After my recent encounter with the ground resulting in three bust ribs, five nights in hospital and being told to keep off the bike for two months and then only gentle stuff until six months I am looking at Body Armour.
Most of the bike stuff I am seeing has little to no side protection. Anyone have any sugestions please?
This may fit the bill
https://www.lordgunbicycles.co.uk/bluegrass-armour-bs-d3o-body-protection
The rib protection is like a stiff padding rather than hard
I have one but never use it, so PM me if interested
Leatt do one with decent flank protection.
TBH rib protection for pushbikes is really really difficult, because it's not so much the thing you hit that breaks you, it's the weight of your body. So it's kind of like trying to protect from a loose load in the back of a pickup, by fitting a better front bumper.
@Northwind Very good point and one that had briefly crossed my mind. I had wondered how one could effectively protect ribs from a side impact without being encased in some kind of rigid suit of armour.
To be honest I am unsure how often an impact like that is likely to occur during riding. When you see crash footage there nearly always seems to be continued foward motion after the fall in the form of a roll or slide which may spread the impact load a little. In my case, I am not 100% sure as it happened so fast but from what I can remember and a photo from immediately after the crash. I seem to have got sideways across the track and done a full on high side, dead stop, side body slam into the ground with whatever forward motion was going on added to my body weight. There was certainly no scuff marks anywhere to indicate any sliding and in the after photo I was laid on my side, head pointing down the track with the bike across the track still between my legs.
TBH rib protection for pushbikes is really really difficult, because it’s not so much the thing you hit that breaks you, it’s the weight of your body. So it’s kind of like trying to protect from a loose load in the back of a pickup, by fitting a better front bumper.
That, and if you think 5-10mm of foam is going to help you then you're going to be disappointed, and sore.
