CE Armor and Garment Ratings Explained

A motorcycle jacket can look tough and protect you poorly, or look ordinary and protect you well — the way to tell them apart is the labels, not the looks. Two European standards do the work: EN 1621 rates the armor (the impact protectors), and EN 17092rates the garment itself (mainly for abrasion). Once you can read those two, you can judge any piece of gear on its actual protection instead of its marketing. Here’s how they work.

EN 1621: the armor standard

The hard or semi-flexible pads at your shoulders, elbows, knees, hips and back are impact protectors, and they’re certified to EN 1621. The test strikes the armor and measures how much force passes through to what’s underneath. There are two levels:

• Level 1— transmits less than a set force threshold in testing. A solid baseline of protection, usually thinner and more flexible, which is why it’s common in comfortable everyday gear.
• Level 2— transmits roughly half as much force again as Level 1, so it’s the higher-protection tier. Often a little thicker and stiffer, and worth having at high-impact areas.

Limb armor (shoulders, elbows, knees, hips) is covered by EN 1621-1; back protectors have their own part, EN 1621-2, and are also rated Level 1 or Level 2. When a jacket says it comes with “CE Level 1 armor,” that’s what it means: the pads passed the EN 1621 test at that level. Where a maker doesn’t state the level — just “CE approved” — that’s worth noting, and we call it out in our gear reviews when it happens.

EN 17092: the garment standard

Armor protects specific points; the rest of the garment has to survive sliding down the road, and that’s abrasion resistance, rated by EN 17092. It grades the whole jacket, pants or suit into classes:

• Class AAA— the highest, for maximum abrasion and impact protection. Full-protection touring and sport gear. Toughest, and usually heaviest and warmest.
• Class AA— a strong all-round class that covers most quality road gear, balancing protection with wearability.
• Class A— a lighter class suited to ventilated, warm-weather gear where breathability is a priority. Real certified protection, tuned for airflow rather than maximum toughness.

(There are also lighter classes for base layers and specific garments, but AAA/AA/A are the ones you’ll see on jackets.) The key insight: a higher class isn’t simply “better” for you — a AAA suit is overkill and unbearable for a hot summer commute, while a Class A mesh jacket is exactly right for it. Match the class to the riding.

Gloves and boots have their own standards

The same idea extends to the extremities. Gloves are certified to EN 13594, in Level 1 or Level 2, testing abrasion, tearing and (for the higher level) knuckle impact. Boots are certified to EN 13634, which grades height, abrasion, crush resistance and ankle support. When our gear reviews list a glove as “CE Level 1 KP” (the KP means it includes a certified knuckle protector) or a boot as “CE EN 13634,” that’s the standard being referenced. Look for these marks the same way you look for a jacket’s armor level and garment class.

How to read a spec in practice

Put it together and a gear listing becomes readable. Take a summer sport jacket described as “EN 17092 Class A, Nucleon Flex Plus Level 1 shoulder and elbow armor, back protector pocket”: that tells you it’s a ventilation-oriented garment (Class A) with certified baseline impact protection at the shoulders and elbows (Level 1), and that you’ll need to add a back protector to cover the spine. That’s a genuinely good warm-weather jacket, and now you know exactly what it does and doesn’t include. Our jackets, gloves and boots rankings list these ratings for every product, and where a maker leaves a rating vague, we say so rather than assume the best case.

The bottom line

You don’t need to memorize the standards — you need to look for the marks and know roughly what they mean. Prefer gear with stated CE levelsover gear that just claims to be “protective.” For most road riders, Level 1 armor and a Class AA garmentis a strong, wearable baseline, with Level 2 armor and a AAA garment as upgrades for maximum protection, and Class A for dedicated warm-weather gear. Add a certified back protector if your jacket doesn’t include one. That’s the whole game — and it’s the foundation of the head-to-toe ATGATT approach.