The Macna Domane Jacket is an all seasons textile motorcycle jacket that can be used for touring, road riding or adventure riding. It is also AA and Level 2 rated and packed with features. Here's our review.

Choosing a new jacket can be confusing, there are so many these days. So, it is important to get into your local shop and try some on. Unfortunately you can’t go riding in them first, which is why we test them. This time, The Bear gives the Macna Domane a run. 

The Macna Domane is an all-seasons textile jacket that retails for $749.95 RRP.

It used to be, a while back, that motorcycle clothing was either inexpressibly ugly or infuriatingly ineffective in one or more ways. The most common of the latter was in weatherproofing. New gear would keep you dry for one or two trips (if at all) and then deteriorate into a leaky annoyance.

Crash protection might have worked, but the padding was big, awkward and heavy. Those days are gone, I’m pleased to report. The more recent clothing I have sampled has been both attractive and highly functional. You can get a more fitted look, and both weatherproofing and crash protection have taken a huge step upward. Prices have also gone up, but name me one field in which they haven’t.

Class A garments meet protection levels for both impact and abrasion, and Class AA garments offer a greater degree of protection than Class A and below…

Every year, I take two or three trips overseas. Add another one to some remote part of this country, and you have a fair bit of travelling. At all of the destinations I ride motorcycles and I am usually photographed, so I need appropriate bike gear. Until recently I have taken and worn full riding suits, of which I have four. There is a Rukka suit, a Klim suit, an old but comfortable Tiger Angel Guardian suit and a BMW Airflow suit. All four are excellent pieces of kit, but all four also pack quite large.

Visit Macna Australia’s website here to see the full range…

I’m hoping to get along with just carry-on luggage in future: my checked bags have been lost or delayed once too often. That means no bulky gear. I have decided that I will take a pair of Draggin’ jeans for riding plus light waterproof over pants for my nether regions. I can wear the Draggin’ pants at a lot of different times, even on the plane. I can also wear the jacket (and take it off before stowing it overhead) so that reduces the bulk of the gear I need to pack.

To celebrate my decision, I decided that I wanted a new jacket. Since the weather is becoming more and more unpredictable all over the world, it must be a four seasons type. Consider my recent ride in Oman: I took my BMW Airflow suit because I was sure it wouldn’t rain, and it rained. In the desert. The jacket needs to photograph well and finally the jacket must also offer a high standard of safety from MotoCAP and ideally the CE class AA and Level 2 for the protective inserts.

The Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program is “an independent, free resource supported by governments and private road safety organisations across Australia and New Zealand. MotoCAP assesses the materials and construction of garments on three key factors necessary to protect a rider from injury: impact abrasion resistance, seam strength (burst), and impact energy absorption; it also rates breathability, and indicates the price level of the garment.

“I settled on the Macna Domane with its high AA and Level 2 ratings”…

See the illustration for an interesting breakdown of the protection required. “MotoCAP tests gear using rigorous, scientific methods to provide ratings for motorcyclists to choose the right gear with the best protection and breathability for their ride.” MotoCAP’s rating is by five stars; good stuff, although garments don’t seem to carry their ratings on them. You need to look them up on the web.

“Two zippers of different lengths are ready to connect trousers. The Easy Cuffs have zippers to connect the liners, which looks and feels tidy.”

The European CE standard is another matter. It is the most generally accepted internationally, and its ratings are featured on the garment. Class C garments are meant to hold impact armour in place, so they do not need to provide abrasion resistance. Class B garments meet Class A abrasion resistance standards, but do not have impact protection. Class A garments meet protection levels for both impact and abrasion, and Class AA garments offer a greater degree of protection than Class A and below.

“The cooling vents work pretty well. All in all, I think I’ve found my travel jacket”…

Class AAA garments provide the highest level of impact protection and abrasion resistance that a piece of motorcycle gear can achieve in terms of CE rating. It mostly takes full racing leather suits to provide this level of protection. AAA may not be suitable for normal riding because comfort is not considered in the rating. Impact armour undergoes a separate set of tests and can be rated CE Level 1 or Level 2. CE Level 2 is better and means the armour has been tested and shown to transmit force below 20 kN. CE Level 1 armour has the higher force threshold of 35 kN.

“This is a four-season and all-weather jacket with its detachable, proprietary Raintex+ and thermal liners”.

So, off to choose the jacket. I thought I had a reasonably good idea of what’s on the market, but when I actually looked in the shops, I found a huge selection of jackets. After spending lots of time in the shops and poring over catalogues, I settled on the Macna Domane with its high AA and Level 2 ratings (it has not been rated by MotoCAP). It looks good and although I don’t generally like fluoro, there isn’t much on it. I do like reflective panels, and there are quite a few on this jacket including some specifically prepared for LED lights.

This is a four-season and all-weather jacket with its detachable, proprietary Raintex+ and thermal liners, as well as a lot of ventilation. Among the other features are plenty of pockets including a fairly small one in the flap at the back of the jacket which comes down to cover my bear backside. Two zippers of different lengths are ready to connect trousers. The Easy Cuffs have zippers to connect the liners, which looks and feels tidy. The jacket comes in sizes from S to 3XL for $749.95 RRP.

The warm and waterproof liners fold down very nicely, although they don’t fit into the back pocket. I have now been wearing the Domane for six weeks and in the jacket has survived the wet weather test very well. I would prefer to see the rain membrane on the outside, so the jacket stays dry, but it looks tidier this way. The cooling vents work pretty well. All in all, I think I’ve found my travel jacket.

The Bear’s Macna Domane jacket was supplied by Australian distributor Link International.

Macna Domane Comfort Features

Air panels chest/back/sleeves
EPG prepared
Easy cuff
Width adjustment on waist/hoodie/lower and upper arm/cuff
Coat hanger
Collar loop
Back pocket

Share this article
Share this article