Why I stopped wearing motorcycle body armour

[mangocrazy]

I’ll praise the video: Ryan put his head above the parapet by highlighting regulatory capture with manufacturers setting the CE standards. (Manufacturers outnumber everyone else on the CE and BSI standards committees. And Dainese chaired the CE standards committee.)

@Horse While armour provides abrasion resistance, it’s neither tested nor certified for it. Instead, our armour is certified and marketed for impact protection — inferring reduced fracture risk.

Roderick Woods developed a Level 3 armour standard, and Paul Varnsverry argued for more appropriately-sized armour; both were blocked by regulatory capture.

So who regulates the regulators? At some point in the pyramid there will be a committee that decides the make-up of the regulatory board. I'd wager your mortgage that such a committee is firmly under the thumb of the manufacturers. It's what they do and it's called lobbying.

[Felix]

As soon as a get a new jacket they are first part to come out as well as the liner. I just find it all to uncomfortable and sometimes restrictive.

[Rockburner]

As soon as a get a new jacket they are first part to come out as well as the liner. I just find it all to uncomfortable and sometimes restrictive.

Same - but I fit in the old Hein Gericke HiProtec Sport armour instead - it's as flexible as any cloth, and more protective than any hard foam crap. Shame they stopped making it. I know the D30 stuff is probably better, but I find it's still a little too stiff for proper comfort.

[Horse]

Coincidental that impact absorbing armour aids abrasion resistance!

Here's a thought.....

Is the trend towards lighter, thinner, more flexible armour materials (D3O etc.) having a negative trend with regards to abrasion resistance? Are we sacrificing unintentional abrasion resistance in chasing a questionable higher impact resistance when we ditch the bulky hard OEM CE1 armour?

It struck me, ages ago, that it should be possible to '3D weave' fabrics to increase abrasion resistance in shaped areas. Such as elbows. Equivalent to multiple layers of leather.

And some manufacturers add exterior hard plastic (or metal?) sliders in very vulnerable areas.

What you're saying makes sense, but it would need detailed materials knowledge. Stuff like D3O - AFAIK - 'hardens' under impact. It could require multilayer materials?

The first off-the-peg armoured motorcycle gear of any sort was, AFAIK, Aerostich in the States then ProTek here (1988).

That ProTek armour then was two layer foam. The back protector was soft (camping mat) foam with a hard carapace.

Things have moved on. But along the way included stuff that didn't work if wet, or crumbled apart.

[MrLongbeard]

[Mr. Dazzle]

It struck me, ages ago, that it should be possible to '3D weave' fabrics to increase abrasion resistance in shaped areas.

This is why shoelaces are braided, rather than twisted. The high degree of interlacement (no pun intended) and the multiple fibres (12-24 woven, rather than just being 3 or 4 twisted) means they're much more resistant to abrasion, which is what you want in a shoelace.

Same reason you get both braided and woven cables. Different characteristics.

Well....the other reason you get copper/ally braided cable is that it's much harder to unpick them and extract just the copper, making them less tempting targets of theft

[mangocrazy]

Well....the other reason you get copper/ally braided cable is that it's much harder to unpick them and extract just the copper, making them less tempting targets of theft

The other (other) reason cables are braided is to reduce crosstalk between strands.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Rich test engineers buy fancy twisted and braided shield cables to wire their sensors to be resitant to EMC.

Smart ones use Cat 6 cable stolen from IT

[Horse]

The pic is my mtb armour

For the pedal people:

https://koroyd.com/BodyProtection

Going beyond traditional impact protection, KOROYD has innovated a best-in-class solution engineered to change the way you feel when wearing body protection. This has been achieved through new research and a new understanding of how you really move when riding your bike.

Biomechanics, bike geometry, suspension dynamics, terrain interaction and energy transfer have all been scrutinised as part of a holistic approach that treats you and your bike as a complete system.

This has led to a new range that not only delivers excellent body protection but also achieves levels of rider comfort and mobility previously thought to be unattainable – until now.

[MrLongbeard]

The pic is my mtb armour

For the pedal people:

https://koroyd.com/BodyProtection

Going beyond traditional impact protection, KOROYD has innovated a best-in-class solution engineered to change the way you feel when wearing body protection. This has been achieved through new research and a new understanding of how you really move when riding your bike.

Biomechanics, bike geometry, suspension dynamics, terrain interaction and energy transfer have all been scrutinised as part of a holistic approach that treats you and your bike as a complete system.

This has led to a new range that not only delivers excellent body protection but also achieves levels of rider comfort and mobility previously thought to be unattainable – until now.

Ahhh, the old 'bullshit baffles brains' approach to marketing PPE

[Horse]

Ahhh, the old 'bullshit baffles brains' approach to marketing PPE

My favourite biking example is Klim, talking about the retroreflective patches.

Apparently placed according to biomotion principles.

Which is fantastic when you want to highlight / identity a moving pedestrian.

But absolutely no use for helping detect a motorcycle and rider. The rider is static.

https://lcfh-expedition.com/en/news-kli ... cognition/

Klim motorcycle gear
News: KLIM Bio Motion Recognition
Safety starts by being seen!

“Fast and clear recognisability” is the primary safety factor regardless what time of year. The shape and arrangement of reflectors on KLIM made products are chosen to ensure the wearer is immediately detected and noticed as a motorcyclist.

Here's ankle bands enhancing pedestrian identification.

Going beyond traditional impact protection, KOROYD has innovated a best-in-class solution engineered to change the way you feel when wearing body protection. This has been achieved through new research and a new understanding of how you really move when riding your bike.

First armour I had was ProTek, in one of their jackets.

The elbow/forearm armour was articulated - two piece - to allow for movement. That was 1988 ...

[hawkati]

Likewise the first armour I had was protec, in a set of mtm swift leathers (the varnsvery era rather than the later standard branded stuff)
I recall grumping about it to a surgeon just before he operated on my pulverised knee cap, complaining that it hadn't protected me. He just said "no armour, no leg" pointing out the impact I'd had would have taken my leg off if there wasn't the protection. That shut me right up.

These days it's a bks one piece with a bunch of knox armour. It's dead easy to put on and take off - less than a minute and isn't restrictive in the slightest. So no inconvenience whatsoever in return for a whole bit of body safeguarding.

[The Spin Doctor]

It struck me, ages ago, that it should be possible to '3D weave' fabrics to increase abrasion resistance in shaped areas.

I believe they did exactly that with ships' cables back in the 18th century.