At first sight a one-piece textile suit seems unconventional, but for commuters and tourers there’s a lot of sense in the idea.
The Rev’it Paramount GTX one-piece suit goes on over the top of your normal clothes, giving you CE AA-rated crash protection and three-layer Gore-Tex laminated waterproof coverage.
It then slides off easily when you get to your destination, leaving you to go about your business without the hassle or potential embarrassment of changing from bike kit to civvies.
I’ve worn this suit for several hundred miles of commuting duties through autumn, winter and into spring - and it’s made my life considerably easier.
The putting-on process takes roughly four steps…
1. Stick your right leg through the space at the right of the crotch.
2. Put both arms into the jacket section and pull the top half over the shoulders.
3. Fasten the zip running from crotch to right ankle.
4. Connect the chunky zip at the left ankle and fasten it all the way up to the collar.
There are additional press studs at each ankle and at the top of the zip, and a Gore-Tex rain collar that you can take off when there’s no fear of getting wet.
It takes me around 40 seconds to get into the suit and about half that to take it off at the end of a ride.
That’s extended slightly by my preference for wearing shin-high boots as I know it’d be quicker if I felt comfortable riding in ankle-high boots instead.
Photography: Helen Meeds
My main concern with the on-off procedure is the risk of jamming the main zip that runs from left ankle to right collar.
It’s a seriously heavy-gauge Tizip fastener, which I’ve found to be absolutely watertight through some horribly wet rides.
The downside to the strength of the zip comes if the storm flap that folds behind it becomes snagged in the zip runner.
It’s happened to me twice and on both occasions I had to extract myself from the partially-zipped suit before I could free the trapped fabric, because it’s been so strongly jammed.
It’s left me more cautious when putting the suit on, and taking a little extra care and time has averted further problems.
The Tizip’s waterproofing performance more than makes up for the need to be careful when fastening it. It’s the sort of fastener used on whitewater rafting suits and I’ve not previously seen anything like it on motorcycle clothing.
Twice I’ve ridden for over an hour in very heavy rain and not a drop has passed through the teeth of that fastener.
The main section stayed dry, too. It’s made from the current gold standard of waterproof motorcycle clothing - a three-layer Gore-Tex membrane laminated together with a nylon outer shell for abrasion protection.
I experienced enough rain to defeat my ageing Dainese Gore-Tex boots, but the Paramount suit shrugged it off with ease.
The laminated construction meant I could just shake the rain off the suit afterwards and it was good to go again.
Another benefit of the laminated outer comes from the large ventilation panels on the legs, chest, arms and back.
All of these pull the Gore-Tex membrane apart, allowing air to flow directly through to the inside of the suit rather than being blocked by the windproof membrane.
These worked well on the occasions that I could open them up without risk of rain coming through there.
There’s a comprehensive set of impact armour - shoulders, elbows, back, hips and knees are all protected by Rev’it inserts.
With the exception of Level 1 protection from the thin hip inserts, the armour meets the superior Level 2 within the CE standard.
If there’s one key area where the Rev’it Paramount GTX struggles then it’s in cold weather.
Perhaps understandably the suit doesn’t have any kind of insulation material at all - not even a thin mesh liner.
The idea is to layer up underneath, which means leaving room for those extra layers when trying the suit on in the first place.
When I wore this suit in temperatures around 10°C then a t-shirt and windproof fleece underneath were enough to keep me comfortable.
In temperatures around 5-6°C I added a base layer under the t-shirt, but still found myself feeling chilly after half an hour on the bike.
Photography: Helen Meeds
If you want to ride through winter my advice would be to set the waist and arm adjusters to their most relaxed positions and check you can fit an insulated down-type liner underneath the suit.
That should then let you pull the adjusters in to tailor the suit to fit you when you don’t need the additional layers underneath.
Other criticisms are a lack of pockets - the only one large enough for a phone is on the right thigh. Thankfully it’s rated as waterproof, and I found it kept its contents dry when I rode in deluge conditions.
The second pocket is a small zipped one on the inside near the left hip, which I didn’t feel was adequate for my purposes. A small pocket on the left sleeve is designed for cards and toll tickets, but I found it a good place to keep my house keys.
Also, the chunky Tizip main fastener’s lack of flexibility is sometimes an issue when riding as it rucks up and can feel restrictive around the waist.
These are more caveats than outright criticism of a suit that has genuinely improved my life as a motorcycle commuter.
The ability to shed the suit and be sat at my desk 20 seconds after arriving is very helpful.
That would all be academic if the Paramount suit didn’t work while riding. That’s its main strength, as I’m 100% confident it’ll keep me dry and safe as well as being hyper-convenient.
The concept of a one-piece textile is anything but new. Aerostich have been making them for years in the United States and both Rukka and Klim have tried to emulate their design in recent years.
Neither of the suits from those exalted brands are still in their official UK collections. Having tried the Rev’it Paramount, I hope this suit breaks the trend and finds success.