body armour?

[greydaniel]

Lol

Also, owning/wearing body armour will always make you think, "the time I don't wear it is the time I'll hurt myself." -By not EVER wearing it you can avoid this dilemma

I realise this is tounge in cheek, but Its not real good advice lol wearing armour for most people will give them a big confidence boost to allow them to go to new levels. Good armour will fit well and you wont even know its there until you need it.

And from personal experience mate all I can really say is this, it's just luck.
I've never worn anything more than gloves and knee guards and the worst injury I've ever had is cuts and grazes, and I go as hard as I can.

I agree with this though to a degree, it is all luck (and can be a little "bailing skill" lol) If you are gonna hit something like the ground hard, then its usually luck if you get up without an injury. Rocks, trees etc can be a different story.

I never wore body armour and still don't. I go "pretty hard", but I have kept well within my limits. I will be attending a few races this season and will almost certainly be purcasing some armour before the race, so that in the back of my mind I will know that If I come off I will have a good chance of just walking away (or better still riding away lol)

Its all personal choice and what you feel comfortable with. If you are not going real hard, dont bother, if you are pushing it, then its only a matter of time till you will find it usefull.

Cheers....

 

[GDonehue]

Considering the options out there, even in the heat you can find at least something to protect the important bits. I don't know the exact figures, but I would reckon that at least 50% of the pro DH riders are armoured up... and they actually know what the hell they are doing.

 

[dcrofty]

Yeah I noticed at Crankworx that a number of the elite riders wear some sort of upper body stuff but because they often didn't have the long sleeves so you couldn't tell unless you were close to them.


I go harder bigger and faster when I wear armour.

I've also crashed hard and broken myself fairly badly without armour so it goes on all the time now.

 

[Geordsta]

The armours worth it i remember the first time i went riding i didnt have a full face and i had quite a nasty crash I landed face first on a rock and was bleeding quite a bit it didnt hurt to much because i was full of adrenaline but i looked like shit for a couple of weeks. And all i could think about was if i had a full face helmet. But anyway I think i ride more confidently and harder the more armour im wearing so there you go.

 

[DHD Jr]

i heard it gives you a bit of a confidence booster is that true?

i reckon, as soon as i got it i started pushing myself

 

[Prowsey]

If you can protect yourself when you crash, then do. if you have armour and dont wear it then you'll regret it when you crash and graze all up your body or break bones because your not wearing it.
If its uncomfortable then its probably the wrong size but if you never feel comfortable in it then its up to you whether you wear it or not
you might be better off with certain bits of armour and leaving out those bits that you dont like.

 

[Emmett]

As cool as electric wheelchairs may look, I'd like to have some spine armor for DH. Just incase it all goes pear-shaped.

Well, i can testify to this a little.

I had my rear swing arm snap mid corner (obviously it was previously fractured and i didnt know) causing me to effectively highside and land spine first into a tree without hitting the ground at roughly 35-40 km/hr. This was very, very unexpected and did not fit into my "calculated risk" schedule. I was wearing a full face and gloves as my only armour.

Consequently I fractured a vertabrae in my upper back - not nice as i have scheaurmans disease which makes you feel as though you have arthritus (sp) to begin with.

I have just started to ride DH again (4 yrs later) and am in the process of buying as much armour as I can.

Make your own decisions and be prepared to sleep in the bed you have made. It's that simple.

 

[Whstlr]

I wear armour (same 661 pressure suit) and would not consider doing a run without it.

I bought it after i did some runs at Mt Buller wearing only shins and arm protection, and ended up landing on my shoulder pretty hard.

On another crash the same day i had the bike flip over and had the seat ram into my back. Very painfull day (but had an awesome time!!!)

As a result i purchased the armour and have found that my skill set has increased 10 fold as a result of knowing that when i crash i will be protected. (as much as i can be.)

I have since come off at you yangs and broke my wrist, but without the armour i think i would have done a lot more damage.

The only bad bit about it is when you are pushing the bike back up the run! you get very hot!

But i would still never do any DH without it.

 

[Vinelink]

After reading this thread, it does make you want to go out and buy some better protection, it does make sense.

Just on the side though, I have been to lots of DH races and seen only a few people wearing body armour, and most races that I have seen, have about 150+ riders, yet after reading this thread I would have thought I would have seen more people riding with armour.

Body Armour, racing only or general trail riding??. Practise riding in Daisy Hill or Nerang, or Mt Cootha, I don't see anyone wearing it around these places.

Is it more for extreme A & B Lines and jumps or just for peace of mind?

 

[sprocket]

i just use to wear the full face,gloves and shin guards.. until i over cooked a corner and hit a tree straight on.. after having major internal injuries and over 2 and a half weeks in ICU. i wear body armor now weather i'm racing or just going out doing shuttles... it might get a bit hot during summer to wear it but its better then wearing 8 months off the bike

 

[bortong]

just a bit of over kill don't ya think

 

[wespelarno]

The guy at our local bike store who sold me my pressure suit had just finished $7000 in elbow reconstructions. He quite literally shattered both elbows, an injury that would have been prevented or atleast reduced by wearing a pressure suit. You could still see the scars where they had put in screws, pins, bolts etc to hold everything together. I consider that to be enough persuasion to wear body armour for downhill.

 

[Ham]

as long as you have mobilty and it doesnt move too much it should be fine.

 

[NCR600]

They recon people are better drivers when not wearing seat belts. something about being more carefull when not protected... Kind of feel the same with armour. Free riding trails and not pushing it , more fun without. Going against the clock put it all on Bloody hot in qld though!!

Crap. Even your statement that you wear armour against the clock supports the fact that the rest of your statement is crap.

In reply to the OP

If you can push/pull the guards out of position( i.e exposing an impact point, shouler, elbow etc) when they are comfortably tightened, then it is too big.

 

[metallica27]

body armour is a wise move........unless your super man and made of steel, and good protection of that, no crap stuff. But sometimes it will let you down...just ask Tomac....

 

[ollieo]

never said you can't get hurt..... i retract the confidence thing probably wrong place anyway.
I Always wear full face/shin guards , just find the upper body stuff hot and uncomfortable and and when i get hot and tired i seem to make more mistakes than usual. mistakes mean off's viscious circle ad finitum.

 

[chadly1084]

Wearing body armour can only be a good thing i reckon. There is no doubt that it is going to prevent or reduce the extent of injury to you body should you have a accident. Whether that accident be a crash, flying tree branch or a crazy brown snake. Less injury means less recovery time means less time off the bike .

The only cure to injury in downhill is not to ride at all. So prevention is better than cure in this case.

 

[ya_frizz]

yer body armour deffinetly helped my mate at barjarg, he came off the side of the track fell about 10 metres down and he was fine, battered up a little and a littel sore but he was fine

marcus