Lightweight body armour

Can anyone recommend something I can ride for a few hours in – broken jaw aside, I’ve realised the rest of me doesn’t like falling off much either in my ever increasing years?

Seen the 661 Sub Gear, but can’t seem to find it anywhere in anything but S/XS

I like the Troy lee HW gear. Light and unrestrictive, good protection.

I wouldn’t bother with lightweight armour chap – it will do jack shit apart from stopping you scratch yourself.

Best route to go is an evoc backpack or a forcefield level 3 back protector (the only one on the market) – coupled with Scott Grenade/POC Kneepad/Elbow pads. Such a setup will come close to mitigating a break – lightweight stuff wont. It will also be cooler than covering your upper body with a lightweight pressure suit.

Protect vitals or injury prone areas with heavy duty gear, armoured shorts are another good one to invest in decent impact protection – see Cedric Gracias major off.

Having said that, I think most spinal injuries come from a hit to the chest or shoulders. However when I’m wearing decent pads, I tend to crash on my knees and elbows a lot more and let those take the impact, even at speed.

From experience 661 is cheap tat. The troy Lee vest is superb, as are their padded lowers.
Also a met parachute helmet, as I don’t fancy landing on my face in an off.

The TL looks a bit bulky to be honest.

I wear kneepads and my TL Moto shorts have hip protection pads (ocassionally elbow pads – but they slip when worn over a base layer). I know light protection is just that and won’t protect you in a big off, just nursing a sore shoulder and looking for a bit more protection than I normally wear – will be getting another Bell Super 2R helmet after selling the one that was too big for me – my Fox Flux doesn’t have a mark on it, unlike my mis-shapen face

I’ve just got an Evolution jacket from Alpinestars – apart from not being cheap, I’d suggest it ticks your requirements..

I’ve got a 661 EXO SS Jacket which, like Tom^ says will stop abrasion injuries and not much else.

Honestly…get better fitting heavy duty elbow pads and make sure your hip and knee protection out performs the standard CE certification, eg the Scott, POC or Forcefield shorts.

If you do want a lightweight top, cut the elbow protection off and use your decent pads.

I have a previous version of the Bluegrass Tuatara vest/upper body thing.

Wore it for a month straight in the alps, very comfy, very low profile, doesn’t make you look too much like an American Handegg player, not too hot. The D30 spine board is bendy and deforms to your back and can be removed for washing. Shoulder pads are soft, as is chest plate. My only complaint is it did ride up a little, though tucking it into my shorts solved that problem, it does have rubberized bits on the bottom, inside.

As with all body armour though, you’ll never know how effective it is, I had a few bigish crashes in it and came away fine, though I might have even without the armour.

Actually, you can get an idea of how they perform through the certs that they pass, how thick the material is and from reviews like the ones done by enduro mag where they measure the amount of G’s/Joules that are mitigated by the armour.

I quite like the scott thing I have, well made and hardly noticeable.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Scott-Recruit-Pro-II-Compression-Gear_69411.htm

that sort of thing

The chest padding on most seems fairly pointless tbh, it seems inspired by roost guards but we’ve no use for that. It’ll maybe help if you get a pointy stick in the chest or something but that’s rare, otoh it’ll do bugger all for broken ribs etc because it’s not the ground that breaks your ribs, it’s your body weight, much harder to mitigate (it’s like a car crumple zone; very good for certain impacts but no good if you’ve got a load of loose bricks in the boot)

Sub Gear is taking the piss imo.

I’m in the ride like a loon, wear the stuff that works and put up with the sweaty restriction or ride within yourself and wear a smile camp.
Not a big fan of placebo armour tbh.

I have had:

661 sub gear – pointless without back padding and a nightmare to get on and off

O’neal STV t shirt – Good level of protection with removable shoulder pads, nightmare to get off when sweaty, one day when i stacked it and hurt my shoulder I had to have help taking it off.

Alpinestars Evolution jacket – excellent protection, terrible design, ends up being a belly top which is not a flattering look nor comfortable. Zip get stuck a lot due to sweat deposits, tried lubing it still a pain in the arse.

Next on my list is the Troy lee 5850 as a couple of mates have them and find them quite usable even when sweaty.

I also run the POC spine VPD t Shirt for big days out like BPW where the rocks are.

Northwind, there is evidence that soft level 2 chest protectors on motorcyle armour – lessen internal organ damage during a crash.

Recently got the Nukeproof Critical Enduro Vest when CRC had them for £40.

It is very similar, if not the same as the Troy Lee equivalent.

Lightweight and seems like fairly good protection for the money.

Always used the Forcefield stuff from years of riding moto and it’s always been excellent.

Just getting back into the mtb and will be digging it out again for some downhill stuff as well as ordering a full face!! my lack of talent recently has shown me how easy it can go wrong!!

Tom_W1987 – Member

Northwind, there is evidence that soft level 2 chest protectors on motorcyle armour – lessen internal organ damage during a crash.

Yup, but the chest protection on many mtb suits isn’t CE approved at all (this annoys me actually, lots of kit for pushbikes and motorbikes have CE approval for one or two components, like a CE1621 back protector, but depict the entire suit as CE approved, or describe it in a way that’s open to misinterpretation.)

The subgear stuff is fine/good if you want it for adventurous XC stuff, where all the other stuff quoted is well over the top.

Only issues are the sizes seem to have shrunk, and the chest padding is pointless and just serves to make you hot, so I remove it by unpicking the seams.

Seriously, I wouldn’t bother with any of this shit. Statistics show: –

– There are more car accidents than bike accidents
– You are more likely to die in a plane crash than falling off your bike
– Car drivers will give you less room on the Fort William DH course
– You will be less risk averse if you ride wearing a parachute

So, please kids. Don’t use body armour it increases heart disease.

boobs – Member
I quite like the scott thing I have, well made and hardly noticeable.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Scott-Recruit-Pro-II-Compression-Gear_69411.htm

+1, great kit

So far I have found all my POC gear really good apart from one crap pair of gloves. I am minded to go for the VPD T or Jacket. Has anyone tried their hard shell armour?

Anyone tried this Dainese gilet? I want a back protector but find full armour too restrictive.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/dainese-manis-gilet-sh11-long-back-protector-2016/rp-prod145930

jamj1974 – Member

– You are more likely to die in a plane crash than falling off your bike

OTOH, while I’m riding my bike, the likelihood of dying in a plain crash gets real small.

Xion body armour is the best I’ve used , or POC vpd whatever it is.

The lightweight stuff is better than nothing IMHO , currently quite like my 661 evo vest thing , although frankly it’s a rip off but then they all are aren’t they.

Honestly, poc and xion are ok – xion kit is ridiculously overpriced.

But forcefield is the most protective, everything is rated up to the motocycle Level 2 Spinal protection cert – even the bloody elbow protectors. Whilst neither of the others are.

One of their back protectors is the only one on the market that comes close/is rated to level 3 equine standard.

Just getting back into the mtb and will be digging it out again for some downhill stuff as well as ordering a full face!! my lack of talent recently has shown me how easy it can go wrong!!

Have a look at the Dot Rated Kali Shiva/or the Leatt line of helmets (the leatts are the best looking). Great bits of kit if you are serious about having the best head protection as well as armour. They’re using a cone based dual density EPS, where the denser EPS is formed into downward facing cones with a layer of softer EPS over the top of that. So during a crash, those denser cones compress and progressively increase the resistance to deformation of the EPS – better managing the impact energy and reducing spiking supposedly. It means they can get dot rated helmets in a design that is as light and as small as a DH lid.

Personally, having a medical sciences background – this is the the area of cycling that gets me most excited in terms of technology/engineering/sciencing etc etc 🙂 People think I’m weird because I get excited by new helmets.

riding my bike, the likelihood of dying in a plain crash gets real small.

I think we both know what I was being an arse about!

On the other hand recommendations for very effective back and chest protection very welcome!

+1 for forcefield kit, tbh it often looks and wears a bit weird because they don’t compromise on the function, like, their Pro Shirt is downright funny shaped. But if you’re choosing your kit based on what you’d like to crash in rather than what you’d like to be photographed in, they’re ace. I have an ancient level 2 motorbike back protector and I remember when it came out, it just made everything else on the market seem obsolete- more comfortable and the same bulk as the best level 1 kit there was never mind l2.

That Forcefield stuff looks a step above all the other stuff I’ve looked at – even at a brief glance. I’ll definitely have a further look. Thanks for the pointer guys!

No problem, I get miffed like Northwind about stuff not being certified or being passed off as being capable of doing what it’s not. Again, my medical sciences background makes me feel a little responsible when people talk about armour.

I don’t want to see fellow riders get needlessly hurt because they were wearing something that was never actually intended to mitigate anything other than a scratch – but were perhaps riding as if they were.

Stay safe guys.

Have a look at the Dot Rated Kali Shiva/or the Leatt line of helmets (the leatts are the best looking). Great bits of kit if you are serious about having the best head protection as well as armour

Cheers for the tips. I’ve just bought a TLD D3 Helmet for more uplift days and a Met Parachute for most of my other days i.e. having to pedal for an hour before I reach the top days 🙂 That will hopefully do me.

Body Armour I’m going to stick with the Forcefiled stuff. I’ve still got loads of it from the Moto days and looks like my old Pro Shirt will still be good for the more “technical” days on the hills 😉

Going to try some of the knee and elbow for those Parachute days 🙂

It’s funny that when on the moto doing some hard technical riding you don’t think twice about armour/helmets etc but for on the mtb you are almost led into a false sense of security because maybe it’s a pedal bike 🙂 – but then when you get to the big hills will lots of roots etc you think “oh sh** maybe I should have a full face on and a bit more protection 😉

Well I do anyway 🙂

Tom_W1987
I wouldn’t bother with lightweight armour chap – it will do jack shit apart from stopping you scratch yourself.

Thing is though, for the vast majority of minor crashes, that is all that is needed!

if you are hitting the DH runs regularly, then yes, proper, solid armour is going to be needed to prevent serious injury in the case of high energy crashes, but tbh, for most people, me included, we tend to have lots of small crashes where protection from abrasion and bruising go a long way, especially as you get older. The 661 undershorts etc do help to mitigate against minor injury.

If you are regularly having massive, hospital visiting crashes, then i suggest that spending the money on some coaching rather than more armor would be a better idea!

The lightweight ones aren’t going to stop you from bruising yourself….

Again, I think it’s a better idea to simply armour vulnerable areas eg knees, elbows and hips heavily….than cover everything with lightweight stuff.

http://www.bikemag.com/videos/video-cedric-gracias-brush-with-death/#lKOlLjbox4Z4T0hr.97

Here is Cedric Gracias crash, he nearly bled out from smashed up hips riding along what was nothing more than a bridleway.

Not that I think that it’s likely to happen. I’d just rather scratch up my chest a little bit, keep my upper body cool, but the rest of me a little better armoured.

The lightweight ones aren’t going to stop you from bruising yourself….

of course they are – I have knocked the pads on my 661 subgear stuff loads of times and been OK, whereas if I have a similar knock without pads it has bruised significantly, a consequence of getting older (52).