hammerheadshadow
Junior Member
A complete set of body armor protection CE (European plate certified armor) is a MUST for motorcycling. The parts of the body covered by armor should include complete back/spine protection (coverage of the entire spinal column), body armor should also provide front rib protection (covering entire chest), shoulder armor and elbow armor. All these armor shields should be attached together either in the form of tough webbing or placed on the long sleeve shirt or inner fleece/jacket. Also body armor must have straps to ensure proper armor positioning and to fix the pads firmly on the body. Some of the best bets are Alpinestars, Knox, Bohn, Dainese, Exustar body armor sets.
For lower body/hips armored shorts with embedded hip and tailbone protection are required. Same manufacturers usually produce armored shorts as well. The shorts are usually made up of webbing that holds the armor shields together.
While this type of armor is designed to provide great impact protection it is NOT designed to handle abrasion in any way. The inner body armor must be worn under the “tough” and abrasion resistant outer shell.
The number one choice for your outer and first line of defense should be an airbag self inflatable jacket (Hit Air, Impact), which can absorb and extinguish the crash impact forces. Air jacket must be made up of tough, durable and abrasion resistant material such as Kevlar, thick, multi-layered Nylon or Lycra. The Hit air jackets are usually outfitted with CE armor for back, elbow and shoulder protection. This is where the interesting part begins. An absolute majority of motorcycle jackets/pants with armored shield inserts suffer from a major design fault. The design fault is that almost all motorcycle jackets have loose/somewhat loose fitting armor with considerable play. If an armored pad moves around easily then the first thing it will do in the accident is to move out of its spot and expose your body part to impact and abrasion right away.
Therefore, the body armor should fit on snug with no loose fitting armor pieces. There should be absolutely no freedom of armor pieces movement whatsoever at all. This is very important because no matter how well designed the armored shields are (Back, elbows and shoulder pads) armor can ONLY provide protection if pads stay in their properly designated protection areas throughout the entire accident.
Possibly the best way to make sure the armor stays fixed in the designated spot is to Velcro strap the armor to yourself, even if mesh webbing already holds the armor pads together. The holding force of the webbing just might not be enough in the accident to keep the pads from moving.
Summer motorcycle jackets made up of synthetic mesh provide very little abrasion resistance in most cases if sliding on the paved road is to be involved. You need much tougher, solid jacket construction of leather, Kevlar, etc. to provide efficient protection.
By wearing two layers of armor(body armor and soft armored jacket of larger size) you can improve your safety margin considerably. You can nicely fit an air vest on top of your leather jacket. Do not worry about looking bulky, it is your life on the line.
The soft padded motorcycle leather jacket with CE armor inserts will handle the task of being an excellent first line of defense. The motorcycle leather jacket should be made of thick about 2-3 mm. (about 1/10-1/8 of an inch), properly treated leather.
The reason for being so well protected is obvious-you need to be as safe as possible. This concept should apply not only during the early stages of learning how to ride, but throughout your entire motorcycling “career” as well. Health costs for broken bones, cartilage and torn ligaments and are very expensive and the time spent in physical, emotional and financial pain is not something anyone should be looking towards to. Remember your body armor & soft armored leathers are a very cheap and necessary insurance to prevent these highly unpleasant events from happening.
:Sport:
For lower body/hips armored shorts with embedded hip and tailbone protection are required. Same manufacturers usually produce armored shorts as well. The shorts are usually made up of webbing that holds the armor shields together.
While this type of armor is designed to provide great impact protection it is NOT designed to handle abrasion in any way. The inner body armor must be worn under the “tough” and abrasion resistant outer shell.
The number one choice for your outer and first line of defense should be an airbag self inflatable jacket (Hit Air, Impact), which can absorb and extinguish the crash impact forces. Air jacket must be made up of tough, durable and abrasion resistant material such as Kevlar, thick, multi-layered Nylon or Lycra. The Hit air jackets are usually outfitted with CE armor for back, elbow and shoulder protection. This is where the interesting part begins. An absolute majority of motorcycle jackets/pants with armored shield inserts suffer from a major design fault. The design fault is that almost all motorcycle jackets have loose/somewhat loose fitting armor with considerable play. If an armored pad moves around easily then the first thing it will do in the accident is to move out of its spot and expose your body part to impact and abrasion right away.
Therefore, the body armor should fit on snug with no loose fitting armor pieces. There should be absolutely no freedom of armor pieces movement whatsoever at all. This is very important because no matter how well designed the armored shields are (Back, elbows and shoulder pads) armor can ONLY provide protection if pads stay in their properly designated protection areas throughout the entire accident.
Possibly the best way to make sure the armor stays fixed in the designated spot is to Velcro strap the armor to yourself, even if mesh webbing already holds the armor pads together. The holding force of the webbing just might not be enough in the accident to keep the pads from moving.
Summer motorcycle jackets made up of synthetic mesh provide very little abrasion resistance in most cases if sliding on the paved road is to be involved. You need much tougher, solid jacket construction of leather, Kevlar, etc. to provide efficient protection.
By wearing two layers of armor(body armor and soft armored jacket of larger size) you can improve your safety margin considerably. You can nicely fit an air vest on top of your leather jacket. Do not worry about looking bulky, it is your life on the line.
The soft padded motorcycle leather jacket with CE armor inserts will handle the task of being an excellent first line of defense. The motorcycle leather jacket should be made of thick about 2-3 mm. (about 1/10-1/8 of an inch), properly treated leather.
The reason for being so well protected is obvious-you need to be as safe as possible. This concept should apply not only during the early stages of learning how to ride, but throughout your entire motorcycling “career” as well. Health costs for broken bones, cartilage and torn ligaments and are very expensive and the time spent in physical, emotional and financial pain is not something anyone should be looking towards to. Remember your body armor & soft armored leathers are a very cheap and necessary insurance to prevent these highly unpleasant events from happening.
:Sport:
