[adouglas]

I used to wear a mesh jacket, but am no longer convinced that it'd do much good even with armor. The reason is that I don't believe it's robust/stiff enough to keep the armor in place.

Put your jacket on, reach across with your right hand and grab the left elbow of the jacket. Pull and see if you can rotate the sleeve around your arm. I could with my mesh jacket. So what's going to happen if I hit the ground?

Common sense tells me that if I hit the asphalt (which is about as grabby as 40-grit sandpaper), the road is going to do its darnedest to rip my gear off. If I can move the armor away from the places it's meant to protect with my hands, it's a sure bet that won't stay where it's supposed to be in a crash.

Version 1.0 of the upgrade strategy was to take all the armor out of the jacket and wear an armored shirt instead. Too much hassle, not enough benefit.

I decided to go with a fully perforated leather jacket with a Forcefield back protector upgrade and haven't looked back. I still have it, too, years after buying it. More expensive but it lasts a long time... good return on investment. And if I crash, as long as it's just scuffed (quite likely) I can keep on wearing it; a mesh jacket is a one-crash item for obvious reasons.