protective wear, school me

[matty]

The thing I dont like about armored jackets is the padding can move around in a crash.

That is my single biggest complaint about textile gear, lots of jackets have a snap or velcro strap on the forearm to cinch the jacket tighter, but I've always felt there needed to be one at the top of the elbow armor, at the bicep, as well, external armor straps, essentially. Same with the knee armor, cinch straps at the top and bottom of the armor. Anyway, carry on, I'm paying attention to this thread.

 

[1962siia]

I think it’s important (elbow protection) but like CJ says you probably won’t find solid consensus. I’ve bruised my elbows several times. Often from them smashing into my ribs. This is from the same crash above. My most recent crash with the leatt protector which includes elbow armor also bruised but not near as bad. I miss that pink bathroom with the tiled ceiling in my old house!

 

[peterhively]

I go for the more is more approach for off-road riding. Too many hazards that can get you sometimes, even if you're "taking it easy". A low speed fall onto rocks, jab your elbow into your ribs, bounce off a tree, tumble down a hillside.

Yeah it's a lot of $$$ but it lasts a long time and if it helps prevent or reduce the severity of an injury it's worth it to me.

Really good boots are a must. Really easy to injure your feet/ankles even without crashing. The "best" motocross boots may be too stiff and cumbersome, you want the mid to high end off-road focused version.

I do wear knee braces. I've found the comfort much improved since I started using these, holds them in place all day long:
https://www.leatt.com/us/shop/moto/...ce-pants-sku-5017010140-W?selected-color=5440

The armor I have is an earlier version of this:
https://www.leatt.com/us/shop/mtb/p...5-pro-hd-sku-5014101101-W?selected-color=5440

Also I wear a neck brace that is compatible with the armor.

At the time that was the most protective armor I could find, especially the wrap around rib armor. I like this style as I can wear my preferred base layer underneath. I have some hard shell elbow guards that slip on like a sleeve, I don't like to have straps squeezing my forearms. To keep them from sliding down I install snaps to attach em to the shoulder pads.

 

[HadesOmega]

Oh yeah I almost forgot HIP ARMOR. I don't know what it is but when I have a bad spill the hip is the one that gets hit. I had a really bad crash in Baja at 40mph and landed on my hip and it sucked. After that all my gear has better hip armor now. It's pointy and hurts if you fall on it, I guess the same can be said for the tail bone. But if I don't have some kind of hip armor on my pants I wear a Klim (yup Merlin bought some name brand expensive stuff) armored underwear. It has padding on the hips, thigh and tail bone. If I don't have at least hip armor or beefier hip armor (a lot of pants come with hip armor or a pocket to put one in) I wear this underneath it. It's like an armored pair of cycling shorts.

This is a newer model of what I got now
https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle...R9GxXyd1JHdak0-GUihK81FEdCqwhol4aAvb4EALw_wcB

 

[onto1wheel]

If I were being payed large sums of money to go faster, I would probably wear about 10lbs less protective gear, as the gear makes me slower by limiting my movement just a bit (and the weight, and the over heating).

But nobody pays me a thing, and I still need to go to work, etc, so I wear it ALL.

I fall down a lot because I push my limits every time [that's my story and i'm sticking with it], and I think it's great to fall down and be able to get right back up (most of the time).

The only new thing I'll add here: I'm a fan of the Leatt dual axis knee guards, because they use snap for on and off instead of the velcro, which in my experience loses effectiveness after several on-off's.

I could also show you pictures of lots of colorful body parts, even with armor!
Also a really gruesome pic of my buddy whose flack jacket elbow protection rolled away after initial impact, and left a giant, deep, bloody hole in his elbow. Pretty gross. Woulda been worse without it.

Wear what your comfortable with, tons of great choices out there.