They finally got here!
Very nice pants. Not as heavy denim as my Draggin' Jeans, but same coverage area. They look and feel like my favorite pair of faded Levis, except about twice as heavy denim. Wearing them I hardly notice the leather in the knees and seat. Amazingly, the Mods are cut long enough so they don't pull up over the top of my normal leather boots when riding. Something I can't say for my Icon Barrier and definitely not the Draggin'. I could wear these pants everywhere and not feel or look out of place. They're comfortable enough without the armor that I would wear them everywhere. With the armor in, no one can see it. No verdict on riding with knee armor yet, I only sat on the bike for a minute with them on. Raining outside again.
Best part of the Mod Denim pants? Pockets I can get my hands into!! Not just one hand squeezed as flat as possible! The Draggin' are simply too tight, the Barrier have ridiculously small holes at the top of cavernous pockets, the Mods have normal pockets almost like Levis
Turns out I was being a dunce when I first put the knee armor in. I didn't think about it, and put them on the inside of the pants. Now that I have the pants inside out, I can see the actual pockets they go in. I was disappointed at first because the armor wouldn't stay put, and kept catching on my kneecap whenever I moved. Putting it in the pocket should fix that. There's a nice long strip of velcro inside the pocket, leaving me with no doubt that the armor will stay in place in the jeans. Whether it stays in place on my leg is another story. It may turn out that the only good place for knee armor is strapped to my leg or in tight leather pants. I tried on the A* version, and didn't like them at all. Good fit, nice feel, but thin and no leather or kevlar and bad armor placement. So far, I'm loving my new Cortech riding jeans!
I also picked up a fieldsheer visor carrier and a dark smoke shield for my RF-1000.