CE approved armour

Check this stuff out...

http://www.d3o.com/

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

There are three levels of performance for CE approved armour. Hein Gericke Hiprotec is a medium performance armour, Davis Odell and Forcefield (Formerly T-Pro) both make a similar type of armour that is soft and rubbery which meets the high performance level and beyond. The downsides to the soft rubber armour is that it will double the weight of a suit as it is quite heavy.

Hmm, are you sure that's right? I know this is your field, but Hien Gericke don't advertise Hiprotec as meeting the higher standards. The normal T-Pro stuff only meets level 1 according to their website, though the Forcefield back protector meets EN1621-2 level 2. Knox randomly claim that some of their products exceed level 1 by 50%, which should be enough to attain level 2, but they don't actually seem to have passed that test. Odd, that.

This is a wee bit of an assumption, but it seems reasonable to assume that if they'd passed the higher tests, they'd like to let us know... T-Pro in particular aren't shy about telling us that the back protector meets level 2, so why not the rest of it if it does?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by tomjones2

I have tested some of hein geicke soft armour at about 20mph (impact) and it worked well, if that helps.

+1 at about 30-40(? wasn't looking at speedo). Agree it works well, else I would have mangled shoulder and possibly a back injury.

[northwind]

So anyway, I was bored, so I photographed and measured some different armour, in case it's of interest:





Top left is a Turtle Daejon shoulderpiece. Top right is Hiprotec hip armour.
Second row, from left to right we have a Normantech elbow piece, a Knox standard knee panel, a Knox 2-part knee piece, A T-Pro knee piece and a Rukka RVP-Air knee piece.

The Turtle Daejon one is from an old Lookwell jacket I have, 5 years old and showing no signs of degrading. But I suspect it was never that good to be honest. It's a thick rubber foam, nearly 20mm thick in places, and weighs 4.5oz for this very small shoulder piece. It's very well moulded and flexible, but small.

The Hiprotec one is amazing for its thinness and flexibility, it's 2.5oz for this fair sized hip panel and only about 5mm thick. It never inspires confidence for that reason but that's just psychology. I like this stuff, I have it in some cycling gear and it's barely noticable, in bike gear it's invisible.

The Normantech elbow panel is from a Furygan leather jacket. It's a 2-part, there's an outside layer of dense rubber foam and a thin layer of softer plastic foam. I suspect that the inner layer is just for comfort and the dense foam is the armour. I've tested this, it works... Lowsided right onto my elbow, proper armbreaker, just a small bruise to show for it. But it's very thick, 20mm across most of it. Very light too, 1.5lb. But...



The inner foam ripped up, so even though the outer foam seems fine the protection might be reduced.

Next is an old Knox Advance X knee piece, from my first bike trousers. Despite the flash name this is their standard stuff, still available, and it's about 10mm thich and weight nothing, less than 1 ounce! It's the same age as the Turtle piece from the Lookwell jacket, and it's had a load less use, but look at it:



It's compressed a lot, and the material seems to be collapsing. Foam armour doesn't last forever folks, if you've crashed in it you're supposed to replace it and it wears out just through use. This piece probably protects far less well than it did as new.

The next one is also Knox, but it's their Knox Air X, also a knee panel. This came in a set of Teknics trousers. It's a hard-and-soft armour, a hard resin with soft memory foam inside. It weighs slightly more at 2.5oz. I like this stuff, it got well tested in the same crash as the Furygan/Normantech panel, though it took less of an impact. The reason I was so glad for it was that I slid with my dodgy knee under the bike, and the trousers completely holed- you can't see in the photo, but the resin is covered in road rash, and is well ground down. That could have been my knee... It's also well moulded, so it stays where it's put unlike armour that's just flat and kept in place by the clothes.

The next is T-Pro or Forcefield (or Odell-Davis), I think this is a knee panel officially but I wore it in the hips of my Teknics trousers. It's flexible, though not as much as the Hiprotec. Quite heavy at 4.5oz but it's twice the size of some of the ther panels. It's had a few dunts, protected my broken hip, and is still good for a load more. I am a fan of this stuff, it's true.

Last, is RVP-Air from my Rukka trousers, another knee. Like the Knox Air-X this is heavily shaped so it's more inclined to stay in place, great in textiles. This stuff is designed specifically for the Rukka trousers, and you get very big panels with very good fit. I've never tested it though. Heaviest here at 5.5lb, but then it's also the biggest. Inspires confidence...

As we've already said, the rubbery armour has the huge advantage that it doesn't wear out, compress or fall apart, and it's good for multiple impacts. It's less bulky too, though the T-Pro stuff is a wee bit awkward as it's not shaped for its locations at all (which is why I'm using the massive knee one in a hip pocket).

I'm a wee bit obsessed with armour these days... I've got osteoperosis, 3 bolts through my hip and a mangled knee, so it encourages interest in protection Personally I trust T-Pro, Knox and the RVP-Air stuff. RVP-Air seems to be less protective but I trust it to stay where it's put, and the panels are mahoosive. Better to have less good armour between you and the road, than brilliant armour that ends up down the side of your knees or only covers half your hip I reckon. I tend to think the Knox stuff is an inferior product but again, anatomical fit is useful and they're such an industry standard- any knox upgrade will fit in any knox-equipped suit, and lots of gear is designed specifically for it. The Teknics trousers had hip pockets with no armour, frinstance, but with foam fillers the exact shape of a Knox hip armour panel. Very useful.

But, I'm not an expert by any means, so take that as it is.

[northwind]

So, that was a big aimless post. But if you only read/look at one part, check out the worn out armour. If you have old foam stuff, there's every chance it's past its best, and this stuff isn't expensive compared to 3 months off work with a broken hip.

When I did my leg in, I was wearing my bike gear but it had no provision for hip armour. If it had, I wouldn't even have been late for work, as it didn't I ended up with a leg held on with meccano which doesn't quite work as a leg should. SO! If you have empty hip armour pockets, I would recommend you fill them If you have worn out or inferior armour elsewhere, it would be a good idea to replace it.

I'm a bit confused about the low, medium and high levels of CE approval. I got the Forcefield back protector because it was clear to see that it met a higher level then the Knox ones but as for armour in leathers I haven't noticed anything advertised any differently.

I've got HG leathers and all weather gear. I was told that the hard armour doesn't absorb the impact as well as soft. The fella in the shop showed me by bouncing a very heavy ball on soft and then hard armour. On the soft armour it stopped dead and on the hard it bounced.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

+1 at about 30-40(? wasn't looking at speedo). Agree it works well, else I would have mangled shoulder and possibly a back injury.

I guessed the impact speed, infact I shut my eyes just before the turning car hit me. I guess its a human reaction, or I'm just a p*ssy.

Originally Posted by northwind

So, that was a big aimless post. But if you only read/look at one part, check out the worn out armour. If you have old foam stuff, there's every chance it's past its best, and this stuff isn't expensive compared to 3 months off work with a broken hip.

When I did my leg in, I was wearing my bike gear but it had no provision for hip armour. If it had, I wouldn't even have been late for work, as it didn't I ended up with a leg held on with meccano which doesn't quite work as a leg should. SO! If you have empty hip armour pockets, I would recommend you fill them If you have worn out or inferior armour elsewhere, it would be a good idea to replace it.

Just looked at my leathers and textile gear, none of it has provisions for hip armour.

Originally Posted by tomjones2

Just looked at my leathers and textile gear, none of it has provisions for hip armour.

If it has a liner then some armour can be clipped to it. When I say some I only know the HG stuff can cos it comes with sort of plastic circlip thingys.

Originally Posted by northwind

So anyway, I was bored

You weren't kidding there Northy!