How to Clean a Motorcycle Jacket: Textile, Mesh & Leather

Dirty riding gear tells stories of the adventures you have been on. But then do you want to hold up a neon sign on your head to show others that you are an awesome rider? We guess not. You are not treating your riding gear properly if you don’t clean it from time to time. Dust, Dirt, Smoke and not to forget your sweat on the inside makes regular cleaning necessary. So let's find out how to clean motorcycle riding jacket.

Following this Riding Jacket Maintenance Guide will prolong the overall life of your riding gear

Check the Care Label First

Before doing anything else, check the label stitched inside your jacket. Manufacturers print specific care instructions there, whether machine wash is safe, wash temperature limits, and any material-specific warnings that don't apply to every jacket. If the label and the general advice in this guide ever disagree, follow the label, it's written for your exact jacket's construction, not a generic textile jacket.

Steps for how to wash your textile Riding Jacket:

Hand washing riding gear is the preferred way of washing Riding Jacket.

Remove all liners if present.
Remove armour from arms, elbows, shoulders, back etc.

washing Riding Jacket

Check pockets if they contain anything. If yes, remove those items. You don’t want to wash away couple of hundred bucks. Open zips / chains of all pockets.
Gently dust off the jacket with a soft brush / cloth to get rid of dust and dirt.
Check areas with bright colours. They would need more attention.
Spot clean the gear to remove the excessive dirt with a soft brush and clean water. Gently brush those areas with bristle brush.
Immerse the jacket / pants in a tub of water. Add mild detergent to it. (bleach/ strong detergent / fabric softener should be avoided at all cost) Let the gear soak for one hour. This will help in loosening the dirt.
Brush again gently with a soft brush / hand till all dirt washes away.
Keep rinsing and changing water (without detergent) till all dirt is washed away and there is no trace of any detergent.
Hang the jacket on a hanger and keep it in the washroom till you can’t see any water dripping.
Keep the jacket on the hanger till it dries completely.
Do not keep the riding jacket in direct sun. Harsh sunlight may fade the colours.
Insert all armour back into place and you are now ready to wear it again.

If you still feel that you don’t want to bother hand washing the garments, here are a few tips for –

Steps for Cleaning Riding Jacket in a washing machine:

Check the tags to see if your Riding Jacket is suitable for machine wash.

Cleaning Riding Jacket in a washing machine

Remove all liners if present.
Remove armour from arms, elbows, shoulders, back etc.
Check pockets if they contain anything. If yes, remove those items. You don’t want to wash away couple of hundred bucks. Open zips / chains of all pockets.
Gently dust off the jacket with a soft brush / cloth to get rid of dust and dirt.
Spot clean the gear to remove the excessive dirt with a soft brush and clean water. Gently brush those areas with bristle brush.
Fill only half the water capacity in washing machine.
Use only mild detergent. (bleach/ strong detergent / fabric softner should be avoided at all cost)
Avoid intensive rinse cycle of automatic washing machines.
DO NOT dry the riding jacket in spin dryer of your washing machine.
Hang the jacket on a hanger and keep it in the washroom till you can’t see any water dripping.
Keep the riding jacket on the hanger till it dries completely. Some suggest drying the gear in sun but harsh sunlight may fade the colours.
Insert all armour back into place and you are now ready to wear it again.

Cleaning a Leather Riding Jacket

Leather needs a completely different process than textile or mesh. The wrong product, or too much water, can dry out, crack, or discolour leather permanently, so skip the detergent and tub-soak method entirely for these jackets.

Dust the jacket off first with a soft, dry brush or cloth to remove loose dirt before using anything wet.
Spot test any cleaning product on a hidden area, like the inside of a cuff or hem, before applying it anywhere visible. Leather reacts differently between brands and finishes, so this step matters even with products marketed specifically for leather.
Use a cleaner made specifically for leather, not household soap or laundry detergent. Regular soap strips the natural oils that keep leather supple, which is exactly what causes cracking over time.
Wipe with a barely damp soft cloth rather than soaking the jacket. Leather absorbs water differently than textile, and oversaturating it can warp the material or cause it to stiffen once dry.
For stains, blot rather than rub. Rubbing can push the stain deeper into the leather or spread it further. Oil-based stains in particular need a leather-specific stain remover, plain water won't shift them.
If your jacket is perforated leather, work a soft brush gently into the holes to remove trapped dirt, since it collects there faster than on a solid panel.
Never machine wash or machine dry a leather jacket, and keep it away from radiators, hair dryers, or direct sunlight while drying. Let it air dry naturally, away from direct heat.
Once the jacket is fully dry, apply a leather conditioner. This is the step people skip most often, and it's the one that actually prevents cracking, conditioning replaces the oils that washing and everyday wear remove, keeping the leather supple rather than letting it dry out and stiffen.

How often should you condition a leather riding jacket? Roughly every few months if you ride regularly, or any time the leather starts to feel dry or stiff rather than supple. Riding through a lot of sun or dry weather will use up the conditioning faster than mild, humid conditions will.

Riding Jackets with breathable membranes:

In case your riding jacket is the one with one of the breathable membranes (don’t know what they are? We have a short guide about breathable membranes), they need a different process than washing normal mesh / textile riding jacket.

As time goes by, you would be seeing that the waterproof and breathable properties of your riding jacket going down. Then it is time to recharge these properties in your riding jacket. For these riding jackets, we recommend to recharge the waterproof properties during/after each wash / alternate wash.

Typical household detergents leave behind a water-attractive (hydrophilic) residue which masks the Water Repellency properties of your riding jacket. This causes the jacket to absorb water. Therefore, they need to be avoided when cleaning waterproof items.

Steps for washing Riding Jacket with Breathable membrane:

Wash your riding jacket as described earlier in either of the two methods.
Let the riding Jacket Dry.
Once it is dry, tumble dry your garment for 20 minutes to reactivate the durable water-repellent (DWR) treatment on the outer fabric.
If unable to tumble dry, iron the dry garment on gentle setting (warm, no steam) by placing a towel or cloth between the garment and the iron. This will help reactivate the DWR treatment on your garment’s outer fabric.
When the factory applied treatment can no longer be reactivated, apply a new water-repellent treatment like Nikwax available as a pump-spray or wash-in product to the garment's outer fabric.

“Avoid touching Nikwax or similar products with your naked hands”

Instructions for storing your Riding Jacket & Other Riding Gear:

Air the clothing thoroughly after every use. After all, you don’t want to smell your sweat at the beginning of next ride.
Do not store clothing in air tight plastic bags.
Do not store clothing in damp areas.
Do not Stow away your wet/damp riding gear. It will start growing fungus.

How Often Should You Clean Your Riding Jacket

Wipe your jacket down and air it out after every ride, that alone stops most of the sweat and dust build-up before it becomes a real cleaning job. Beyond that, a proper deep clean roughly once a month is enough for regular riders, or sooner if the jacket is visibly dirty or starting to smell. If you ride through monsoon season, expect to clean it more often, mud and road grime build up considerably faster in wet conditions.

Points to remember:

Some would argue that the riding jackets are built to withstand a crash so why such a delicate cleaning process? Answer is simple…. The outer portion is tough but not the inner mesh / lining and it may tear off during intensive cleaning.

The hand wash, machine wash, and breathable membrane steps above are for textile and mesh jackets. If you have a leather jacket, use the dedicated leather cleaning section instead, the two materials need genuinely different care.

Before & After

Before/After image of a riding jacket

Now you can enjoy the riding gear to the fullest….Keep riding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Can you dry clean a motorcycle jacket?

A1. No, for textile jackets. Dry cleaning solvents can strip waterproof coatings and break down the fabric's protective treatment. For leather jackets, a professional leather-specific dry cleaner familiar with motorcycle gear is sometimes acceptable, but check with the jacket manufacturer first rather than assuming any dry cleaner can handle it safely.

Q2. Can I machine wash my riding jacket?

A2. Only if the care label specifically allows it, and only for textile jackets, never leather. If machine washing is allowed, use a gentle cycle, mild detergent, half the usual water level, and skip the spin dry entirely.

Q3. How do I clean a leather motorcycle jacket?

A3. Dust it off with a soft brush, wipe with a leather-specific cleaner on a barely damp cloth, and always condition afterward to keep the leather from drying out and cracking. Never machine wash or machine dry a leather jacket, and keep it away from direct heat while drying.

Q4. How often should I clean my riding jacket?

A4. Wipe it down and air it out after every ride, and do a proper deep clean roughly once a month if you ride regularly, or sooner if it's visibly dirty or starting to smell. Monsoon riding usually means cleaning more often since mud and grime build up faster.

Q5. Can I use regular laundry detergent on a waterproof riding jacket?

A5. It's best avoided. Regular detergents leave a residue that reduces the fabric's water repellency, and dedicated technical-wear detergents like Nikwax Tech Wash are actually built to clean waterproof gear without damaging the coating.

Q6. My riding jacket smells bad even after washing. What am I doing wrong?

A6. Sweat trapped in the inner lining is the usual culprit, and a single wash sometimes doesn't fully remove it. Try soaking the jacket longer before washing, and make sure it's completely dry before storing, since trapped moisture is what actually causes lingering odour and mildew.

Q7. Is it safe to tumble dry a motorcycle jacket?

A7. Avoid it for most jackets, high heat can damage waterproof membranes, shrink fabric, or warp armour if it wasn't removed. The one exception is a short, low-heat tumble specifically to reactivate a DWR (water-repellent) coating, and only if the care label allows it.

Q8. Do I need to remove the armour before washing?

A8. Yes, always. Most armour isn't designed to get wet, and leaving it in during a wash can damage the padding or cause it to lose its protective shape over time.