Mountain Biking - When you ask about ...

... gear for larger riders, clothing wise, you should give measurments rather then weight and hight. I say this because we are all different with different measurements. I got to thinking about this while reading the question about shin protection.

Example ;
I am 6'2" at 290lbs, a friend of mine is the same hight and weight but are builds are different. My shins are 19 1/2" in circumference and his are 16" (yeah he has got them chicken legs :D ). My chest is 54" where his is 47". So basically we can not wear the same gear because of that. So if someone says these (insert clothing/protection)will fit because we are the same hight is not always going to be acurate.

Slainte:beer:

i agree 100% and to the guys who say..."I need some good fitting gear for a big guy, im 200 lbs"...gear isnt hard to find and you arent big til you top 300.

... gear for larger riders, clothing wise, you should give measurments rather then weight and hight. I say this because we are all different with different measurements. I got to thinking about this while reading the question about shin protection.

Example ;
I am 6'2" at 290lbs, a friend of mine is the same hight and weight but are builds are different. My shins are 19 1/2" in circumference and his are 16" (yeah he has got them chicken legs :D ). My chest is 54" where his is 47". So basically we can not wear the same gear because of that. So if someone says these (insert clothing/protection)will fit because we are the same hight is not always going to be acurate.

I agree with your point, however, sometimes there are brands that cater to or provide additional sizes for anyone outside the standard adult male size spectrum, such as ourselves.

But, now that I know your dimensions and see many similarities to my own, what gear do you use? I doubt I'll ever get into riding that would benefit greatly from body armor but at some point I'll want knee/shin, arm/elbow and a nicer brain bucket!

I agree with your point, however, sometimes there are brands that cater to or provide additional sizes for anyone outside the standard adult male size spectrum, such as ourselves.

But, now that I know your dimensions and see many similarities to my own, what gear do you use? I doubt I'll ever get into riding that would benefit greatly from body armor but at some point I'll want knee/shin, arm/elbow and a nicer brain bucket!


I am in the same boat here. I have found that most protective gear that fits riders with larger extremities tend to be bulkier. Meaning more for the dh freeride crowd. I have not found any xc protection to fit properly if at all. Azonic used to but the shin guards were full wrap neoprean and hot as hell. I was able to wear (forgot the manufacturer Fox I think) the chrom robocop looking shin guards but 1 crash and it tore the buckles off. If rockgarden comes out with a larger size then I would like to use thouse since I use there upperbody armor which fits nicely and has stood the test of time and many crashes :D .

As far as a helmet, that is another story. Bell tends to make a helmet that fits more of a "round" head, Gyro fits a little narrower then the Bell and all the others seem to fit narrow, pointy heads. Bell and Gyro also seem to run on the larger side where as the others are either true to fit or smaller. I have not tried TroyLee yet so I do not know how they would fit.

:beer:

p.s. I have also found that the manufacturers that make clothing for larger riders tend to lenghten more then widen :D