Could armour protect you if a car hits you?

I recently suffered a double vertebra fracture in a bike accident on tarmac, should be fine, but makes me thing that a bit more armor biking at high speeds on public roads could be helpful, definitely if falling off the bike, but perhaps also if you get hit by a car? Something like this? Heck even looks reasonably aero lol.

Probably not – when you consider the kinetic energy of a moving vehicle and how much energy a thin-layer of foam has to absorb, a lot of energy will still be transmitted to the rider. The way a helmet works is the material compresses / breaks to diffuse the impact. Other factors include the impact of the extra layers on your ability to lose-heat on warmer days and also how does it cope during a slide – the material will probably melt

Depends – the total energy will be the same, but point loads may be reduced and so it should help, even if only a little bit.

Perhaps head to these? Skip the cars and the armour?

I suppose any extra padding like that will help to some extent whether cycling or out running. But do you want to be wearing that stuff all the time in the unlikely event that you would have a serious accident.?

You can also wrap yourself in cotton wool.😉

Marginal would be my guess.

In that instead of a compound fracture you get a simple one rather than no fracture.  Could you actually ride in that kit all the time?   One of the things I enjoy about cycling compared to motorcycling that used to be my main hobby is not wearing all the armour

Doubt it, and I don’t think energy would be the same.  If you meet a car doing 80km/h and you’re doing, say, 30km/h that’s a combined 110km/h – but if you hit stationary ground it’s only the latter..?

The Knights of old had to wear padding under their armour to prevent broken bones due to the transfer of kinetic energy through the armour.

Energy has to go somewhere.

You can see it already can’t you… “Well he wasn’t wearing his full body armour!!!”

Probably depends on the type of injury. Might help if the issue is something sharp introducing a point load that causes a break. Guess if wouldn’t help much if it’s a global acceleration that causes the injury.

The armour pictured in the OP would certainly be useful for stopping cars squeezing too close by – looks like it would do their shiny paintwork a nasty injury if they got too close!

Any armour would not have helped when I was hit by a car turning right. Sustained an unstable spinal fracture (2 vertebrae) and 4 ribs. It was described as like an old fashioned lap belt injury as my body doubled over in the decelleration crushing the front of one vertebrae and splitting it and another in two.

The armour pictured in the OP would certainly be useful for stopping cars squeezing too close by – looks like it would do their shiny paintwork a nasty injury if they got too close!

Haha! Good point.

armour, right now, in summer day time: will cook you. After 20 min in bright sunshine you are toasted.

In winter time: stuff will freeze up.

Night biking in summer time: maybe perfect solution so!