Best Crash Protection

[Nick JacksonMember]

At a recent party I went to I got chatting to a professional jockey and we soon got on the subjects of riding. Although he likes a horse and I like a dirt bike the similarities in our sports surprised me when it came to an unplanned dismount and hitting the deck. 
The horse racing world takes their jockeys safety quite seriously and a lot of research has been done in to how we react when we are about to hit the ground. They found that in a crash situation our natural reaction is to adopt the faetal position. We do this as it best protects our body although we sometimes don’t have time to get all the way their !!  They then noted that some of the protective armor used by jockeys restricts the rider getting into a protective position resulting  in the armor possibly causing some of the injuries. A lot of time was spent developing armor and the jockey I spoke to said their isn’t a world standard but each country enforcing their own preferred body protection which the racer must comply to when racing in that country. He said Australia use a hard armor which he doesn’t particularly like whereas Japan use a soft armor that he believes allows more freedom of movement when having an off.

 It seems crazy to me that as the rider taking the risks isn’t allowed to choose his own protective gear. ??

We got talking about bike protection and I was talking from a trail riders perspective not an enduro racer or MX rider who jump higher and ride at higher speeds. We need roost protection as do jockeys ( he was telling me the amount of roost a horse throws up !!! ) and we also travel at similar speeds , us a bit faster but they fall from a lot higher so we agreed the compare was a fair one. 

A good mate of mine had a an off traveling at about 20km/h he broke his collar bone , 3 ribs and shattered his scapulae ( shoulder blade ). He put a lot of blame for his injuries on his hard armor as he said on impact he felt it pushing into his body and felt the built in back pack used in this brand of armor added force to his shoulder.

I have both hard armor and have recently been wearing the Forcefield soft armor. I find it comfortable and after a few offs on varying surfaces can say it offers good protection.             

Jockeys soft body armor 

Dirt bikers hard armor 

Dirt bikers soft armor

I’m really interested in how our armor prevents injuries and which we like best , has anyone had any crashes that they believe the armor has either caused injury or saved major injury?

Nick

[Adrian SnowdenMember]

With my rider ability I’d like to encase myself in a padded rigid case the more protection the better. The work I did on the leatt brace research revealed some of the massive forces involved in some of our impacts. The papers is finished by the way and will be made available when I get back from nz in two weeks tb has a draft version and is working on how to make it accessible as it goes for 30 pages

[alanMember]

have crash tested the hard armor as above reckon it does nothen other than roost protection.now use the suit type armor axo stuff its heaps better to fall off in good protection but some of it is hard bloody hot but.not as good roost protection ether.just my opionion :blink:

[Nick JacksonMember]

white rocket wrote:

have crash tested the hard armor as above reckon it does nothen other than roost protection.now use the suit type armor axo stuff its heaps better to fall off in good protection but some of it is hard bloody hot but.not as good roost protection ether.just my opionion :blink:

Is this the type of armour your wearing Rocket ?

[alanMember]

yep very similar to that

[alanMember]

in cold weather i use my bike jacket that has inbuilt soft armer and find it more comfterble than the suit and it works .fell of one day with it on it would have busted me with that hard stuff as pictered above(in the first post) as i used to where .jumped up thought shit that did not hert thats why i got the axo suit

[PuddlesMember]

Nick
My daughter had a big crash a motocross about a month ago knocked herself out.
The doctors believe she was saved from serious injury as she was wearing a neck brace & full body protection.
She landed head first after doing a jump. The force of impact put stress cracks in her helmet. that was brand new on the day.
I believe full body armour & neck braces should be compulsory for all juniors racing, you hear all the excuses, too hot, uncomfortable,etc & i’m sure this could create a big debate but this is just my opinion

[peteMember]

I use the 661 pressure suit and as they say, they are only meant for roost deflection, but i would rather have one on than not.
Has anyone else been hit with that one big rock or that branch sticking of the edge of the trail that would have been very bad if it wasnt for you protective, if your traveling at about 80 or 90 along a fire trail and one of those bloody big bore 4Ts send a good rock back at you, it could be hitting you at 100 plus K’s.
I was jousted off my bike once by the end of a broken branch that hit my armour and then glanced off and picked my up by the collar bone and sent backwards on to the ground, it was one of those times where you wonder if the armour helped or hindered.

PTW

[Nick JacksonMember]

Puddles wrote:

Nick
My daughter had a big crash a motocross about a month ago knocked herself out.
The doctors believe she was saved from serious injury as she was wearing a neck brace & full body protection.
She landed head first after doing a jump. The force of impact put stress cracks in her helmet. that was brand new on the day.
I believe full body armour & neck braces should be compulsory for all juniors racing, you hear all the excuses, too hot, uncomfortable,etc & i’m sure this could create a big debate but this is just my opinion

I hope your daughters ok mate and it sounds like the armor she wore with the neck brace was a great investment. Was it hard armor , soft of a body suit ?

[scott bockingMember]

Hey Nick
Who makes this?

STM

[PuddlesMember]

sorry Nick should of said Body suit
she’s ok still has another couple of weeks before she is allowed to ride again & is as keen as to get back on the bike

[Nick JacksonMember]

pete the wulf wrote:

I use the 661 pressure suit and as they say, they are only meant for roost deflection, but i would rather have one on than not.
Has anyone else been hit with that one big rock or that branch sticking of the edge of the trail that would have been very bad if it wasnt for you protective, if your traveling at about 80 or 90 along a fire trail and one of those bloody big bore 4Ts send a good rock back at you, it could be hitting you at 100 plus K’s.
I was jousted off my bike once by the end of a broken branch that hit my armour and then glanced off and picked my up by the collar bone and sent backwards on to the ground, it was one of those times where you wonder if the armour helped or hindered.

PTW

I’m not sure that the soft armor suit I’ve been wearing gives very good roost protection as the chest plates are quite small and I’ve had a few rocks find their way past and it bloody hurts. On the plus side their is nothing that can be grabbed by a branch like your describing Pete.

Nick

[Nick JacksonMember]

King STM wrote:

Hey Nick
Who makes this?

STM

This is made by Forcefield mate , they have a range of soft armor protection for motorsports , snow boarding and rock climbing.
see here

[Mick DMember]

I wore an EVS neck brace (the first one) and managed to have a few come offs in it and I found it did indeed limit your ability to “tuck and roll” (ie the faetal position described by Nickj). This alone caused my head to hit the ground heavier than it would have without the neck brace on, in my opinion. Not a scientific study by all means, just my own experience.

[Dwayne OMember]

Nickj wrote:

King STM wrote:

Hey Nick
Who makes this?

STM

This is made by Forcefield mate , they have a range of soft armor protection for motorsports , snow boarding and rock climbing.
see here

Nice find there Jacko,,, They have a big range od gear too
And its available in Sydney (Wetherill Park) I may know someone that works near there :laugh:

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