Ode to armour
 

I only have one to see, thank god for armour. Had a pretty high speed wipeout on a fast single trackish trail. Came flying around a turn ready to hit the downslope of a rockface full speed to pick up speed to fly out of the top into the next section. In the process I somehow stop dead in my tracks, I fly over the bars, tackle a tree, get spun around and slide down the rock on my shoulder. At this point everything is moving in slow motion, felt like 5 minutes of me thinking "wow thank god for armour, this would hurt a lot if I didn't have shoulder pads"...so after I slid for 5 minutes I stood up and realized my arm was stuck under my body. Nice scrape holes in my arm, road rash all the way round, hopefully just a sprained wrist and blood all over my nice shorts :D...

Good times, I finished my run and had a good time...the shower after sucked though :D...without armour my shoulder and back would have been WRECKED...

Glad to hear you are ok. I still don't like body armor, I go at anything without even knee and shin pads.

Me likey shin pads, but other then that...

I think if we could ride what Maelstrom rides every day, we'd be wearing full armour too.

I'd still be armorless.

Yeah...until you saw your lines first hand. :p

The only time I'll use armor is in the rain. Even in that case it's just knee and shin pads.

Why the rain?

Don't be afraid of the mud.

Feel the mud. Love the mud. BE THE MUD.

Ok, I'll get out of psychopath mode...

+1. I hate armor.

Because things get slick and slippery. Falls happen much more often, and you lose a lot of grip on the pedals too.

Your chance of falling increase to a 100% gauruntee. From a 1 out of every 10 runs. At least when speaking about dh. The traction has a bad habit of going away and you ride by the seat of your pants. Its fun, but you would want something.

I should say this was done on a dh trail, I am not talking about xc or even fr (highways with jumps)...this trail, especially, in the rain would have sucked, slick enough dry and dusty in the wet, its downright dangerous :)

Have you ridden dh on a real dh run? I can understand kona saying it, I know where he has ridden. Just curious what your point of reference is for yah or nay on the armour. I hate armour to but I sure wouldn't ride what I was riding today withut it. There are days/runs I do without armour, but even then I am taking a big risk of badly damaging myself.

Ridin in the rain is so sketchy. All my good shin bites have been during the rain.

Yeah, I've riden some Dh runs. The last one put me out for about 3 weeks, sprained the crap out of my thumb. I thought it was broken.

I wouldn't go back to that place though, it's way beyond my current level of riding, beyond my bike's ability, AND HELLA STEEP!

well glad your alright and everything still works on the bike im guessing eh? eheh

Ya bike lived...actually testing some 3rd party brake pads on my hayes...holy crap good stopping power haha...maybe thats what happened. I don't remember much pre tackling the tree

I love wearnig my shin pads. I don't wear other armor becuase my muscle is my best padding. Although I would like to wear some.

I have ridden DH on a real DH run and it's crazy, I went with only a fullface helmet, gloves and shin+knee pads and felt very very exposed, had some crashes luckily without any large ill effects. I'm thinking of picking up body armour, what do you think of the 661 Pressure Suit? The problem is I don't think they make them in my size (I'm pretty skinny, 5'7-5'8)

Now I always ride with fullface, fullfinger gloves, shinpads, elbow pads.

Glad your OK. Girlscout tried to talk me out of him wearing armor in one of his DH races. The next practice run he came out with a big scrape on his forarm/elbow guard. I was like" yeah,take that stuff off". More than likely saved him some stiches. Even if you don't like it it saves a lot of injuries.

I would rather ride with armor than sit at home injured without it. Armor has saved my weekend many times.

I like 661, it semi fits me unlike most. Most other armour will fit you, they are made for average to skinny guys :)

It just isn't worth it. I couldn't image what my should would feel like without armour. At this point I wish I had remembered myu gloves with the kevlar padding, would have protected my wrist.

I was underwhelmed by the 05 pressure suit. This season I'm in the Rockgardn Flak Jacket and it beats the 661 in comfort, fit, ventilation, and protection. Price is competitive with the pressure suit also, at least here in the States.

If there was any DH in Manitoba Id have armor heheh but Manitoba is as flat as it gets so I just stick with the DJ/Urban stuff. I really wanna try some crazy trails and what not in BC or something though I think Im going out to Kamloops next summer to visit my aunt and uncle maybe I can find some sweet trails or something.

Speaking of which I think I will be getting the rock garden stuff next. 661 seemed to be made for short fat guys. At 6'5 their xl only goes to the top of my stomach, the kidney protector is more like a stomach band and the spine protection only goes half way down. Thanks for reminding me about rockgardn :)

http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=81165&page=2

Interesting thread on body armour in whistler. Even a couple of medics posting up :)

Maelstrom & gastro: Thanks, I'll see if I can find anyone who sells Rockgardn here but most likely they haven't even heard of them. I heard a lot of things about the 661 being somewhat "oversize", i.e. exactly what Maelstrom described it as: for short fat guys and although I do fit the somewhat short category I'm definately not fat at 110lbs :lol:

PS: I don't need anything with hugeass plastic plates to protect me but I would like something in which you can pedal decently (i.e. I don't die of heatstroke on the way to the trails) and that can save me from getting injured in a high speed DH crash or a small-medium jump. Spine is the most important part of the body armour, for me.