By Kevin Rogerson
Whitley Bay Police Station
Northumbria Police (UK)

The "Ultimate Action Trousers" - this is how the KIT brochure describes trouser model #720. Quite a claim, but do they live up to it?

I joined Northumbria Police in August 1990 and have spent a total of six years on a uniform shift and six years in CID. The last 2 ½ years, I have been a Community Beat Manager (CBM). One of the first things that struck me when I became a CBM was the time it took just to walk onto my beat, let alone patrol it on foot. The solution to this inefficiency was obvious - a mountain bike. However, adopting this concept wasn't as simple as I first thought. And after a bit of personal research, I discovered that procuring a uniform specifically for bike patrol officers in the UK was a lot more difficult than I expected.

In May 2002, I was invited onto a working party set up to look at uniforms for bike officers. It was whilst on this working group that I met Peter Riley from KIT. KIT already supplied some uniform to Northumbria Police, and had started manufacturing bike-specific uniform components, including a Cargo-style trouser. The other six bike officers at Whitley Bay and I were wearing Ronhill tracksters and whilst these are ideal for cycling, they are not suitable for meetings, even informal ones.

From my point of view, the ideal bike uniform would feel like cycle wear but would look like a normal uniform when off the bike. So when I saw Peter Riley at the 2003 Emergency Services Cycling Seminar in York, and he explained to me that KIT had just introduced a new pair of trousers ideally suited for cycle patrol officers, I was very interested. Peter waxed lyrical about the Ultimate Action Trousers and made some quite impressive claims in their favour. These were made of a new material which allowed the weave to stretch in four directions yet retained its shape (no baggy knees), lined with a fabric which kept you cool in the summer but warm in the winter, and had as many pockets as a Ford Galaxy people carrier - in short, they were Ultimate Action Trousers. He then hit me with the price tag - £90 a pair.

I arranged to trial a pair of these "all singing and dancing" trousers and finally got my hands on them in November 2003.

The first thing I noticed is how much like standard uniform trousers they look. In fact, from across a room, you'd struggle to notice the difference - a good start. When I put them on, I discovered just how comfortable they were; this may sound strange, but I really didn't notice that I was wearing them. I immediately put them to the stretch test, and there was no restriction in my movement - absolutely none at all! The inner lining is actually fixed to the outer fabric so they move in unison. The inner fabric has a very soft feel to it, which I can only liken to the feel of lamb's wool. The stitching is quite subtle and the plethora of pockets isn't too obvious; this aids in passing them off as normal uniform trousers. The pockets and the people carrier analogy rings true - pockets are dotted all over the pants. KIT have managed to fit eight pockets into these trousers! At the front on each side are the standard open pockets and beneath each of these is another pocket secured by a zip which is nicely concealed (as are all the zips). Two more zipped pockets can be found at the back, and the final two are located on the front of each thigh. These thigh pockets are again secured by a zip which runs vertically along the outside of the leg and are big enough for a pocket notebook or stop-and-search pad.

The trousers are slightly tapered and have some rather discreet Velcro at the back to fasten the bottom of the trousers down and prevent them getting caught in the bike chain.

Standard belt loops are fitted along the waistband and a plastic D-ring is attached to the waistband, above the front right pocket. Also attached to the waist band on the inside at the back is semi-circular sweat pad.

OK, so they looked and felt good. The true test would be the three month trial. The North of England doesn't do nice warm weather during winter; it doesn't even do nice weather. What is does do is changeable, wet, cold, windy icy weather - a fair testing ground. When someone extols the virtues of something, you can become quite determined to see if it is all it is professed to be. So these trousers were my uniform for the majority of this period. They were subjected to at least 400 miles of police cycling. They kept the wind out and the warmth in, wicking away sweat very quickly. I even decided to use them off-duty on my road bike and went for a more energetic ride - they're not designed for this - but they still performed very well.

I would normally have had to put waterproof trousers over the tracksters during short showers, but the KIT trousers have a finish that allows light rain to almost roll off the surface. One evening I was caught short in some heavy rain on route back to the station, but I got back without getting soaked to the skin. The trousers were very damp but not uncomfortable, and they dried out within half an hour. This leads me onto another major benefit of the 720's. When washed, the trousers come out of the machine just about dry. Popping them in the tumble dryer on their own for 10 minutes brings them out completely dry. If cycling is first on the agenda at work there is really no need to iron them, although this isn't a chore - it takes longer to get the ironing board out, switch on the iron and allow it to heat up than it does to actually iron these trousers. And despite being washed twice weekly, the fabric didn't really fade. Mind you, it is not what I would describe as jet black to begin with, certainly not as black as a tunic.

So I had established that these were excellent bike trousers and the benefits of the four-way stretch fabric meant they would be ideal for normal daily patrol, whether in a car or on foot. The fact that they allow unrestricted movement means they will not hinder you in a foot pursuit, nor is climbing in them a problem. Just to test them a little bit more I wore them walking and climbing with my children - I really couldn't fault them.

Although the initial trial was during the winter months, we have now had the chance to test them in the summer. They again lived up to their billing - even in temperatures in the 80's (that's hot for us), they did what was promised and kept us relatively cool.

So do the Ultimate Action Trousers live up to their claim? Yes, they do. These trousers just scream quality. The only problem is convincing those who control the purse strings that at £90 a pair they represent good value; this is their Achilles heel. The high price is their only down side. We managed to outfit all of our officers only by factoring the trousers into a bid for helmet cameras to tackle youth disorder. It may be worth looking at ways to bring down the price - by including fewer pockets, for instance. Whilst the pockets are a nice feature, once their novelty wore off, I, like my colleagues, found myself only using the front pockets. The extra pockets are good for walking, but on the bike they are a bit surplus to requirement - and I have no doubt are one of the reasons why the trousers cost £90.

I would score the 720's 9/10 for performance and 7/10 for value. If the price could be brought down to £50 - £60, they would score straight 9's. How about it, KIT?

Kevin is a member of the IPMBA UK Steering Committee. He is a keen mountain biker in his spare time (with the emphasis being on fun) and is committed to expanding the use of mountain bike patrol in the UK. He can be reached at ssmkpr@yahoo.co.uk.

© 2005 IPMBA. This review appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of IPMBA News.