Motorcycle body armour upgrades

yellowfever · 15-09-2019, 06:12 AM

Some (very long!) thoughts on this in case useful to others...

TL/DR - body armour is a personal choice, in my view it's a good idea and my pick of manufacturer is still Forcefield (best protection for the thickness, light, good coverage, reasonable flex and breathabilty and exceptional customer service). If you're thinking of upgrading your body armour, the following may be of interest. Needless to say I have no connection with Forcefield - I'm just a customer - and of course wearing any CE approved armour from any manufacturer will offer good protection.

Body Armour - an uncomfortable waste of money or essential rider equipment? Mandatory helmet aside, what you choose to ride in is a personal decision as an adult. Each to their own. My own choice has (generally) been to wear good protective kit once I could afford it (and insist my pilions do the same). I've also ridden in total rubbish joke kit as a broke kid and in shorts and sandals in 40c Italian heat as an adult, whilst leaving top line bike kit in the hotel room. I've even been a drunk helmet-less pillion getting a lift home from a bar from a drunk moto rider in Greece, so no preaching here... but my one big crash was on a track day so I was mandatorily wearing protective kit and very glad of it...

As our own club President noted after his recent accident, armour is something really worth thinking about given how it helped reduce his injuries. If you want to get into the somewhat grim stats of scientifically assessed real world bike accidents these links may be of interest (if you're an ignorance is bliss type, look away now...):

MAIDS (motorcycle accidents in depth) study of nearly 1000 real life accidents across five countries in the EU (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain):

http://www.maids-study.eu

You need to register to access it, but it's free. To very crudely sum up, armour/proper kit is not a panacea but can save your life/reduce injuries. Lower extremities are the most frequently injured areas (31.8%) so proper boots and knee and hip armour and good abrasion resistant pants are a good start. In terms of life saving kit, helmet and back protector are the big ones... helmets work but they need to fit and be properly fastened (helmet comes off=death all too often...).

There is a UK only study by DfT 'On The Spot' (OTS) which covered just over 300 motorbike accidents in 2 UK areas, but I can't find a working link.

Also a comparison of MAIDS and OTS data (crude summary: MAIDS has more detailed data, samples not really comparable, but some similar results plus some differences e.g. we typically wear better kit in UK, typically ride bigger/more powerful bikes, and neck/thorax/abdomen injuries feature more...)

http://www.maids-study.eu/pdf/OTS_MAIDS_comparison.pdf

Also a short summary of UK Motorbike accident statistics (my crude summary: motorbiking much safer than it used to be, but we're still the most vulnerable set of road users...)

https://assets.publishing.service.go...-2013-data.pdf

And an interesting summary of common motorbike accident causes from Rospa:

https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/...ash-causes.pdf

But anyway, my short overall summary is things are safer than they used to be, but wearing protective kit can help if you find yourself in an accident...

Cont/

15-09-2019, 06:12 AM	#1
yellowfever Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: London Bike: S2r 1000 Posts: 245	Motorcycle body armour upgrades Some (very long!) thoughts on this in case useful to others... TL/DR - body armour is a personal choice, in my view it's a good idea and my pick of manufacturer is still Forcefield (best protection for the thickness, light, good coverage, reasonable flex and breathabilty and exceptional customer service). If you're thinking of upgrading your body armour, the following may be of interest. Needless to say I have no connection with Forcefield - I'm just a customer - and of course wearing any CE approved armour from any manufacturer will offer good protection. Body Armour - an uncomfortable waste of money or essential rider equipment? Mandatory helmet aside, what you choose to ride in is a personal decision as an adult. Each to their own. My own choice has (generally) been to wear good protective kit once I could afford it (and insist my pilions do the same). I've also ridden in total rubbish joke kit as a broke kid and in shorts and sandals in 40c Italian heat as an adult, whilst leaving top line bike kit in the hotel room. I've even been a drunk helmet-less pillion getting a lift home from a bar from a drunk moto rider in Greece, so no preaching here... but my one big crash was on a track day so I was mandatorily wearing protective kit and very glad of it... As our own club President noted after his recent accident, armour is something really worth thinking about given how it helped reduce his injuries. If you want to get into the somewhat grim stats of scientifically assessed real world bike accidents these links may be of interest (if you're an ignorance is bliss type, look away now...): MAIDS (motorcycle accidents in depth) study of nearly 1000 real life accidents across five countries in the EU (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain): http://www.maids-study.eu You need to register to access it, but it's free. To very crudely sum up, armour/proper kit is not a panacea but can save your life/reduce injuries. Lower extremities are the most frequently injured areas (31.8%) so proper boots and knee and hip armour and good abrasion resistant pants are a good start. In terms of life saving kit, helmet and back protector are the big ones... helmets work but they need to fit and be properly fastened (helmet comes off=death all too often...). There is a UK only study by DfT 'On The Spot' (OTS) which covered just over 300 motorbike accidents in 2 UK areas, but I can't find a working link. Also a comparison of MAIDS and OTS data (crude summary: MAIDS has more detailed data, samples not really comparable, but some similar results plus some differences e.g. we typically wear better kit in UK, typically ride bigger/more powerful bikes, and neck/thorax/abdomen injuries feature more...) http://www.maids-study.eu/pdf/OTS_MAIDS_comparison.pdf Also a short summary of UK Motorbike accident statistics (my crude summary: motorbiking much safer than it used to be, but we're still the most vulnerable set of road users...) https://assets.publishing.service.go...-2013-data.pdf And an interesting summary of common motorbike accident causes from Rospa: https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/...ash-causes.pdf But anyway, my short overall summary is things are safer than they used to be, but wearing protective kit can help if you find yourself in an accident... Cont/