Up-grade Armour

[Arwen]

Any of you replaced/upgraded the armour in your bike kit? I'm mostly looking at knee and hip armour to go in kelvar jeans, and possibly in my textile trousers and jacket if it makes them less bulky. But there is so much choice!

Does anyone have any experience of D30 armour? How do you rate it? I've also been looking at Forcefield but that seems really very thin! Does it actually work?

For my jacket I am pretty sure I'm going with this Knox shirt as for the price and the convenience of not having to match up jackets the fit with the armour in the right places will be great! But how does knox armour rate among the other options?

[al_stu]

I've got knox, the waistcoat type one. Couldn't fit anything else under my leathers so didn't have much choice. Make sure you get ce2. Make sure you try it on with your gear. I find I get a bit hotter with the full armour but nothing unbearable.

[al_stu]

Oh and make sure you have something that covers as much of the spine as possible, that's the key thing to protect. On the knox one that I bought I like that it cant bend backwards because it's a honeycomb plastic interlinked jobby, others were basically thick foam in places so quite easy to bend further than I'd like my back to.

[iangaryprice]

I had Buffalo cheap jacket and trousers, armour in these was fairly basic, 6mm thick pieces of foam.

I've now got RST jacket and trousers. The armour in these is a lot better. Back protector is a honeycomb type a=bout 20mm thick. Knee shoulder and elbows are pre shaped protectors that are thicker and stay in place better. Only downsides is the RST trousers don't have hip protectors so I took the basic ones out of the Buffalo trousers. The better armour is also thicker (better protection) but more bulky. I can live with the bulk for the better protection.

[bonio]

If I was buying armour, I'd make sure it was CE Level 2 (EN-1621-2 CE Level 2) rather than just "CE" or "CE approved".

I've not upgraded any armour, but I wear a back proctector. I started as I thought it made sense for someone commuting on the A14, and now I'm just in the habit of wearing it all the time.

[Lumor_uk]

Does it actually work

I'll let you know if I die or not the next time I come off.... Or not

PS. Haven't had an off yet

[Arwen]

Thanks for the feed back guys. I've send out some emails asking for more info and dimensions on some armour to see if it fits