Alpinestars Streetwise Drystar Pants Review

Touring pants are a dime a dozen on the apparel market these days, so it helps to home in on the desired features that fit your needs. If you’re a weekend warrior or a commuter, the choices become somewhat simpler, but you’re still probably craving some bells and whistles even if they’re not of the premium variety. If that sorta describes your situation, Alpinestars’ Streetwise Drystar Pants might be your new jam. With a solid array of basic features like waterproofing, insulation, armor, and even a vent or two, they should slot into the occasional touring or commuting category quite nicely. As far as build quality, material choice, and feature set goes, they strike us midrange but not bare bones; they’re not quite up to taking on an Iron Butt, but then they won’t blow a Gore-Tex-sized hole in your moto budget (you have one of those, right?) either. Alpinestars seems to have hit the right medium-duty tone with the Streetwise pants.

The Streetwise (Streetwises?) came around as part of Astars’ Spring 2018 International Collection, so I’ve had a bit of time with them, both in inclement weather and on bluebird days.

As I’ve learned to expect from most Euro-designed gear, fit is a bit on the tight side so if you’re between a medium and a large, lean toward the large. (But if you go for the optional hip inserts, all bets are off.) Articulated inserts on the knee make it easy to position your legs onboard and two adjustable hook-and-loop tabs—one at the thigh and one at the top of the calf—make it a snap to cinch down excess material and combat baggy-pants syndrome. The same type of adjusters live at the ankle, with a full gusset at the interior bottom, though we wish the hem-to-mid-calf zipper was taller and opened wider to get boots through more easily (hey, we’re lazy). A big accordion panel over your butt gives you plenty of freedom of movement and the reinforced 600-denier butt area even has a grippy silicone treatment so you don’t slide all over the saddle.

The Drystar waterproof/breathable membrane laminated onto the multi-fabric (mostly nylon) shell and a removable full-length thermal liner easily make these pants three-season appropriate, doing the job of keeping rain from penetrating 85 percent of the time (only a couple of downpours, to be fair). The 15 percent failure rate was due to exterior vents on the upper thighs—they zip open to scoop up air on warm days, but they don’t have a waterproof seam—and at speed, you can definitely feel that moisture ingress. The flip side is that the liner keeps you fairly toasty so you can extend rides well into the lower-40s; we’ve been using them plenty these last few mild (but rainy) winter months and will probably keep them handy well into spring. Impact protection comes in the form of CE-certified Level 1 Bio Armor knee protectors, which feel fairly robust but aren’t too clunky, and there are pockets for CE-certified Nucleon KR-H hip protectors (sold separately). We were pretty keen on the Streetwise’s wind-blocking properties too, and for lower-speed commutes, they felt like just the ticket.

In short, the Streetwise pants make a good addition to the gear closet for light-duty touring and commuting. As for temperature range, we wouldn’t wear them below 35 degrees and probably anything over 85 degrees (lose the liner!), but they’re waterproof, have a modicum of insulation and ventilation, and incorporate CE-certified protection without looking bulky. The $239.95 price tag is on the high end for a midrange pant, but the solid assortment of features and good design justifies it.

$239.95

Size: S–4XL

Contact: alpinestars.com