Inexpensive jacket #4

[mtds]

I bought this size 50 Schott jacket on eBay in 2006. It was very poorly pictured and described so I won the auction at $68. Gail at Schott told me that it is a model 157, 657, or 557 (naked cowhide, steerhide, or soft steerhide respectively) produced between 1981 and 1985. It was in decent shape and fit me well, but dirty. The original zip in liner was missing so I trimmed out the half of the zipper left over. After that I cleaned it up the best I could (short of the washing machine technique), treated it with Sno-Seal, and sewed on the patches. I use it as a summer riding jacket…not too hard to guess what I ride.

It has the usual Scott café jacket features: heavy main zipper, waist adjustment with two small belt/buckle combinations, a two position throat tab, and a bellows-type back. It has only two pockets, but that doesn’t bother me. It is also on the short side, at 25-1/2 inches base of collar to bottom of jacket, but it works OK in warm weather.

After all these years the leather is very soft and supple. Pocket linings are still intact and the smaller zippers all work fine.

I like the minimalist look of the jacket. All in all, a great deal and a useful addition to my riding gear! Thanks for reading.

 

[Jason]

Sometimes "less is more". I like it... and thats coming from someone who has never ridden any bike with more than 150cc capacity

 

[mtds]

Sometimes "less is more". I like it... and thats coming from someone who has never ridden any bike with more than 150cc capacity

I'm with you on the "less is more", friend. The older I get the less stuff I want. I used to get along fine on 350's and that included riding five hundred miles in a weekend to see my girlfriend. My son marvels at the small displacement machines that were so useful and reliable thirty or forty years ago. Sixty horespower is the new minimum, I guess.