Why I Stopped Wearing Motorcycle Body Armour

It's worth mentioning that EN17092 tests garments with the pads *removed*. Meaning a AAA jacket or pant, which has been drop tested on the Darmstadt machine at 120kph, will still slide to a highway-speed stop without costing you skin (70kph for AA, 45kph for A). C-class garments have no abrasion resistance criteria whatsoever; this would be something like a mesh chassis for holding armour. Obviously, removing the pads from that would be silly, since its only purpose is to hold armour and you might as well wear a T-shirt instead. On that note, there are hero companies that make pads to greatly exceed CE 2 size and attenuation requirements. Aside from the Dainese back pad I showed, Rukka's D3O XTR comes to mind (link in description). Those pads are huge compared to the Type B template, and size matters if you're going to rely on pads to get to wherever your abrasion comfort level is. We don't always slide precisely on our shoulders, elbows and knees. It's usually the butt. We all have our own equations for balancing comfort v. practicality v. safety, which is why I made a point of not telling people to take the armour out of their jackets (twice!). Fortunately the CE standards make it fairly clear what your gear can and can't do, enabling us all to choose the stuff that achieves whatever we're after. ~RF9

Wait... did he just... DID HE JUST ROCK A 6 MINUTE SINGLE TAKE?!?! Respect.

As an orthopaedic surgeon (and a motociclist) I can say that its easier (and got better results) to fix lower Energy fracture than higher energy fractures... So, the benefit of using this gear may not protect you from having that fracture in the first place, but may shield you from months of reabilitation and permanent pain and limitation.

I just crashed today because of an old man that did not see me. I landed extremely hard on my left shoulder without breaking any bones or any serious damage, just a lot of pain. It's crystal clear to me the importance that those stupid rubber things had during the crash: they helped me to soften the main impact and shielded my shoulder from the tarmac. Before this crash i thought they were useless as you said in the video, but i left them in my jacket just to be extra safe .. and I'm very glad i did.

A highway speed slide with a AAA garment, with the pad removed, will still hurt a lot more than with the pads installed. I'd rather fall from 5ft high with pads than without. That's all they are there for. That last line you threw in there about appreciating life, supports the idea that a marginal safety item, which doesn't have much downside, should be worn.

having pads in my jeans is worth it just for the many times I'm on my knees trying to fix my moto on the side of the road

I’m an ER doc. I know armour won’t help in worst case, high energy scenario’s, but it helps mitigate the contusions, abrasions and lacerations in the kind of spills we are more likely to suffer. I had a low speed mishap riding off road in Iceland and diced up the elbows and arms of my riding jacket on volcanic rock. I had a few minor scratches from punctures through the Cordura fabric in the unpadded areas, but without armour protection it would have been a long complicated journey to a distant hospital to suture up contaminated, complex lacerations that would have terminated my bucket list trip. Some dabs of Polysporin for the skin and duct tape for the jacket and I was good to go.

The comments and insight elicited from doctors, EMTS, engineers, and other riders in response to this video are more valuable than the video.

At 62 years old I got knocked off my Honda goldwing driving through California coast fog and smoke I was trying to be careful going 25 mph as it was getting dark Hit a construction patch and it threw me off the bike there is no way you can tell me that my gear didn't save me from having broken bones it was worth every penny my full year including gloves I hit the pavement I spun I don't know how many times The only thing that happened to me and it didn't show up on x-rays was probably a fracture a hairline one in my foot that took a long time to heal Yes I had a bruised kidney but I was able to get a new face shield on get my bike out of the ditch which hardly had a scratch and proceed another 250 mi to my destination anyone who doesn't ride with armor protection is just a fool we see them in the street riding with flip-flops shorts personally I won't go to pick up groceries without my gear Yes my next thing is to get one of those inflatable vests it's been on my wish list hopefully this year

On behalf of Liz de Rome: In the research paper (AAP, 2011), we reported that riders wearing motorcycle clothing fitted with impact protection (IP) were significantly less likely to sustain any injuries than were riders wearing motorcycle clothing without IP and those wearing non-motorcycle clothing. The analysis compared injured and uninjured riders by level of protection taking other factors into account such as crash type, object impacted and speed. We were able to demonstrate significant reductions in open wound injuries associated with level of protection, but not fractures. In our discussion, we explain that the study sample (n=212) was too small to determine statistically significant evidence for the reduction of fractures. This is because fractures represent just 15% of riders’ injuries, compared to 71% soft tissue injuries across a population sample of crashed motorcycle riders. We strongly recommend that riders continue to wear impact protectors. Associate Professor Liz de Rome.

I'm not sure if you ever had an accident. But I had where I rolled across the street like a ball for about 60 meters . And believe me, I was happy to wear clothing with good protectors. Because I was rolling like a ball, most impact was on my knees, elbows and shoulders ... exactly where the protectors are. And looking at the wearness at these points, I'm glad, that the impact was not directly on my knees, elbows or shoulders. Maybe worth mentioning: I only wear good protectors made of rubber, not thees cheap foam ones you have shown in the video.

this may be one of the greatest youtube channels of all time. look at the discussions in the comments. imagine every video on youtube had the same type of conversation surrounding it.

Unfortunately, lack of quality armour is how we lost Ryan F9. This is his clone, Ryan F10.

I'm an EMT. Been one for going on 13 years. I've seen more than my fair share of moto accidents. I can't say that gear has ever really prevented a fracture or not, but one thing I do think MUST be mentioned, that moto gear (with or without armor) DOES DO INSANELY WELL, is ABRASION resistance. Yes, a broken bone sucks, but I've seen a woman's breast belt sanded off by the asphalt because she only had on a sweatshirt. Down to the bone. Anecdotally, I have lowsided before at a pretty pedestrian 25-30mph. Armored jacket, regular denim pants. The jacket took the hit and I had no bruise or injury on my arm. The road went through my pants like they were tissue paper and I have a softball sized scar on my knee now. Armor wouldn't have really mattered there, but a pant with abrasion resistance absolutely would have. So while I can't critique the argument against armored pads because I'm not an expert on the literature and most severe motorcycle accidents I've seen have had broken bones with and without armor, I can say that road rash can be a nightmare and have never seen road rash on an area where someone was wearing proper gear, and ALWAYS seen it on every single person that wasn't wearing any. To that end, I think it's a bit of a disservice to leave that part of the equation hanging and not mentioned. That airbag is going to save you from a broken clavicle, but if you aren't wearing an abrasion resistant layer as well, the road might well grind your skin, fat and muscles down to the bone. We call those chest protectors with no sleeves "organ donor vests" for a reason.

Just want to explicitly appreciate that the entire video is a single cut. Top notch stuff.

I first watched this after being released from hospital. I'd shattered my lower leg on a dirt bike. I was wearing level 2 armour underneath and all I can say is that after seeing the bruising as well as the chunks missing from my right elbow, I am VERY glad that I was. I have no doubt it would have been a fair bit worse if I'd had no padding there.

As someone that had a 10-15mph lowside in the BRC with no pads on legs, torso, and arms, I can tell you the bruising I got on my left knee and elbow was horrendous, lasting for about 2 weeks leaving me unable to work out or do anything strenuous. Over the winter I lowsided at roughly 2 times the speed of the BRC lowside, so 4 times the impact forces. However, this time I had CE level 2 pads in elbows, shoulders, back, hips, and knees. I walked away with nothing but a headache and was working out the next day. I really appreciate Ryan's philosophy on people making their own decisions, and just making sure they have all the information to make a well informed decision. For me, it's absolutely worth wearing the pads if it means there's a greater chance I won't be nearly bedridden for days.

Credit to the cameraman for walking backwards for six minutes without falling over.

Having had 2 relatively low speed low side crashes, i am thankful my jacket and pands were padded. The only damage i had was on the second wipeout the bottom of my palm where it meets the wrist hit the pavement hard. Those were crappy gloves. Lesson learned. My jacket popped a stitch where i had repaired it previously and my pants were just scuffed (luckily the road had dirt and gravel so i slid on a thin layer of crap and not so much the pavement, although i would not have lost traction if the road was clean!) Anywho, like I said, no damage to me besides my hand thanks to the pads in my gear. I will definitely continue buying armoured clothing. 👍

I was a London despatch rider for nearly 10 years and I can tell ya - if I hadn't have had something between my kneecaps and shoulders other than just a bit of weave on the many (slow speed, which is why I'm still alive) offs I had in that period, I wouldn't be walking. There's no question that the padding provided by the CE stopped my kneecap from being shattered, or fleshy bits from being shredded. I shall add that I frequently didn't wear standard bikers gear because most of it wouldn't last a month of despatch riding, it's a very different experience compared to the average weekend warrior or even hard core commuter, and I wouldn't spend a penny on some of the crap the average biker buys. My stuff was a mix of army surplus, industrial fishing stuff and other things that actually worked. But I always had troos and jackets with CE pockets.