I just won this on Ebay

I've wanted one of these ever since I was a teenager, Lewis Leathers original fringed jacket.

For me they blur the memories between the old school bikers I grew up with and the new dawn of the cafe racers in then late seventies. There were guys riding around on tuned up RD250s wearing fringed jackets with denim cut-offs, cowboy boots and Levis. It was an odd mix of styles.

Anyway, I wanted an original to wear when I'm messing about on the H2 in the summer, to wear with my open-face gold metal-flake Biltwell helmet and shades.

Haven't I seen that somewhere before?

Is it going to fit ya?.....and how will it look now you're a fair bit older (i guess) ?....sod it! You enjoy it, what do teenagers know nowadays about the halcyon biking days anyway?...All this rider training and congestion/speed camera's etc has killed a lot of the fun/lifestyle of biking...then again, it killed a fair few bikers back in the day as well!!!!....a pair of jeans and a piss-pot was no protection!

Everybody sing it ... Y M C A!!

In fairness to Bic, he could be going for this:

Tassels Bic!! Tassels!

I had one like "the wild one ",,,,,,no fringe however,,,,,,TBH , it was a nice warm jacket with a hoodie under it !

Tassles is what makes it cool!

Think cruising down the road on the H2. Exhaust ring-a-ding-dinging, the sky behind a pale blue haze. Purple metal flake paintwork, bright lilac stripe. Wheelie at the pop of the throttle, no brakes to speak of. Loads of chrome and the stink of Castrol R. High US spec handlebars, flared jeans, Gold open-face helmet, (If I still smoked then a big doobie hanging out of my mouth). White T Shirt and a black Lewis Leathers Jacket WITH TASSLES FLAPPING IN THE WIND!! Isn't that what life is about?

You know it is... all you doubters.

I rather like the look

Here's my mates Jason and Martin back in about 1981 at Oulton Park for the seminal Transatlantic races. Both in fringed biker jackets, Jason with cut-off that I had penned on the Meatloaf record cover with a black felt-tip pen! Ha ha. We were all on Kawasaki Triples and Yamaha RDs.

Here's a cartoon I did of my mate Bob Butterworth and his girlfriend Karen on their chopped up Z650. This was about 1982 also. Note the tassles!!

You got it bad.

BIC, have you seen the price of a new Lewis leather ? £750 !!

I went on their site to check the new jackets out and yes, they are very dear! Plus they'd take years to wear in and I'd rather have a scruffy old worn-in one.

Luke, which one do you fancy then? One was in a band, played drums, the other was a hit with the girls but treated them bad.

The fringes or tassels as some call them do serve a purpose besides looking badass.
Each fringe provides surface area and edges that when the garment is wet provides for evaporation and pulls or wicks the moisture from the rest of the garment speeding the drying process.
This was incorporated into native american buckskin clothing and adopted by the early frontiersmen of America.
Rifle sheaths were done the same way.
This is what I learned in scouting.

But screw it, let's just run with badassery

and here I was thinking it's only purpose was to keep flys at bay.

Could always get these to complete the look.

Hey Bic I've still got my original jacket and boots from 1972.
My jacket has shrunk its the old aero dog collar style and the boots are aero just like the pilots in wwII used to wear.

Here's my mood board/design exploration with what I'm doing with my old 90's Alpine Star jacket. It already has the orange and white stripe so I have to work round that design. Getting the premier helmet sprayed gold like my Biltwell and big '75 numbers on the sides in purple with black dropped shadows. I tried to find the purple Biltwell but they stopped making them a few years ago.

Plus I got all these old badges I've collected over the years. They're all going on the tassled Lewis Leathers jacket.

Looks to me like only Bic and myself are of the real bike brigade NOT brigayed

Hey Bic you should get one of these babies. https://www.google.com.au/webhp?client= ... B500%3B500

I could just totally keep on layering up these cool images of bikes and tassels.

some guys buy miatas/mazda mx-5, others get fringed/tossels jackets

never my cup of tea, but i was born in 79' not 49'

this is what comes to mind when tossels/fringes are spoken about:





lololol

Mr. Trecolareco. Tell that to this guy….

I love this thread. I obviously found my own version of RIMTAPE!

fook it. I'll own up to owing a pair of Willy G gauntlet gloves complete with silver conchos and tassels.

But, I bought them 23 years ago when I had my anemic Harley 883.

Need a pair of gloves Bic?

Mr. Trec.

Of course we are talking about for use with the '70s vintage bike. I wouldn't be seen dead with a fringed jacket on the SD! Plus it has no protection value so I wouldn't even use it to go for a proper run - that's what the Alpine Star jacket is for. Maybe that's retro as well but it has full CE armour fitted and the leather is thick. Really I just want a jacket to remind me of my youth, for the odd run to a local bike meet for a laugh, a place to pin all my badges and mainly to post a picture up here to offend all you Superduke fashion conservatives and get some gay verbal from Stupid Luke! Ha ha.

I bet it doesn't even fit me when it arrives and it will be up on Ebay straight away. But I will make a profit if it does because I got a deal and they have collector value so it's a win/win.

Talking of 70s vintage bikes hows the H2 been going?

How is the hipster beard coming along Bic?

just for the laughs it was already worth it that you bought it

on the other hand think about the possibilities of the legend: " to be teached a lesson in riding by a guy who wears a fringed jacket"

This is the closest I ever came to a hipster beard. It just didn't grow right and itched like f
ook!

Look see. I'm not condoning the 1%ers. Maybe they were not your average citizens at the time.

I've read all the books. Hunter Thompson, biographies etc. Just a chapter in the world of biking really.

I've never been into that scene really. Although I did spend a while doing tank paint jobs and cut-off jackets for members of the Satan's Slaves in the '80's but that''s another story.

But tassels is something else. Not to be confused with anything else!

Oh, and Agro...

The H2 is going fine! I love it. Totally different from the SD and modern biking. I can't compare. It's a different world of expectations and thrills and experiences. One day I'm out on the SD doing my thing, searching for A roads to tackle and consume with the power of a modern V twin and hunting down the other road users, mounted on a beast of considerable ability. I know it can be great on track or the road, capable of defeating anything I want it to. And then other days off on the H2 in a haze of two strike smoke and ring a ding ding with the open road before me and high bars, and sloppy suspension and a ferocious power band to contend with. It's an old fashioned bike that terrifies with as much passion as it delivers. There's no similarity really. Both are great, both leave me with a feeling of fun and togetherness with the machine and what it did for me during that time.

I say they are both good, and different and non-comparable.

But if you judge a bike by the attention it gets, from both bikers and the public, the H2 wins hands down.

OK, so I have to ask, why not go down this path instead? Put a dustbin on that triple-two, like this (purple paint-matched to yours):



And get a proper set of Lewis Leathers to match, like this guy:



Yeah - we all wish we ever looked as good as he did ... Let alone ride as well.

May have been popular in the UK to wear leathers with fringe on a bike like the Kawi (when new), but that was strictly for hard heads over here.

Just sayin.

Bic that H2 of yours brings back a lot of memories I never owned one because back in those days we all thought that smoke blowers weren't cool
My mates and myself all had Honda's back then but I still remember the haze of the old H2 and H1 plus the 350 and 250 lol its all starting to come back to me.
Plus all the bad stories we used to hear about dudes being killed on those uncontrollable mk4's sort of put us off buying one
Later on two of the mates bought the 500's one mate nealy killed himself on his. It was funny as I was on my way home from work on my Honda 4 and there was all this commotion at the traffic lights as I got closer I found out what the commotion was all about it was my mate on his 500 all banged up laying on the road. Somehow he managed to rear end a car and he wasn't going slow anyhow he stopped riding for good after that.
I'm glad your enjoying the H2 bic I wouldn't mind getting one but in Australia they just want to much money for them.

This picture just appeared on the UK Kawasaki Triples forum. 1980 apparently

Those are some "big ass blinkerssss"

So much work in the clipons to get a 5mph reduction from aero brake from those

Oh man.

Got the jacket. It's too small for me.

I'll clean it up a bit, fix the zipper, put on some Ace Cafe patches and sell it for a huge profit.

On the look out for another one that is bigger.