, open the door, and drag it. then do that with another glove, same distance, same speed. and then another glove. who can pony up different brands of gloves?

oh, and I have Bilt boots. They are better than getting my shoelaces caught, and the top of my left shoe worn out. Light enough for my messed-up hip to lift, and where the only boots in my size when I was boot shopping...
 
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You get what you pay for. I know, that's not always the case. CG seems to be moving towards newbie riders.
 
Flying Pig said:
If you don't feel confident in the product, don't buy it. :thumbup
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Best advise

BILT is CG's store brand. IMO its low grade entry level gear. I tried on some of the one pieces and just said no thanks. I just did not feel comfortable with the product how it fit, what "I" Wanted.

We advocate ATGATT and yet pounce on stuff like this with no consideration for what the buyer can afford. If this is what all I could afford, then I would buy it, I would much rather be in Full Gear in Entry Level Suites than in the Skin Graph ward, reading posts about you should of
 
I tried on some women's textile pants last year..not overpants..and they just would not fit right. I think that they must have used patterns for regular ladies pants without taking into consideration they were adding padding at the hips..so in order to get them zipped and buttoned, I had to jump up a size or 2 from my usual and then everywhere else was too big!

I say it is good starter gear..better than jeans and a tshirt for sure..but I always say why spend money on something of less quality when you will have to spend more later on better quality. Invest in the best to start. There are always deals to find on ebay, craigs list, etc as well and scour the online stores for closeouts and such. Buy end of season for next year!
 
Need to give a serious shout out to the Bilt Knee Protectors that were on sale for 9 dollars.

Probably saved my knee last night from the skull of a deer.
 
nbean16 said:
The bilt gloves are the worst gloves I've seen. I like a lot of a* stuff, especially boots, but their gloves aren't very good either.
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I totally agree. My Bilt leather gloves are total crap. I had a minor lowside way back when I was beginning to ride and the palm padding tore off when I put my hand down. The velcro stopped working and washing them from excessive smelliness led to them being unable to dry and subsequent mold. I pitched them and got an old pair from a friend.

My Bilt jacket is of substantially higher quality, although its waterproofing abilities are dubious at best. I had to Scotch-Gard it. It's got a lot of pockets and features which are nice. However, I feel that the elbow pads are slightly too low to get maximum protection. It did survive a pretty major crash with only minor damage so I'll give it credit for being pretty hardy.
 
I had bilt leather gloves, the 30 dollar ones. Crappy. First pair, some straps tore (not so serious of a fault) from use after three months, replaced them anyways under their return policy and then the stitching ripped (much more serious) on the second pair after a month of use.

Finally asked for my money back and put down some more and got some Alpinestars and as i was riding away with them i thought to myself, "Wow, this is what good gloves feel like? why did i torture myself for the past couple of months"...
 
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