Fly Racing's 208 pant and jersey 

Report by Rob McCullough, photos by Danny Brault and Jason T. Griffiths

Product: Fly Racing 208 pant and jersey

Cost: $209.95 (pant), $64.95 (jersey) CDN

Online: www.flyracing.com

Canadian Distributor: SixSixOne Racing Canada 1-888-296-8886

Fly riders: BTO Sports/ Butler Brothers Honda, Yamaha of Troy, Star Racing Yamaha, American Honda’s Andrew Short, Team Solitaire, Tyler Evans, Brady Sheren

Personal Experience:
My only prior experience wearing Fly Gear was in 2005 during a photo shoot for Yamaha. At the time, I weighed about 170 pounds and wore size 34" pants with custom knee braces. At the time, fitting into size 34" Fly pants and a large jersey proved to be less than enjoyable, not to mention an anaerobic experience. Trying to ride, for me, can be difficult on the best of days, so that coupled with the skin-tight pants and jersey wasn’t helping my cause. By the end of the morning, I had complained about the clothing to everyone that would listen and I burned a huge hole in the right knee, which pretty much assured that I wouldn’t be invited back.

McCullough shows off the 208 gear.

Track Tested:
Once Rick Sheren of SixSixOne/Mechanix Wear agreed to forward us clothing for testing, I eagerly anticipated its arrival.  Immediately, from the time the clothing was removed from the box, I could tell this wasn’t anything close to the Fly gear I had previously tried; the styling was current, the colours were bright and the attention to detail appeared to be excellent. In my opinion, with the 208 pant and jersey, Fly was able to create an excellent balance of comfort, safety and reliability.

As everyone can imagine, it’s tough to review a jersey as all the premium lines seem to offer short cuffs, silicone in the rear to keep the jersey tucked in and tagless labels. The 208 Jersey has all of these features and its coupled with great fit, styling, comfort and a great match for the 208 pant.

Speaking of the pants, I believe the weight of the 208 pant combined with the amount of protection afforded to the rider is almost perfect. The cut of the pants feels custom made for my body type--including knee braces--and they allowed me to maintain full range of motion when suited up. The flexibility of the pant can be attributed to the many stretch panels located in the crotch, knees and back of the legs (hamstrings/calves). 

Other bells and whistles included on the 208 pant consist of additional mesh panels for increased air flow, larger leather knee panels for added durability and heat resistance, eyelets on the knee to help eliminate heat generated by boots and knee braces and a “Fly Exclusive” integrated knee traction panel that did become my only concern.

I have always been tough on tank/shroud graphics, and I’m sure some responsibility rests with me. But during the four days that I rode with the 208 pants, I wore off about twenty-five percent of the rubber pads in the traction panels in the knee area. That said, I contacted Fly and was told that although less than one percent of the 208 pants had experienced traction pad failures of any kind, Fly was continuing to develop the traction panels to ensure reliability and that any deficiencies in the pant would be covered under manufacturer’s warranty.
 

Wow, Rob does have style .. or is it the gear? 

Final Verdict:
It’s obvious that Fly has done their homework, spent time on research and development and listened to feedback from their riders because, for ’07, the Fly 208 pant and jersey feature awesome styling, they're built for racers and are definitely a good buy for the upcoming season. I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of Fly gear right here on www.racerxcanada.com in the coming months as Doug DeHaan, Dusty Klatt and Brady Sheren will all showcase the gear in the supercross series.

To view Fly’s full line of race gear, click here. 
 

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