EN 17092 is the European standard that certifies motorcycle jackets and trousers as garments, and it sorts them into five classes: AAA, AA, A, B and C. The single most important thing to understand is what it is notrating. It says nothing about the armor in the shoulders, elbows and back — that is a different standard, EN 1621 — and nothing about waterproofing, warmth or fit. It rates the shell: how the fabric and the seams survive abrasion, tearing and bursting. A jacket can carry Level 2 armor in every pocket and still publish no garment class at all, and that combination is extremely common.
If you want the short answer for shopping: for general road riding look for Class AA or better, and treat Class A as the lighter, hot-weather compromise it is. The jackets on this page are ranked by what their makers publish, which is why the Alpinestars Bogota Pro Drystarleads — AA class, Nucleon Flex Pro CE Level 2 armor and a Drystar membrane, with all three stated by the maker rather than inferred from a product photo. Our CE armor levels guide is the companion to this page: it covers EN 1621, the armor side, where this one covers the shell.
A word on where the standard applies. EN 17092 is a European CE standard and it is the legal route to selling riding kit as personal protective equipment in the EU and UK. In the US there is no equivalent requirement, so an American-market jacket can be sold with no garment certification whatsoever and no law broken. That is the actual reason so much of the gear sold here publishes nothing: not that it failed, but that nobody made the maker pay for the test. Which means a published class is genuinely useful evidence, and its absence is ambiguous rather than damning.
What to look for on a jacket's CE claim
- A class letter, from the maker. AAA, AA, A, B or C. Alpinestars publishes "EN 17092 AA class" on the Bogota Pro; KLIM publishes "CE AA to EN 17092-3" on the Carlsbad. If a page says only "CE approved" or "CE Cat. II," you have been told almost nothing about the shell.
- The numbered part, if it is given. EN 17092 is published in parts and the number tells you the class: -2 is AAA, -3 is AA, -4 is A, -5 is B and -6is C. So "EN 17092-3:2020 Class AA" is the same claim twice, stated precisely. A maker writing the part number is showing you the certificate rather than the marketing line.
- Which configuration was certified. This one catches people. The Alpinestars Halo Drystar publishes its AA class with the sleeves on— it is a convertible jacket, and run as a vest it is not the garment that was tested. Read the qualifier, not just the letter.
- Whether the armor is rated separately, and at what level. A garment class and an armor level are two different certifications and you want both. KLIM publishes D3O CE Level 2 including the back on the Carlsbad; Alpinestars publishes Nucleon Flex Pro CE Level 2 on the Bogota Pro. Many jackets ship an uncertified foam pad in the back pocket.
- The year. "EN 17092-3:2020" names the revision. It is a small signal and it correlates strongly with a maker who has the certificate in front of them.
We have not abrasion-tested, tear-tested or burst-tested any garment, and we do not have a lab. Every class, level and construction detail below is the maker's own published wording, sourced at the bottom of the page and scored against our published rubric.
The five classes, and who each one is for
| Class | Part of the standard | What it is intended for | Typical gear |
|---|
| AAA | EN 17092-2 | The highest protection the standard defines, for riding at speed | One-piece leather suits and the heaviest touring kit |
| AA | EN 17092-3 | Strong all-round road protection — the sensible target | Serious touring, adventure and sport jackets; certified riding jeans |
| A | EN 17092-4 | Lighter protection, usually traded for airflow or weight | Mesh and summer jackets, lighter commuter gear |
| B | EN 17092-5 | Abrasion only — no impact-protector requirement | Garments sold without armor pockets |
| C | EN 17092-6 | An armor carrier — holds protectors, no abrasion claim | Armored base layers and under-vests |
Two things in that table surprise most riders. The first is that B and C are not simply "worse" than A— they are different kinds of garment. A Class C armor carrier is not a failed jacket; it is a vest whose job is to hold protectors under something else, and rating it for abrasion would be meaningless. The second is how rare AAA is. Across every jacket and pant we rank on this site, not one publishes AAA. The top of the ladder lives in race suits and heavy leather, and we say so rather than letting the existence of a class imply that you can buy it on Amazon.
What the standard actually tests
The headline test is impact abrasion— the fabric is run against an abrasive surface and the standard measures how long it takes to fail, with the required time rising as you go up the classes. Alongside that it tests tear strength and seam strength, which matter more than riders expect: a shell is only as good as the stitching holding it together, and a garment that survives the slide but splits at a seam has not protected you. Different zones of the garment are tested to different requirements, on the sensible basis that a shoulder meets the road before an underarm panel does.
What the standard does not test is the longer list: waterproofing, breathability, insulation, ventilation, fit, armor coverage, armor level, reflectivity and durability over time. Every one of those is either a separate standard or a marketing claim. This is exactly the same shape of problem as EN 13634 on boots and EN 13594 on gloves, and the three pages together are the whole CE garment picture.
Garment class versus armor level: the mistake to avoid
The most common error we see is treating a "CE Level 2" claim as a statement about the jacket. It is not. EN 1621 Level 1 and Level 2 rate the protector — the insert at the shoulder, elbow or back — and nothing else. You can buy a jacket with Level 2 armor in a shell nobody has ever abrasion-tested, and you can buy a Class AA shell with an uncertified foam pad in the back pocket. Both are half a jacket. The combination to look for is a published class and a published armor level, and the picks on this page have both.
A worked example from our own rankings: the Tourmaster Ridgecrest Mesh publishes EN 1621-1 Level 2 shoulder and elbow armor — a genuinely good claim — and no EN 17092 class at all, with an EVA foam pad rather than a certified protector at the back. The FLY Racing Terra Trek publishes Level 1 armor and no class either. Neither is a bad jacket and we rank both; what they cannot tell you is how their shells resist abrasion. Our armored jacket ranking and textile jacket ranking both state the class, or its absence, on every pick for this reason.
Which class should you actually buy?
- Commuting and general road riding: aim for Class AA with at least Level 1 armor, ideally Level 2 at the back. The Bogota Pro and the Carlsbad on this page are both there.
- Hot weather: Class A is a reasonable, honest trade. The Alpinestars T-SPS V2 publishes A class; the Stella SMX Air publishes EN 17092-4 A class on a mesh-and-450D shell. You are buying airflow with abrasion time, knowingly. See our summer jacket ranking.
- Fast road and track: you want AAA, and that means looking outside the textile market at leather suits. Our leather jacket rankingis the closest this site gets — the Alpinestars GP Force V2 Airflow publishes EN 17092 AA.
- Riding jeans: the same ladder rates trousers, and it is how you separate certified riding denim from ordinary jeans with a logo. Three of the pairs on our armored jeans ranking publish Class AA to EN 17092-3; one publishes nothing.
If a jacket publishes no class at all
Do not read it as a failure, and do not read it as fine either. In the US market there is no legal requirement, so plenty of well-built gear has never been submitted. What you can do is read the next layer down: the published fabric denier and where the reinforcement is, the armor standard and levelby number, and whether the seams are described at all. A maker who publishes 600 denier polyester with 1000 denier ripstop on the shoulders and EN 1621-1 Level 2 armor is telling you something real, even without a class. A maker whose only claim is "CE armor" and "premium material" is telling you nothing. Our how to choose a jacket guide works through that decision in full, and how a jacket should fit covers the part no certification measures.
