From: L. E. (Lou)
Wissenbach
Subject: Years: Six. Miles: 160K.
The subject line is my testimonial.
I bought the Bohn
Armor Pants at the BMW shop in Los Angeles while I was working a
project near there in 2001. 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 Deal's 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 it's 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
mile day, I was reminded that the Bohn Armor was there only
by the reassuring hug of the armor against my knees.