6 Yrs and 160K miles w/ Bohn Armored Pants

I bought the Bohn Armor Pants at the BMW shop in Los Angeles while I was working a project near there. They saw their first use in local tours along the Angeles Crest and the wonderfully twisted highways over the California coastal ranges. But it was after the project was completed and I was on my way home that I wore them through Death Valley at 115 degrees (F) one afternoon, then up over the pass to Yosemite in the icy early morning of the following day. That’s when Bohn “Under” Armor pants were permanently integrated into my touring outfit. They just plain worked. With Bohn as the base layer, faded blue jeans or light gray hiking pants as the sun-reflective norm, and chaps or riding pants as the wet or chilly day outer layer when needed, there is not a single place I couldn’t go with confidence. And looking more like normal than like a space walk refugee at truck stops along the way was a bonus. That worked too for a low profile guy like me. Since then I’ve worn that single pair of Bohn pants as “underarmor” for six years and 160K miles including Alaska (twice), across to the east coast (thrice), zigging the zags of Deals Gap (thrice as well), down to Key West one time, and through the canyons and deserts of the west and the Rockies numerous times. After pulling the armor pads, the pants have seen washings in motel sinks and ice-melt rivers and were (usually) completely dry by morning. Those pants looked on laundromats like a luxury. Fortunately, the only “crash” testimony I can offer was on a primitive road deep in the Cascade range by Mt. Adams. That crash while wearing my fishing/camping boots instead of my higher motorcycle touring boots left me with new dents and cuts on my shins, but my knees, hips and thighs were protected from the roots and rocks by the Bohn system. No problem. The armor did its job. But the bonus you don’t advertise is that my boney knees don’t take nearly the beating they once did when I stop to perform routine maintenance tasks like chain tightening and lubrication while kneeling on the unforgiving concrete of motel or Wal-Mart parking lots. Oh, yeah. That benefit alone is worth the price of admission boys and girls. That’s functionality I’ve come to expect from my touring gear. Bohn has met, no, exceeded, those expectations. I’m ordering another pair because after years and kilomiles of use and abuse, one of the pad pockets (hmmm, left side, hip, exactly where I fell last summer…) has begun to come apart at the seam. It still works. The pad still stays in place. But the seam is getting shorter and the open space larger with each wearing. It’s time. Good work, guys and gals of Bohn. L. E. (Lou) Wissenbach Kennewick, Washington