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Not a fan of thick bluky body armour, tend to use quite flexible knee & elbow pads, been looking for some sort of body/back protection thats a bit lighter, keep coming across D3O, I know 661 make some knee pads and shorts using it.

If you dont know its a gooey plastic stuff that goes hard on impact, there are various you tube vids including guy with D3O beanie getting whacked on head with shovel.

I saw on ebay a piece of back protector D3O for about £30 tyats designed to fit into motorbike jackets, im contemplating maybe making some sort of t-shirt design with it sewn/glued to the rear perhaps ? > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280857446218? ... 1438.l2649

Heres som youtube vids > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIQsU6pr878

and > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDeJ7rLUYU

Andy

Would still rather trust hard plastic when cartwheeling through a rock garden

I think along the same lines Andy the bulky stuff is annoying, not that many rock gardens in essex lol

Plus the manufacturers of D3O would no doubt say 'hey..it IS hard plastic, but only whwen it needs to be. i.e on impact, the rest of the time its soft n light'.

Maybe there is a market for a lightweight t0-shirt with a few dollops of D3O on back, shoulders, etc...there are a few items like this but not many, Blugrass Grizzly being a bit pricey example > http://www.evanscycles.com/products/blu ... gn=froogle

Andy

661 offer a base layer that has "custard foam" shoulders and chest for around 40 pounds. There 2012 armour also uses it also, it is currently on sale at CRC for 100 pounds. Troy lee also do some good offerings.

Which models from 661 Matt? I really want to change mine

Yep saw them but they don't offer back protection, I've got the shorts version which in happy with, although they do offer a pricier d3o option.

Look at Scott body armour, they make a suit with d30, saw it it Morzine and it looked really good. The guy in the shop put it on and got hit with a metal bar with out feeling it.

Cool idea...I thought about making my own jacket after seeing all the bits sas tec make and how dirt cheap they were bought separately. sas tec pretty much = 3do... all the manufactures just take these bits and stitch them into a jacket to sell

http://bikers-spar-point.de/SaS-Tec:.:2 ... anguage=en

I ran one of there earlier this summer
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=68525
really good but fell apart

running this now and you don't notice it on but less protection
http://www.freestylextreme.com/uk/Home/ ... rmour.aspx

All soft armour - ill never run a hard shell again.. all they do is transmit shock through the body. Soft armour will never get pierced if its the right thickness. My tuppance worth

Have you "tested" the o'neal stuff yet karve ?

i used some demon armour on sunday at danbury, i didn't "test" it but it was very hot to wear even compared to my pressure suit.

this stuff http://www.dogfunk.com/demon-snow-flex- ... or-dem0076

i'm really looking to find this elusive perfect armour

Interesting..not sure if Sas Tec is exactly the same as D3O, just watching some you tube clips where they say sas-tec acts like a 'non-newtonian fluid' but isnt one whereas D3O claim it is, at least thats impression I get.

Anyway..enough of the physisc !..thanks for the Sas Tec link, the prices are very cheap, so worth investigating, you could for example, buy a piece and cut it to size to fit in your backpack, it would fit quite well in my bladder compartment, although no go if you go riding packpackless.

Andy

There is a new POC armour that uses VPD (which I believe is D3O), at £300 not cheap ! > http://dirt.mpora.com/dirt-100/2012-dir ... acket.html

Ive opted for No Fear top > http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=24008 for £14, which i quite like and offers reasonable protection for a lightweight top.

Andy

Dont know if this helps but i recently sat down and went through the same thing. I didnt want hard shell protection, to bulky, to hot, and to restrictice to ride in and i didnt want a light weight top that didnt offer enough protection. I looked at loads of options from the motor bike stuff like forcefield to the oneal sas -tec stuff. Sas tec make the vpd pads for poc so the oneal stuff was top of the list. However due to time and availability i went for this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=82726

I wasnt to sure how it would work out but having done a week of uplifts at the forst of dean and cwmcan its amazing. No jazzy d3o or sas tec just the same pads they stick in american football and hocky armour stitched into a breathable mesh top.

It feels comfy and to my amazment it stayed in place percectly. You can feel air moving through it and its comfy enough to wear without restriction so i could wear it where's my mates had taken theres off or just wouldnt put it on.

Most inportantly i binned it hard and very fast down the side of cwmcan twice and didnt realy feel a thing. The first was a full face first superman with me shoving the bike away in the air and lading hard face down and enough to smach the visor of the helmet and i walked away compleaty unscathed.

Im not trying to oversell this but i thought id share as it worked so well, and a lot better than i thought it would to be honest.

g

Ggg is that the coolest you have tried? I'm very interested

Its still body armour so its never going to be t shirt cool but it was pretty good.

It was humid as hell for the 4 days we rode the forrest of dean and we pushed up and sesioned runs for half of it and i never felt the need to take it off. When there was a breeze the air flow through it was noticable and cooled down realy quickly

That said ive only ever tried a 661 pressure suit, which i hated because of the heat and suit of armour feel, and an oneal stealth shirt which i thought was great but a bit underprotected and still swaety as hell beacuse of the super close fit

I generaly only wear body armour when i think theres a real chance of me rearanging something so i wanted a bit more covarage. I know oneal are bringing out a upgraded downhill version of the stealth shirt which i would have been intrested in but its not available for a while.

Over all though i think i made the right choise