Staying safe
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Staying safe
Well I finally decided to invest in some body armor. It's been some time since I had my crash in which I broke my clavicle. I'm getting a lot better since then. But I don't want to go through this ever again! I haven't heard that much about road cyclists wearing body armor, but I'm going to give it a try and will try to report later on how it feels. I believe the technology is getting better and there's maybe some small growing understanding of road cyclists' needs. Maybe 5 or 10 years ago, body armor was limited to off-road cyclists. There's such a thing as crashing into pavement, which is pretty unforgiving. I have a feeling that being safe on the road is even more important than getting into cycling, just because getting injured is really, really not fun and almost turned me off from cycling.
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Good luck with that. It might help with bangs and abrasions, don't think practical body armor will do anything to mitigate breaking a clavicle. (broke mine ~ 8 weeks ago).
#3
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It's not going to help with your collar bone. Learning to do a shoulder roll will help more. It is a move I use off road from time to time.
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I agree, some training in proper rolling techniques is probably more useful than wearing body armor.
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Body armor unlikely to mitigate broken collarbone which is caused by hitting the deck with a stiff arm or directly on the shoulder. The idea is to use the arm to initiate some semblance of a roll and absorb the energy of the impact. For reference see video of Flecha's crash in last year's TDF.
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"Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws" - Edward Abbey
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