Body armour. Again!

[mooby77]

Personally I've become very adept at being the "clip a pedal on a rock on a narrow highly exposed singletrack, get thrown down the steep slope, end up upside-down in the trees/rocks below, and then have the bike land on top of me" kinda guy... . It would actually be quite funny if it didn't happen so often, and in rather remote places

I'm with you , i also seem to have mastered the art of continuously doing that, it takes skill and perseverance

 

[JoeBlow]

I wore my new Evoc Torso protector this morning. It offers level 2 back protection and level 1 chest protection that continues round the sides. It's very light and low profile even down to the slim, magnetic buckles. It would be an exaggeration to say I was unaware I had it on but it came pretty close. It was much more comfortable than the TLD RockFight that I tried and returned. I did read somewhere that the side protecton on the latter was more to do with buckle padding than rib protection. I still don't know if that is the case but overall I prefer the Evoc. Highly recommended.

 

[sjturner2112]

The crashing technique that works for this is style of crash is one that is subconsious, one that is muscle memory. You cant be thinking about it, you just do it. I'm not saying you will be save yourself in every instance and be perfectly injury free. That wont happen. But you can reduce or avoid injury in a lot of instances with a good technique.

I know its hard for people who don't have the technique to understand. I just know how many rediculous crashes i have walked away from over the years. Multiple of those with wintess's gobsmacked that i got up and walked away afterward with essentially bruising. I have crashed countless times as you describe, the immediate crash, head on with a car, pedal tag and immediate off, loosing the frontwheel, nosing into the back face of big jumps and the list goes on and on and on.

I am 54 been racing and riding mtbs for 30+ years at a high level. I'm currently back into racing national level DH which is no joke. In that 30 years ive had 1 wrist injury, one rib injury and am have not had any shoulder surgeries. So I am exceptionally injury free for my age and the amount of stupid i undertake.

Anyway, all i suggest for people that are repeatidly injuring shoulders, ribs, wrists. Try and improve your technique. It might save you next time.

this is BS, becasue I watch UCI riders during the season, all season, and they constantly have the exact kind of crash I am talking about. They are in Andorra right now, and if you watch moi moi tv or wyn tv, you will see about 35-45 crashes of the EXACT type I am talking about in their 2, 1 hour segments of practice. All of these riders hit the fucking dirt, HARD.Are you trying to tell me that ALL of the world's best bike riders just have shitty crash prep, and if they ONLY listened to you, they'd be ok? You are SO FULL OF SHIT. I guess all those UCI downhillers should stop wearing their body armour, and come take lessons from yourself. I cannot emphasize how full of shit you are, it must be coming out of your fucking eyes and ears.

 

[JoeBlow]

this is BS, becasue I watch UCI riders during the season, all season, and they constantly have the exact kind of crash I am talking about. They are in Andorra right now, and if you watch moi moi tv or wyn tv, you will see about 35-45 crashes of the EXACT type I am talking about in their 2, 1 hour segments of practice. All of these riders hit the fucking dirt, HARD.Are you trying to tell me that ALL of the world's best bike riders just have shitty crash prep, and if they ONLY listened to you, they'd be ok? You are SO FULL OF SHIT. I guess all those UCI downhillers should stop wearing their body armour, and come take lessons from yourself. I cannot emphasize how full of shit you are, it must be coming out of your fucking eyes and ears.

I don't think it's BS. It's probably useful in a situation with some space and at higher speeds. It was useless information for the situation I described and I'm not sure why he posted it. It's not as if I was not very specific or unclear.

 

[Plummet]

this is BS, becasue I watch UCI riders during the season, all season, and they constantly have the exact kind of crash I am talking about. They are in Andorra right now, and if you watch moi moi tv or wyn tv, you will see about 35-45 crashes of the EXACT type I am talking about in their 2, 1 hour segments of practice. All of these riders hit the fucking dirt, HARD.Are you trying to tell me that ALL of the world's best bike riders just have shitty crash prep, and if they ONLY listened to you, they'd be ok? You are SO FULL OF SHIT. I guess all those UCI downhillers should stop wearing their body armour, and come take lessons from yourself. I cannot emphasize how full of shit you are, it must be coming out of your fucking eyes and ears.

Not full of shit. I am living proof it works.
You don't understand at all. You are in fully in unconscious incompetence level of ignorance.

I have crashed hard in front of a UCI DH racer who has seen many, many crashes and he was absolutely gobsmacked that I got up and carried on riding. He kept asking me if i was ok. I was ok....

A lot o those dh racers have good crash technique. You can see them tuck and roll and dissipate the energy. If you hit the ground at 50+kph its going to hurt. its physics. But if you have a solid technique you might walk away with bruising rather than broken bones.

 

[Plummet]

I don't think it's BS. It's probably useful in a situation with some space and at higher speeds. It was useless information for the situation I described and I'm not sure why he posted it. It's not as if I was not very specific or unclear.

I recommended working on technique because you stated that it was a recurring theme of bruising your ribs. That is representative of technique that could be improved.

I have one rib injury in 32 years of riding mtbs. I have about 2 decent crashes a month. That's 1 rib injury in 768 crashes. Thats 0.13% chance of injuring my ribs.

 

[JoeBlow]

I recommended working on technique because you stated that it was a recurring theme of bruising your ribs. That is representative of technique that could be improved.

I have one rib injury in 32 years of riding mtbs. I have about 2 decent crashes a month. That's 1 rib injury in 768 crashes. Thats 0.13% chance of injuring my ribs.

I accept your challenge. Please describe to me or better still provide video evidence of how I can develop this technique. Once again and to be clear: Very slow speed, narrow single track, quite steep, uneven steep ground to left and right with roots and rocks to catch the front wheel. All the videos I have seen show high speed, relatively open ground with room to get yourself clear. In the latter scenario I get it and agree learning to land safely is a worthwhile exercise but totally unworkable in the one I describe. Unless you can offer proof to convince me otherwise.

 

[RustyMTB]

I have crashed hard in front of a UCI DH racer who has seen many, many crashes and he was absolutely gobsmacked that I got up and carried on riding. He kept asking me if i was ok. I was ok....

A lot o those dh racers have good crash technique. You can see them tuck and roll and dissipate the energy. If you hit the ground at 50+kph its going to hurt. its physics. But if you have a solid technique you might walk away with bruising rather than broken bones.

I can show you endless reels of world cup racers pinging themselves helplessly with no technique whatsoever other than flying through the air & hoping for the best. Matter of fact I can show you plenty of those going back over the past two days, never mind the past season or last ten years. The idea that these people have learned some kind of secret sauce only they and apparently you are privy to is honking nonsense.

At the time of writing, the injury list among world cup riders includes but is not limited to Bernard Kerr, Loic Bruni, Erice Van Leuven, Ronan Dunne, Tahnee Seagrave & Louise Ferguson. I expect they would be grateful for your insights, as a peer, you should get in touch.

 

[JoeBlow]

I can show you endless reels of world cup racers pinging themselves helplessly with no technique whatsoever other than flying through the air & hoping for the best. Matter of fact I can show you plenty of those going back over the past two days, never mind the past season or last ten years. The idea that these people have learned some kind of secret sauce only they and apparently you are privy to is honking nonsense.

At the time of writing, the injury list among world cup riders includes but is not limited to Bernard Kerr, Loic Bruni, Erice Van Leuven, Ronan Dunne, Tahnee Seagrave & Louise Ferguson. I expect they would be grateful for your insights, as a peer, you should get in touch.

The only technique I can see working in the scenario I describe is a rear bike dismount.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Bernard Kerr, Loic Bruni, Erice Van Leuven, Ronan Dunne, Tahnee Seagrave & Louise Ferguson

My entire fantasy dh team.. this explains my last place.