body armour

PED575

hi folks, in need of a little help here, im a 38yr old MTB'er, been ridin for about six or seven yrs every weekend on a yeti575, usual rides are pen machno, marin, llandegla, llangollen, clwydian range, coed y brenin ETC and have ventured to kiroughtree and afan this year too, however last year took a large wipeout off the old northshore in llandegla and had a double virtabra crush fracture, was told to take it easy for six months but only lasted one month and got over it fairly quickly (ish) then took some tuition for jumps and drops to prevent further pilot error (money well spent thanks to Neil Donoghue at one planet llandegla : ) and well even with neils lessons six weeks ago had a rear axle snap on a landing from a jump on the bee line in llandegla sending me collar bone first into a tree busting my collar bone in two resulting in surgery, so six weeks later still in sling doin some resurch into body armour.
so far the only thing i have seen that could have prevented my sort of injury is the EVS Nitro Circus G5 Ballistic Jersey, i have looked at 661 pressure suit etc but the mtb stuff wont cut it, does anyone wear mx body armour for xc red and black runs and if anyone uses the EVS Nitro Circus G5 Ballistic Jersey how hot is it and wots it like,
any help is welcome as i cant stop riding and and injurys make working and looking after my little son very hard : )
ps any advice on learn to tuck and roll wont help as this collar bone brake was due to impact and not from puttin arm out to prevent fall

Northwind

That sort of impact's hard to protect against tbh. It's possible a proper serious armour suit might have helped, but not that likely. Haven't used that EVS suit but it doesn't look like it'll do anything a Pressure Suit etc doesn't, and they're designed for pushiron use rather than motorbike. A mate of mine wears a pressure suit (and other assorted jousting kit) for all his riding- even XC racing. TBH I think he's out of his mind but he prefers sweat to pain. He's extremely crashy though (not helped by the number of times he ends up suffering the effects of overheating and dehydration!)

Injuries like this are very uncommon tbh...

delcol

you will still break bones with a suit on,, the number of armour glad riders i seen mangled in whistler bike park..

i seen a guy in our chalet break 3 ribs with his armour on. i seen another guy do his collar bone with armour on..

imo it aint worth it especially for xc riding,, to hot and sweaty....

Northwind

delcol wrote:

you will still break bones with a suit on,, the number of armour glad riders i seen mangled in whistler bike park..

Course, what that doesn't tell you about is the ones that bounced and didn't break anything

angry_bird

Body armour will: Help protect from those little injuries that can be really pathetic but really bug you and keep you off the bike for a while. It will make you very hot.

Can: Help reduce the damage done by larger offs by absorbing some of the impact and may save you a broken bone occasionally, or stop a rock tearing through your flesh.

Won't: Make you invincible and stop all injuries, something like a collar bone is unlikely to be protected much by body armour just due to where they are, how feeble they are and how much weight can get put through them.

When it comes to body armour I'd go try some on, make sure you get one that fits you, like you would a helmet, last thing you want is it to be moving around and not sitting in place while you're riding, otherwise it'll probably end up doing sod all anyway.

I'd also look for some armour with a fair bit of cushioning around the pads. Can't really see what's going on with that suit you mentioned but when I was shopping around in the summer I found some suits had hard plastic pads that were a couple of mm thick and separated from your arms by a piece of fabric and while they would probably stop cuts and grazes would absorb little to no impact force.

MountainMonster

TBH wearing that much armour on an XC run is alot like spendin 5k on a kangaroo leather race suit and Arai helmet to ride around a parking lot. INjuries happen, and no matter what kind of armour you buy, it can still happen that bones break.

Northwind

MountainMonster wrote:

TBH wearing that much armour on an XC run is alot like spendin 5k on a kangaroo leather race suit and Arai helmet to ride around a parking lot.

If I'd been wearing my race suit when I fell over in my driveway I'd not have broken my hip

MountainMonster

True, in my case had i not been wearing my suit i wouldnt have boken my leg. Since there was a pothole in the road, my knee slider got caught on the edge and snapped my knee. Suits and armour are alot like seatbelts, help in some cases, others they make no difference, and in others they make things alot worse.

delcol

Northwind wrote:

delcol wrote:

you will still break bones with a suit on,, the number of armour glad riders i seen mangled in whistler bike park..

Course, what that doesn't tell you about is the ones that bounced and didn't break anything

mr northwind, true,, thats because they bounced got up dusted themselves down got back on the bike and carried on,, so i did not see them to report,

i would say it's better to crash wearing armour than to crash without any.. in my experience my gloves have saved my hands many many times, without them i would of shreded my hands on numerous occassions, my knee pads have saved me time and time again from hard impacts, as have my elbow pads..
most important though has been my helmet without that i would be braindamaged or worse dead..

Northwind

MountainMonster wrote:

True, in my case had i not been wearing my suit i wouldnt have boken my leg. Since there was a pothole in the road, my knee slider got caught on the edge and snapped my knee. Suits and armour are alot like seatbelts, help in some cases, others they make no difference, and in others they make things alot worse.

User error that, not hardware issue. No offence! Horrible thing to happen but you can't blame the suit for it.

PED575

thanks all for ur help jury is still out at the mo so more resurch needed, and as i still have at least a week in sling ill carry on browsing the net for answers : ) or i may start a trend of one armed mountain biking : )

dan shard

I had an off at Coedy Brenin a few months ago on some nasty rock garden. Thankfuly I was wearing knee/shin guards and elbow/forarm guards. Both are now sporting large gouges so I shudder to think of what it would have done to me without!! Also had 661 subgear top on and still managed to crack a rib, but that 'may' have been worse without..or not, theres no way of knowing really but I certainly came down hard and ended up only having 3 weeks out of the saddle

MountainMonster

Northwind wrote:

MountainMonster wrote:

True, in my case had i not been wearing my suit i wouldnt have boken my leg. Since there was a pothole in the road, my knee slider got caught on the edge and snapped my knee. Suits and armour are alot like seatbelts, help in some cases, others they make no difference, and in others they make things alot worse.

User error that, not hardware issue. No offence! Horrible thing to happen but you can't blame the suit for it.

By far not user error, I was pootling along at my own comfortable pace down in Cambridge, and a car slammed into the side of my back wheel, sending me tumbling. Did a full tuck when hitting the ground, but the pad got caught. One of the very few occasions it hasnt helped though. Had an off at 170mph back in the U.S., and walked away without a scratch, which i was very grateful for.

Northwind

Ah- I apologise, I thought you'd heroically knee-slid yourself into a pothole.

PED575

think im leaning towards 661 core saver as a first step, ill use it to get the feel of armour and if not too strange may later upgrade to the alpine star bionic 2 type thing, the core saver will help me gain confidance back while my collar bone continues to heal as it has good shoulder padding incase i bump it early on,

: )

MountainMonster

Northwind wrote:

Ah- I apologise, I thought you'd heroically knee-slid yourself into a pothole.

Nope nothing legendary about how it happened, unfortunately. I don't even have a cool story to tell about why my knee is missing bits of bone. I just got side swept and knee caught in a pothole

Oh well

MountainMonster

PED575 wrote:

think im leaning towards 661 core saver as a first step, ill use it to get the feel of armour and if not too strange may later upgrade to the alpine star bionic 2 type thing, the core saver will help me gain confidance back while my collar bone continues to heal as it has good shoulder padding incase i bump it early on,

: )

Best of luck with the healing, and hope at least you get on with armour. If it will help, go for it. I personally wouldn't, but if it builds confidence for you, and you feel better, don't listen to me

slimboyjim

I rate armour, and wear knee and arm pads all the time. They don't seem to make much of a difference temperature-wise... They've saved me (I believe) from a few painful and debilitating injuries and I wouldn't be without them. If out on my own or hitting the DH tracks I'll put on the full face helmet, but it is seriously hot to the extent that if it is even mildly warm I'll be quite uncomfortable. I imagine body armour is much the same - horrible in the heat. Also, the greater the protection the less breathable it is likely to be...

You'll be ok for a few months before the English Summer arrives in September! :-)

I would recommend getting an armour vest/tee and separate elbow pads so that you can still use the elbow pads if it is too hot for full body armour.

My two pence is that you are most likely to land on your hands/arms/legs first so these are the bits to protect most (after your head, for obvious reasons). Hit the deck or obstacles so hard you are hitting your body on stuff armour will probably help, but you'll still get hurt - days off the bike rather than weeks - you can't beat that if you can suffer the pain of the heat exhaustion!

On a separate note, I posted a thread asking about Neil Donaghue's jumps and drops course - rather than hijack your thread I'd appreciate it if you could add your thoughts to it as someone who has been on the course! Thanks!

ilovedirt

To the OP. Body armour won't stop you breaking bones. Fact of life. If you're going to break a collar bone, you're going to break it, whether or not you're wearing armour. I'll tell you what WILL help prevent injuries though, is having kit that is fit for purpose. IE. upgrade your rear axle to a 10mm rear axle, any QR frame will take a 10mm axle, all you have to do is convert your rear hub to 10mm and get a 10mm axle. Having a bike that is tough enough to see itself through any dodgy landings etc is half the battle. The other half is technique and dumb luck. Happy riding.

Anonymous

I'd say for standard trails and the odd bit of freeride don't start suiting up with the full armour and PJs. It's just over the top for most of the time. Work on skills and ensure the kit is up to the job. The collar bone brake to me sounds like all the fault of the bike, not the protection. That and doing anything that's just plain silly. That's how I ended up with the fractured vertebra (likewise compression fracture, 2 vertebra). Protection there wouldn't have been the answer, skills would.

After my break, I was determined to just continue on rather than get worried about injuring myself all the time. I just think twice before doing certain things and only commit to what I know I can do and the bike will cope with.

That said, the serious stuff, e.g. DH at Cwmcarn and Aston for me, will involve the proper protection from now on. Aston in particular as had many offs there busting up the ribs. Mainly want chest protection and spine protection. Although the back break I got wouldn't be stopped by spine protectors as it was shockwave down the spine from the head. If anything the helmet caused that (or so I was told). Though not having a helmet would have resulted in serious head injury instead, or more than the head injury I got.