Although the ceramic print fabric from Schoeller Textiles has been around a few years, the higher price took some time for cycling brands to hop on board. Proven to reduce road rash in the event of a crash, the highly abrasion resistant fabric will now be incorporated into Scott cycling apparel.
Another result of the prosperous Eschler-Schoeller partnership, the ceramic coating technology incorporates fine ceramic particles in a pentagon-shaped design. Normally in a bike crash, your cycling apparel almost immediately tears away, creating skin on gravel/asphalt contact and giving you a nasty road rash. This ceramic structure helps the fabric resist tearing apart when it comes in contact with the asphalt or the trail, thus protecting your skin. The coating is wash-resistant, and does not change the feel of the fabric.
Many companies have tried to address the road rash issue, some more successfully than others. Road Rash Guard created plastic clip-ons that when placed in injury prone areas, would take the brunt of your body-on-asphalt abrasion. Pegasus Performance took it one step further and designed apparel with extra fabric layers in your shoulders and hips, hoping that the two layers of fabric would slide against each other instead of tearing and exposing your skin.
The Scott Sports cycling kit with ceramic print fabric is called RC ProTec and will be available to you by the end of 2015. Both the bike shorts and jersey feature sections with what Scott calls ITD ProTec Bikewear Technology—panels on the shoulders and hips will protect your skin in the places you are most likely to experience road rash when you wipe out. For extra abrasion resistance, Scott uses a carbon knit fabric as the base—carbon fiber woven directly into the fabric ensures even higher breakage strength and also adds an antibacterial element.
The Scott RC ProTec Jersey will retail for $125 and the RC ProTec Shorts for $145.