Armor mods

[Cadman]

For some, the idea of possibly falling off their bike is not real enough to take too seriously. If you ride enough though, you may get your chance, so why not make the best of it? You’ll have some great stories to tell, but do you really need the scars to go with them? The scars will only help if you are a poor story teller and like to see people cringe and run off to repeat how dangerous motorcycles are.
So, my beloved Spidi summer mesh gear gave its life to save my skin a while back. If I had not had armor on my knees, falling off would have been more damaging and it would have been a much more painful recovery.
Last weekend I bought new mesh gear made by Alpinestars. I like the T-GP R Air jacket, but the Airflo pants had foam armor that moved up out of place while riding. I called back to Roadrider in San Jose and explained about the poor design and he said they had better ones for only an additional $200. These were on sale for $125.95.
“I’ll get back to you.”
I’m not afraid of cloth, so I decided to remove the armor from the Spidi pants and sew them into the new ones. Turns out, I didn’t have to. I had turned the pants leg inside-out through the “armor inserting” hole and saw it was held in place with Velcro. I had some self adhesive Velcro strips and used them. If they end up moving out of place I will go back in there and throw some stitches at it.
In the first set of pictures there are:
the torn Spidi pants, the AS (Alpinestars) pant inside-out showing the Velcro closed pouch, the Spidi armor pouch with it’s Velcro closed opening at its bottom, the cut off Spidi pouches with both kinds of armor.

[Cadman]

These pictures show:
The AS pouch with Velcro in the open position, and the Spidi pouch in place in the AS pants with Velcro, the AP pant leg pulled up so the Spidi pouch extends out, a shopping bag with the bottom cut out to slide the armor through, and the Spidi pouch closed up in the AS leg.
I tried a few different positions for the pouch to get the armor to locate on the knee by itself when the knee bent. I had to shorten the pouch a little to keep it high enough. After working that out on one leg the other went together first try. I trimmed about 1/4 inch of foam off of the outside edge to get the armor to rotate that way. The last picture shows the pants with the new/old armor installed and the cut off foam. The armor goes from the scissors down to the little Velcro square.

Armor will save your skin. If you don’t have some, I urge you to consider it.
I can walk fine now.

[Cadman]

BTW:
The thing about the plastic food bag; I was having a hell of a time trying to get my sock covered foot through the leg of my leathers. It kept catching on the liner and I had to take the sock off. Even then I was not so easy. I was pondering that one day and saw a plastic bag.
With the bag over the foot it slides right through, so, as it was not easy to get the armor back inside the pouch (kind of reminded me of the issues involved with teenage dating, wink, wink) I cut the bottom out of a bag and put it in first. The armor slid right in the pouch like a 25th anniversary celebration.

[Ca Pete]

Cool Bill, I added a new armor mod to my collection this week.

[Cadman]

Wow, Pete! You are on the foreskin of technology!

I hope you never have to use it.

[Ca Pete]

Wow, Pete! You are on the foreskin of technology!

I hope you never have to use it.

Yep, but after last year, I can't have enough saftey equipment on.

I imagine in five years it will be pretty commonplace.

[Cadman]

Here ya go!

[Cadman]

This is my new disguise with the re-armored pants.

[Ca Pete]

Well it is life and death.

[LivnLife4Fun]

dang I gotta do something about knee protection, I removed my knee armor from the leather pants cuz they were so uncomfortable.

Cool Bill, I added a new armor mod to my collection this week.

[]

how's it working out under your regular gear? not too hot & annoying? been looking at back & front protectors & this looks like it would work really well.

[Cadman]

I rode for about an hour through a series of tight roads and the new armor stayed put. It must have, as I never gave it a thought the whole ride. The armor that was in there was uncomfortably out of place in 1/4 mile. All the gear I have fit correctly, so I don't feel the armor while riding. Every bit of what I was wearing took a turn on the pavement, including the back protector I wear under my jackets. My next mod will be to join the jacket and pants with a zipper at the back. The jacket has a zipper, but it won't work with the "matching" pants.

If you are unfortunate enough to fall, your knee may be the first item to arrive at the scene of the accident. A messed up knee may last for a lifetime.

I did damage my knee, but the bone cracked in the tumbling, not from the sliding or impact with the road. In the "product testing" I have done, the forearm, shoulder, and knee armor have been the ones to be hammered.

If you are too hot in your gear, consider getting some mesh. I got the gear shown above to wear when the temps will be above 75. I have other gear for when it's cooler, and leather for the track.

[Ca Pete]

how's it working out under your regular gear? not too hot & annoying? been looking at back & front protectors & this looks like it would work really well.

It's worn on the outside, so not very noticable.

[LivnLife4Fun]

It's worn on the outside, so not very noticable.

on the outside? yeah I guess it would have to be worn on the outside in order to not blow your clothes off when activated ummm But wearing that on the outside brings a word to mind, it rhymes with Stork...


didja hear about the woman who survived an avalanche because she wore an avalanche safety backpack that she inflated to keep her head above the rolling snow?
http://www.kgw.com/news/Survivor-des...139708533.html

[Ca Pete]

Well it blends in pretty good with my black jacket, my son says that from the front it just looks like I'm wearing a backpack.

It lies flat, it's not inflated all the time you know.

But I'd still rather look like a dork than be dead.

The only thing I find mildly annoying is the large co2 bottle, but it really hasn't gotten in my way when riding.

Here is the site http://www.safermoto.com/index.html

There's a nice discount when you add something to your cart.