Upgrade Armour

[F5 Dave]

So talking to a chap waiting for the ferry he mentioned when asking about my airbag vest that Motocap rates gear and the Alpinestars leathers didn't fare as well as he expected. Odd, so he bought Ixion as it had level 2 armour.

Indeed it seems many manufacturers put cheaper armour in to make initial price more competitive. They faired great in not bursting and abrasion, but could do better with impact.
The airbag vest is great improvement and leathers made to expand for it.

But knee and elbow is level 1 and there is no hip armour at all. But unzip the lining and there is a big strip of velcro.

OK so obvious answer is to get some hip armour and attach some velcro.

But specific level 2 armour doesn't seem readily available.

Replacement L2 inserts are smaller and float about. The really good thing about the std armour in leathers is it lives in pockets with velcro straps so it has a good chance of being in the right place if you hit the road. Textiles can be a problem due to thier looser soft nature.

I have some Forcefield armour inserts I was going to get sewn in racing leathers. They are pretty old fashioned and not marked with L1 or L2. They also suffer from not being so big.

So looking at D30 website they say you can bond thier armour. OK, let the upgrade begin.

See adhesive.

[F5 Dave]

First, I carved off the old foam.

I tried freezing it, then an old bread knife .but best was a new snap blade of biggest size and carving and rolling the old armour until it was almost through where the new armour insert would replace it, leaving a bit of old where it was bigger.

This takes about 30min per side.
This will be more evident when I do the knee armour next. I actually used knee armour for elblows as it's slightly wider.

Then I spread the adhesive on fairly thick with a trowel and placed a can as shown.
Looks messy because it is, but will be hidden.

Will go press edges in 20 min.

Did the hip velcro and it seemed to stick very well.

[SaferRides]

That looked like fun!

There's a whole raft of EN standards for motorcycle gear, most of which are quite recent. I think most manufacturers, including Astars and Dainese, have upgraded their gear to meet the new standards. For example, EN17092 for garments was published in 2020 and there is probably still gear for sale in NZ that has not been tested to that standard.

My pants and jacket are well due for replacement, which means getting my head around the new standard and what the ratings mean. Being Euro standards, that's not simple, plus I'd like an airbag vest...

Some of the gear tested by MotoCAP will predate the current standard and newer versions may perform better.



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[Gremlin]

Yeah, often it's the armour that's CE rated, not the actual gear itself. This is where the likes of Rukka separate themselves from the rest... and also on price However, it's very good stuff.

My Revit gear has the pockets to upgrade the armour, back and chest, which I've done with their Seesoft range.