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Nobody wearing one has been paralyzed at Whistler BP and they have about 6 people paralyzed annually.
Fortunately this is just another one of those 79.995% of stats made up for internet fourms.
Whistler doesn't see anything like that number. There has been cases of paralysis as a result if injury in the bike park, but its a rare occurance.
Whistler does however see neck injuries requiring precautionary colar/spine board evacuation, whistler also has an increasing number of riders wearing neck braces.
The chat from patrol is that they are seeing potential c-spine injuries being pushed into T-spine locations.
So, that would suggest that neck braces are for mountain biking what wrist guards are for snowboarding.... they simply move the stress location further away from the area being 'protected'.
This study is pre neck braces, but interesting reading and specific to WBP
[url= http://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(12)00015-4/fulltext ]Injury Study - Whistler Bike Park[/url]
Ride in whatever makes you comfortable, but not so much that you feel invincible and ride above your ability. /2c
That Injury study linked above was a very interesting read.
With most injuries going to one medical centre they've got a great opportunity to collect good statistical data which may shed some light on the protective value of lots of equipment.
I have one for sale if anyone is interested a Leatt Moto GPX club. In very good nick.
*tumbleweed*
I bought one but like to wear full armour and found it all didn't work right which is probably why you see so many people just wearing the brace, for me though I tuck and roll so shoulder pads and a spine protector are invaluable so I just got rid of the brace
Well I fall into the two big categories there, august and a broken collar bone, nice to know I'm not alone.
I can back up the wrist guard theory. Crashed snow boarding wearing wrist guards and just broke my arm at the end point of the wrist guard. Ended up being quite a bad break. One of the main problems is that when boarding you really want to fall with hands in a fist shape and fall on fore arms so you don't break wrist or fingers and you cant to that very easliy with wrist guards on. No comment on neck braces though.
Yes but risk compensation means that helmeted riders are more likely to crash cancelling out any benefit.
I'd be very suspicious if it exactly cancelled out!
I bought one a while ago and wear it intermittently for DH, if its dicking about locally maybe not, but Alps and trips to Spain I wear it, I don't use the straps just wear it loose and it doesn't hinder me that much and fits good.
I hope that I don't get round to testing it properly.
I have backed off on the rest of the armour though and only wear knee pads and a Troy Lee Designs BP 7850-HW Short Sleeve Shirt
Go GB!!!!
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