Leathers review: Dainese Mugello R crash tested

Tested by Bruce Dunn for four years, 10,000 miles

The Mugello R D-air is Dainese’s very highest specification leather race suit and it’s as close as you can get to wearing what MotoGP and WSB stars sling over their backs. The suit comes with a bespoke hold-all that allows the suit to be neatly stowed away and stored. The suit’s quality transcends that of any other I have previously worn; the distinctive ‘Dainese fragrance’ emulating from the full-grain kangaroo (just 0.9mm thick) leather adds to the opulence, although you are obviously paying a high price for this top-notch garment.

But having lived with the Mugello R for countless miles, including track testing, racing and performance testing on some of the highest performance production bikes and BSB racing machines, this suit has been comfortable and flexible at all times. Dainese calls this comfort ‘passive safety’ – and it’s a big part of their philosophy when it comes to keeping you safe on a bike – the theory being that if you’re comfortable, you’re focused and so less likely to crash.

The Mugello R is actually the only garment in Dainese’s entire range to meet the AAA rating for abrasion and impact. It also has CE Level 2 soft armour on the shoulders, knees and elbows. However, the main feature of the suit is the airbag technology, the compact control unit monitors riding activity 1000 times a second and will trigger the airbag inflation when it detects a crash is about to happen. The airbag itself covers a larger area than other Dainese D-air suits, inflating around the shoulders back and front, back and around the ribs.

To aid rider stability in crashes the suit is fitted with titanium alloy sliders at key points of the suit. There is also a high-intensity red LED strip light mounted on top of the speed hump which is triggered in the event of a crash to warn other riders in adverse conditions.

There are several other technologies built-in to the suit, one of which is the 2D data recorder, itself worth around £1500. This records a rider’s track action. The data is downloaded via a USB on the inside of the speed hump to then be interpreted via the intuitive 2D data recording software. The data is created from GPS and from this the 2D system can create several channels, such as speed, time distance, lean angle, and braking/acceleration forces.

This is then viewed on the software, allowing you to see your speeds, braking, and of course section and lap times. I have found it more convenient to quickly use this data than download from the bike’s datalogger, and the capacity of the suit’s logger actually far exceeds the standalone 2D logger that I normally use, I can record several hours’ worth of data in the suit.

Plus, earlier this year I managed to put this high-spec Mugello R suit to the ultimate test when I lost the front going into Corum at Snetterton at a GPS-verified 105mph! The suit deployed the airbag and the result was that I walked away without even a graze.

The leather has a couple of areas that need repair, plus the airbag system needs a check-over (although it can be triggered twice) so the suit has now been sent off to the UK distributor Nevis Marketing for a check-over and reset. Ridiculously pricy, but ridiculously good too.

More leather airbag race suits to consider

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