Alpinestars Valparaiso Drystar Jacket (Sold Out)

These jackets are sold in US based “alpha” sizes, so selecting a size is basically pretty easy. For most people, you would choose the size you normally wear in men’s clothing. Alpinestars publishes a super-complicated size chart which can be used to pick a size based upon your chest and waist. We’ve condensed their chart down to make it easy to read (see below). The size Medium and XL fit Huey and Dewey very nicely!

The taper of this jacket is about average (meaning how much smaller the waist/belly is than the chest), and will be great for nearly any type of street riders. Alpinestars’ sizing chart lists the recommended waist range and the jacket has a lot of waist size adjustment. Judging by the way the jackets fit and the numbers in the chart, we feel the “waist” sizes they list could more appropriately be considered belly size ranges. Your actual jean size waist could be smaller than what is indicated and you’d still be OK.

When you evaluate the fit of this jacket, you will want to be forgiving if the jacket feels a bit snug with both liners in place. These liners take up room and so if the jacket is not snug, then the jacket will be too loose without the liners. My advice would be to try it on both ways (with and without liners) before you draw any conclusions.

Need help measuring? Get it here.

This new Valparaiso Drystar jacket is VERY nice. Over the last couple years, there has been a trend in style toward a “European” look which is mixed with adventure touring features and that is exactly where this jacket is coming from. When I first looked it over, I thought I was looking at a REV’IT! jacket (such as the Sand 2 jacket)... the similarity in styling is striking. I like the overall looks, and the tailoring and quality of material is definitely above what you’ll find in lesser priced jackets (like from Tour Master or FirstGear). I’d peg it along with REV’IT! in terms of overall quality and style.

This jacket offers two removable liners… one waterproof and one thermal, and also has some pretty extensive zippered venting. So the range of weather conditions this jacket can handle is about as wide as it gets… cold, hot (or at least pretty warm), mild and dry or wet. Good grief! We took a good number of photos to illustrate how this all works together and to show you the individual liners, so take the “View Larger Images” link above to see all those. You’ll be a bit overwhelmed when you first take this jacket completely apart and put it back together, but keep in mind that you won’t be doing this often. You’ll find yourself using a single configuration for a good bit of each season so it won’t turn out to be as much “fiddling around” with zippers, snaps and such as you might fear just taking it all apart at once. I found the whole thing to work as well as any I’ve seen. There is a bit of color coding of zippers to help you keep it all straight.

The basic textile shell of the jacket is a 3/4 design (longer torso that goes down below the waist) which is favored by long distance riders or those that deal with wet and/or cold conditions. A design like this provides more overall coverage and also gives a lot of opportunity for pockets (which it has plenty of… more so on the outside than inside which is good IMHO). The jacket has CE armor and a foam back pad and chest pads. The back pads and chest pads are nothing special, but can be upgraded to something more robust if you wish (see the links below). The shell has nighttime reflectives incorporated into it for safety and those work pretty well (see the night shots in our photo gallery).

Overall, I like this jacket… it really has it all and it’s in a package that has up-to-date styling and very high quality finish work and materials. I really don’t see how you can go wrong with this style. Paul, 10-02-13

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