REV’IT! Sand 4 Collection Review – His and Hers

The Sand 4 line is all about versatility at a reasonable price. Both the men’s and women’s jackets come with a quilted liner for warmth, and REV’IT!’s proprietary Hydratex waterproof liner for keeping the bad moisture out (and the good moisture in). They can be used together or separately and are both full sleeve liners (not vests) that have inner pockets built into them. REV’IT! went a step further with the waterproof liner adding branding and designing it in such a way that it can be worn separately as a light jacket without looking like you’re wearing a liner – Tigra and I both used the liners while hanging out at camp during our shoot and other times on the road. You’re also able to keep the quilted liner in while using the waterproof liner as a jacket which was helpful during cool nights around the campfire.

The liner was excellent for hanging around the campfire on cool fall evenings in the mountains.

Some folks like removable liners and some don’t. I personally prefer them because when the going gets hot, I want as much airflow as possible and a waterproof layer mated to a shell rarely provides the same level of comfort in hot climes. There are valid arguments for the other side too, but that’s an argument for the comments section.

The outer shell of the jacket also offers a good amount of versatility in terms of airflow and fit. The men’s jacket has large chest vents that run from just under the collar bone to mid torso that can be unzipped and buttoned back, revealing large mesh panels and a dash of reflectivity on each side. Two exhaust vents run down the back laterally. On the sleeves, large zippered vents can be opened on the front of the arms that span between the elbow and just above the bicep. A unique departure from standard venting schemes is a vent that runs the full length of the main zipper. When it starts getting really warm, you can zip this vent, and unzip the jacket’s main zipper exposing the inch-wide vent that stretches from the collar to the bottom of the jacket. 

The main zipper is open in this picture exposing the long mid-vent behind it.

A jacket with multiple liners can fit fairly differently with them in place or removed. Thankfully, the Sand 4 jacket’s shell offers adjustability to tighten or loosen the fit at the wrists, forearms, biceps, and waist as you see fit. 

Speaking of fit, overall I would say the men’s jacket offers a pretty standard touring fit, not snug, or tight anywhere. With the liners removed, it even borders on running slightly large – which is where you can be thankful for the adjustment capabilities. 

The large red hang tab on the jacket came in useful a surprising number of times during my use of the Sand 4 jacket.

The shell is made primarily of a polyester ripstop material that’s fairly flexible and light allowing for good mobility. Inside, REV’IT!’s Red Dot award-winning Seeflex CE level 2 rated armor can be found in the shoulders and elbows. Armor in the elbows can be adjusted between a couple of positions to optimize fit. As with all REV’IT! jackets, the back protector will need to be purchased separately. Its size will depend on your jacket size. Thankfully, there is a small tag inside the back protector pocket that tells you the suggested protector size. For my medium jacket, the recommended back protector is the “Seesoft Type RV – Size 04” which retails for $60. 

The outer shell of the jacket has two large pockets with curved YKK locking zippers on each side, a large bum pocket accessible from the outside, and two pockets on the inside. Other welcome features include an adjustable collar button for keeping things snug and the ability to snap the collar back while it’s open in hotter weather. A zipper from the forearms to the cuffs lets the user easily don or doff any style of glove. 

The jacket is prepared for use with REV’IT!’s hi-viz vests or the Segur neck brace. It also has two connection zippers to connect to the pants. Reflectivity can be found throughout and the large red hang tab on the back is a welcome feature as many riders know, sometimes your gear needs to be hung up and aired-out after a fun day. 

Riding Impressions

After a trip across the country and a slew of adventure touring and new model testing, I’ve really enjoyed my time using the Sand 4 jacket. It’s roomy enough to easily accept the liners and offers adjustability to snug the jacket up when they’re out. The armor stays in place, though I find myself pulling the shoulder armor forward to seat it correctly every time I put on the jacket without the liners in. Once I’ve done that, it stays put, and the jacket just generally seems to fit me well. It also isn’t so long that it bunches much while seated on an adventure style (upright) motorcycle. 

Most of my riding has been in warmer weather with the Sand 4 kit, but I’ve also endured some rain and cooler temps, too. I appreciate the amount of venting, but one thing I noticed is that as soon as you strap on a hydration pack – or backpack of any sort, really – the only way to get air flowing into the jacket is through the large sleeve vents. This is the case with almost all adventure gear (aside from those made from mesh like the KLIM Baja S4 kit), so it’s not so much of a knock, but rather an observation. The vents are also all easy enough to open while blasting down the road.

The zippers throughout the outer portion of the jacket are all big chunky, plastic types with large zipper pulls that are easy to use with gloved hands. I’ve noticed over the years that dusty rides and small fine-toothed zippers don’t tend to work out, so I’m thankful for the big ones on the Sand 4 gear and haven’t had any issues so far. The curved zippers on the front pockets had me wondering if they would be a PITA, and again, I’m happy to report that it’s been smooth sailing. The curvature hasn’t caused any issues. 

The adjustable collar button and being able to snap the closure back out of the way is a great feature that I wish everyone would adopt. The zippers from mid-forearm down to the wrists also makes putting on gloves or removing them easy. The big red hang tab on the back has also been useful in numerous situations from gas station bathrooms to hotel rooms. Another seemingly simple addition that turns out to be infinitely useful. 

The Sand 4 men’s jacket is offered in five color ways and seven sizes (S-4XL). It retails for $500, making it a mid-priced jacket in REV’IT!’s line up. The step up from the Sand 4 would be something like the Defender 3 GTX which uses Gore-Tex for waterproofing. For the price, the functionality and versatility of the Sand 4 jacket is more than worth it.

The jackets are largely the same in their construction and functionality but there are some key changes that make all the difference. But I’ll let Tigra tell you about that:

Seeing the jacket on, I immediately noticed that, along with the protective elements of its build, also considered how the lines and movement of the jacket needed to be different for women. The quality of the gear is evident with the strong materials used, but most importantly, the consideration that women function differently than men shows in the attention to detail.

The first thing I did was snug up the waist to help keep the armor in place. I have to admit, the less boxy silhouette made me happy. On both sides of the hips there is velcro to further fit the shortened body of the jacket to accommodate the female frame. On the men’s jacket, the adjustment straps are slightly higher and it doesn’t have the hip velcro on the longer body of the jacket.

As for the chest, overall fit aside, the placement of the venting is the most significant difference between the genders. The vents under the breast and the tapered back vents help pull in and exhaust air in all the right places – finally! It was one of my favorite features when riding in triple digit temperatures cross-country in August!

What makes the pockets functional? A waterproof and secure opening, that they’re big enough to be useful, and sensible placement. The handwarmer pockets on the ladies’ jacket are all-around functional with a double fold and zippered closure, and are also angled to slide your hands in easily from the side versus the top-entry like on the guy’s jacket. Design-wise, the lines drawn by the front pockets and sleek back pocket not only complete an attractive, less bulky look, but with the other design features, they make movement easy. My only problem with the front pockets is that they are difficult to access while riding, but given a choice, I’d rather plan ahead or pull over rather than alter the pocket design. With the way the jacket can be adjusted – and the shorter length – it eliminates having too much bulk when sitting on the bike.

Riding Impressions:

It is amazing to have a jacket that really was built for women and was constructed with quality materials and such well-designed female friendly features!

The Sand 4 jacket felt so comfortable and confidence-inspiring from day one that I wore it on the women’s Suffragists Centennial Motorcycle Ride – a cross-country trip during the month of August. On the road I encountered rain, hours of strong winds, and really warm weather. The jacket kept me sheltered from the elements, keeping me as comfortable as can be hoped for and safe from flying road debris.

The protection, fit and movement of the jacket inspired me to take it on an off-road, point-to-point ride in October. I was glad to have it when the temperatures dropped into the mid to upper 30s while navigating the narrow trails through brush and trees. The versatile inner layers worked well for after-bike hours and saved me from having to wear a big moto jacket to the bar or dinner. Keeping me warm and looking stylish was another plus!

The Sand 4 is purpose built for the kind of adventure dual-sport riding that Ryan and I did, but it does have the range to be used on the street too. I found it to be extremely versatile and the quality and design gave me the confidence I need to not think about what I’m wearing when I should be focusing on riding.

The Sand 4 women’s jacket is offered in three colorways and seven sizes. It also retails for $500 making it the highest level adventure touring jacket in s female line-up.

The Sand 4 pants go about their job much in the same way the jacket does. A quilted full length liner is included as well as a Hydratex waterproof liner – both are removable and can be used separately from each other. The liners both zip in at the top and the bottom so they stay put when it’s time to slip out of the pants – again, a small feature that makes getting out of these drawers much easier. The bottom of the quilted liner also has a more robust panel where a taller boot might interface with it for additional durability.

The fit is fairly roomy – particularly so throughout the legs since I had to size up to a large. I would say I fall somewhere between medium and large (short) in the Sand 4 pant. I wear a 32×30 in most jeans, for reference. The medium pant I had originally tried was much too tight at the waist closure and the crotch. In terms of tailoring the fit once you’ve got the sizing in place, adjustability can be had at both the waist and just above the calf behind the knee.

Despite my initial reservations about the curved zippers on the pants and jacket, they’ve been easy to use without any binding along the curvature.

Ventilation comes from two forward facing vents on the thighs. There are snaps inside the vent to prop it open, but if you have much in your pockets, the snaps don’t work too well. The pants have two pockets on the thighs that employ locking YKK zippers and there is a small zippered storage pocket near the right hip bone. Stripes of reflectivity are found on the pockets and down the outer sides of the calves. 

The same Seeflex armor from the jacket (knee-specific) is used in the knees while REV’IT!’s Seesoft flexible armor is included in the hips. The construction is also a similar ripstop polyester with some reinforcement down the front of the knee and in the seat. A stretch panel is located near the lower back for ease of movement. Short and long zippers are available to attach the jacket to the pants. The gusseted crotch uses a zipper and button closure. Provisions are also included to use REV’IT!’s “Pants Strapper” to hold up your trousers if need be. 

The wide leg opening should be good for fitting all but the chonkiest of moto boots underneath. The nearly 12-inch long zipper allows you to get the pant opened up to fit taller boots and the  large strips of velcro ensures that you can have as snug a closure as you’d like. 

Riding Impressions

Since I had to opt for a large/short, the pants are quite roomy throughout. The waist works out alright because of the velcro adjustments at the sides of the hips, and I also usually zip the pants and jacket together which helps keep everything in place. Thankfully, the pants aren’t so big as to feel like I’m swimming in them and with the liners installed, they fit perfectly. 

Functionally, the large zipper pulls, beefy zippers, and decent-sized pockets make the Sand 4 pants work just as they should. No issues there. I’m able to wear moto boots under them (I wore the Sidi Atojo during our shoot) as well which adds to the versatility for me. If I’m doing much off-road riding at all, I opt for MX boots over touring or ADV touring boots. 

With the liners out, the pants feel lightweight, and despite the fact that they’re a bit big on me, the molded armor manages to stay in place. Mobility isn’t an issue either. As far as I can stretch and move around, the pants allow for it and are probably more flexible than I am capable of exploiting.

The only nit I can find to pick with the Sand 4 pants is the ventilation. The vents are easy enough to open while riding or not, but the button that pins them open is fairly difficult to snap while riding. Off of the bike, it’s easy enough to get the button snapped to hold open the vent, but if you have much in your pockets, it will either not work or be a pain. Even when the vents are open and snapped back, they don’t flow a ton of air while seated. Standing lets in plenty of airflow, but without exhaust vents, there isn’t anywhere to channel that hot air out.

Overall, I’m happy with the Sand 4 pants performance and the way they compliments the jacket.

The Ladies Sand 4 pants are built in the same way and have the same great features that Ryan has outlined. The fit is tailored for women and I have to make a special mention of how the waistband is higher in the back to accommodate a comfortable seated position (relieving the fear of that bare lower back space that we all see way to much of), securely keeping the elements from drifting in under the jacket.

The pockets rode high on me when I was seated which made it impossible to smoothly open or even to get even my ungloved hand into them. This is one of the differences compared to the men’s pants as the pockets have been slimmed down on the women’s trousers to give a smoother line down the thigh.

Riding Impressions:

Ever been coming up to your first stop and your first thought is to take off your gear because you’re so uncomfortable? Well, with this gear, my thoughts and actions had nothing to do with the gear, in fact I didn’t even think about it because it was so comfortable. I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t taken my jacket off inside a restaurant until I’d been sitting there for twenty minutes. The pants were also fitted nicely and made all movement easy; from getting on and off the bike, walking around or sitting in a cafe booth. The tailored fit meant that I wasn’t knocking things off of other diner’s tables and people didn’t lean away like I was the Michelin man. While riding, I found the gear to be water/wind proof without looking like a bundled up 5-year-old, and the pants even have a nice accessible place to put your key(s) and wallet.

Because I normally ride street or off-road, I had originally planned to wear my MX boots for the adventure riding we were going to be doing. Before I go on, it’s important to note that I wear men’s MX boots – I have been hard pressed to find women’s boots that are made with the same durability, tread options, and protection. Most women are shorter from knee to foot and I am one of those women, this means moto boots sit high – about 1 ½ inches under the bottom of my knee cup (if you’re a guy, go get your MX boots and see how far they sit under your knee). While I have full shin/calf protection, it also means that the widest part of the boot’s shaft is higher in the pant leg, making it difficult for me to pull any over-the-boot pants over the top of my offroad boots.

Even knowing all of this, I took the knee protection out of the pants, put knee braces on and tried to put the boots on, took off the knee braces, put the protection back in and tried again, got out a really old pair of MX boots that had minimal shaft thickness and, after an hour of trying, remembered what I just explained.

I realize I fall into a small niche of women wearing men’s MX boots and even smaller when I consider that my Asian calves are bigger than average. This, by no means is a failing on the pant’s designers as they built them to be proportioned for a female giving them comfortable fit, slim lines and robust protection. Instead, I chalked it up to needing the right tool for the job and decided to purchase some men’s (again) over-the-ankle, adventure boots (the Alpinestars Belize Drystar) which fit nicely under the pants. The velcro and strap system below the knee allowed me to cinch the cuff around my leg and boots to avoid them getting caught on my foot pegs.

I never had the chance to use REV’IT!’s Sand 3 jacket or pants, but I’m on my second pair of Sand 3 gloves. Since I’m a fan, I was thankful to see that the Sand 4 gloves are mostly a stylistic update rather than a drastic change in construction to their predecessor.

The Sand 4 gloves is decidedly a warm weather piece of kit. The back of the hand is constructed of mesh mostly with stretch panels and leather where it makes sense from a protection perspective. A large flexible TPR protector provides impact protection for the knuckles. The palm and outer edge of the pinky and thumb are made from leather for abrasion resistance and also boast TPR protectors. A small plastic REV’IT! logo provides some extra protection for the ulna bone as well.

The cuff of the Sand 4 gloves are slightly longer than most short cuff gloves and are designed to sit underneath the jacket. Because of the mesh, leather, and TPR construction, the Sand 4 gloves offer excellent dexterity which can be important in off-road situations where the last thing you need is to be fighting a stubborn mitt.

As mentioned previously, I found the Sand 4 gloves to be tighter even than the already snug Sand 3 versions that I had used previously. Size XL in both styles of Sand 4s fit spot on and are easier to get on and off than my older Sand 3s.

Riding Impressions

I will say, the size chart was spot on so, in retrospect, I should have checked it first. I was just going on previous experience but, according to the size chart’s measurements, I fall into the lower end of the XL range for gloves, and despite coming in at the smaller end of the XL’s sizing, the Sand 4 and Sand 4 H2O gloves could not fit better. I’m very particular about glove fit. I can’t deal with long fingers or one long finger here and a long thumb there. It will drive me crazy. So, I’m overly excited when I find a pair of gloves that is juuust right.

The Sand 4 glove flows a good amount of air through it, but it can still get warm in the hottest temps due to the leather, which of course provides better crash protection than a lighter material. So, it’s a trade off. I think they’re an excellent warm weather adventure touring glove, and I’ve used them off-road over many miles too. They’re warmer than I’d like sometimes, but the dexterity offered makes all the difference for me. If I were planning to ride mostly dirt, I’d switch to MX gloves or something like them, but for mixing it up, as ADV tourists often do, the Sand 4 hits the nail on the head in terms of protection, dexterity, and ventilation and do an excellent job of dividing those ratios.

The Sand 4 H2O glove is made of leather and stretch materials with a harder TPR knuckle protector. As the name suggests, the Sand 4 H2O has a Hydratex liner to keep wind and moisture at bay. During my last long trip in the Sand 4 kit, I kept both gloves with me and stayed comfortable through all sorts of weather. For really biting cold, they may not work as there isn’t much insulation, but they also aren’t so thick that you won’t be able to feel the heated grips when they’re cranked to 11.

The H2O gloves offer a traditional gauntlet style closure with a hook and loop velcro strap just under the palm and a large velcro strap around the arm. That said, the Sand 4 H2O gloves are just barely longer than the normal Sand 4 gloves and wouldn’t have much chance of being worn outside the Sand 4 jacket.

Riding Impressions

For the Sand 4 H2O glove, it’s the kind of cooler weather glove that I prefer. In anything but the absolute coldest temps (which may vary), REV’IT!’s Hydratex waterproof Sand 4 H2O glove is kind of perfect in that it doesn’t have so much insulation that it gives you a numb feeling at the controls. Instead, REV’IT! has managed to add waterproofing and just a bit of insulation that still gives nice tactile feedback that will also allow riders to absorb the benefits of their heated grips.

With the right gear, you can still enjoy your surroundings when the temps drop.

During the downpours I experienced through the Midwest, these gloves kept me warm and dry, and in the cooler temps I’ve ridden in, they’ve paired nicely with heated grips to keep my digits from freezing up. I was particularly satisfied with them as I blasted up an icy Beartooth Pass. Being able to focus on the road and not my gloves when there’s a buhzillion-foot drop just one wrong move away is how things should be.

As the circumference of the fingers stretched, I was able to put the glove on and the length for all but the pinky and thumb seemed to fit better. The seam rubbing on my thumb stopped causing pain too once the leather and stretch gusset around the thumb had broken in. 

I appreciate that the gloves are high-quality leather and armor pieces that protect knuckles, down the fingers, outer thumb, pinky, and palm. The protection is placed where you need it when you’re holding the grip and should be there when you need it in a slide or fall. 

The short cuff has a good 2” of velcro so you can easily adjust around your wrist and the opening is just slightly smaller than the width of the palm for an easy entry straight out of the box.

Riding Impressions:

For the first time in 30+ years, I can say that REV’IT! Uses all the manufacturing quality, safety logic, and dutiable materials as the the men’s pieces, but they adjust sizing and fit for women that consider anatomical differences to add to comfort, protection and style. 

A note about fit: we are all different in size and shape and the most crucial but unsaid factor – the way we want and think things to fit and look. Regardless of gender, REV’IT! offers a good base with flexible versatility and logical design that delivers quality build features and materials. Take time to try the gear on, adjust it to fit the way you need, then sit in a chair or on a bike and walk around a bit. The safest gear is the gear that fits you best and that you will actually wear.