EN 17092 classes AAA, AA, A, B and C and CE armour Level 1 vs Level 2, explained with catalog data

Two different grades sit on a modern riding jacket, and they are easy to confuse. The class (AAA, AA, A, B or C, from EN 17092) grades the garment itself: its fabric, seams and abrasion resistance. The level (1 or 2, from EN 1621) grades the removable armour inside. A jacket can be Class AA with Level 1 armour or Class A with Level 2 armour, and a plain “CE” mark does not tell you which. In ALLR’s catalog, only 31% of jacket pages state a class at all, and just 1.8% state AAA (ALLR data, recounted 2026-10-24 from the public catalog API). The rest of this guide explains what each grade means, how abrasion is tested, what the two grades cost, and how to read a product page.

EN 17092: the five garment classes

EN 17092 is the European standard for motorcycle protective garments for road use. It replaced EN 13595, which SATRA notes was to be withdrawn in March 2023 and which the Swedish Standards Institute now lists as withdrawn and replaced by the EN 17092 series, and it is organised as one test-methods part plus one requirements part per class. In the EU, riding clothing is Category II personal protective equipment under Regulation (EU) 2016/425, so a third-party body must test and certify it before the CE mark can be applied (per Eurofins).

Higher is not automatically better for you. AAA is the most demanding class on paper, but the right class is the one you will actually wear in the weather you ride in, which is why AA and A dominate the catalog.

How abrasion is tested

EN 17092 uses the Darmstadt abrasion tester (also called the AART): a spinning three-arm rig drops fabric samples onto a concrete surface at a starting speed and lets them slow to a stop. A sample passes if none of three specimens is holed by more than 5 mm. Starting speeds run as high as 120 km/h. Hurren says this may look more realistic to riders than the older constant-speed Cambridge method, and adds a caution worth repeating: there is little published information validating the machine against real crash damage.

EN 1621: Level 1 vs Level 2 armour

EN 1621 tests the armour by dropping a weight on it and measuring how much force reaches a load cell behind it. In part 1 (shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and shin protectors) a 5 kg striker with a 40 x 30 mm face hits the armour at 50 joules, and the lower the transmitted force the better. The standard has two performance levels, and Level 2 lets through less force. Dainese, whose armour is tested to it, describes Level 2 as transmitting up to half the energy of Level 1.

Back-protector numbers and the cost trade-off are covered in depth in back protectors and airbag vests. The point here is that the armour level is printed on the armour, not the jacket class, and the two can be mismatched on purpose: manufacturers often ship Level 1 armour in a Class AA jacket and sell Level 2 as an upgrade.

Class and armour level are separate (ALLR data)

ALLR records both facets. Cross-tabulating the jacket pages that state a class shows how independent they are:

Three things stand out. More than a third of AA jackets (604 of 1,730) state only Level 1 armour, so “AA” does not promise the better armour. Class A is mostly Level 1 (964 of 1,669), which is appropriate for a light jacket. And 69% of jacket pages state no class, and 55% state neither a class nor an armour level, which usually means a retailer left it off the page, not that the jacket lacks it. Ask the store, or check the label inside the jacket, before you assume.

Within the same class, the extra armour grade is priced in: AA jackets stating Level 2 have a median lowest landed price of CA$532 against CA$434 for AA with Level 1, about CA$98 more. In Class A the difference is CA$356 against CA$336 (recounted 2026-10-24). Because Level 2 is also sold as separate armour, upgrading a Level 1 jacket can be cheaper than buying a Level 2 one outright; browse protection, where 831 pages state Level 2 and 739 state Level 1 (catalog facet counts, 2026-10-24).

Jackets that carry each combination

Examples from the catalog, picked for how many stores stock them (stated certifications as of 2026-10-05, check the product page for the current line):

Gloves and boots have their own standards

Hands and feet are covered by EN 13594 (gloves) and EN 13634 (boots), not EN 17092. Both include abrasion, cut, tear and seam tests, and both treat impact protection as optional: SATRA says knuckle and similar impact protection on gloves, and shin and ankle impact protection on boots, are tested only if the maker wishes to make a claim. So a certified glove is not necessarily a knuckle-protected one.

How to read a product page

About these figures

ALLR records the class and level retailers state and ranks confirmed items first without hiding the rest. Jacket and protection counts are dated 2026-10-24, glove and boot tables 2026-10-05; the method is on the methodology page. Filter the jackets catalog by class and level, and for a first kit see the beginner kit under CA$1,000. For the full buying sequence, start at the buyer's guide hub.