Paging the Gericke-armouristi

Had some time to kill this afternoon after work, popped into HG Stockwell.
Thought about getting some hip armour for my leathers. They only had this
flexible, knobbly Hiprotec stuff, which didn't inspire much confidence.

Is this as protective as normal "hard" CE armour, or is it more like less
protective but more comfortable due to flexibility?

--
TD
1991 VFR400R NC30 (black and red)
2001 ZX-9R (red and black)
1999 M5 (neither black nor red)
Missing: SOB, Unreliable Italian exotica, Lardy tourer

 

According to the tests in DiRE and my failing memory, the HiProtec stuff
is noticeably better.

 

IIRC, it's meant to be good stuff: it "hardens" under sharp impacts, or
something like that. I'm sure there's a technical term for it.

It's been discussed on here before, I'm sure.

 

It's actually Davis Odell Astrosorb by another name. You'll find the
spec for Hiprotec Sport and Astrosorb is higher than any other armour
on the market. I have Hiprotec Sport throughout my Gericke textile
gear, throughout my old Nitro 1-piece; and Astrosorb in the knees and
hips of my both my MJK 1-piece and MJK 2-piece suits.

Hard armour transmits shock directly through and into bone, Astrosorb
absorbs the shock by dissipating it sideways under compression.

You can't buy higher spec armour.

 

"Non-Newtonian" - the very reason speed bumps should be made of
custard.

 

The other thing is that it takes repeated hits without loss of performance.

 

Out of interest, in your (or anyone else's) experience, how does Knox
Flexiform compare to that? I have that in most of my gear at the
moment.

 

Thanks to all who responded, very useful[1]. I shouldn't judge a book by its
cover, I suppose. I'd love to replace all my hard CE armour, but that stuff
ain't cheap.

<fx: sets ebay favourite search email>

[1] Especially Bear. Lozzo, couldn't you do any better than re-hash what Bear
wrote?

--
TD
1991 VFR400R NC30 (black and red)
2001 ZX-9R (red and black)
1999 M5 (neither black nor red)
Missing: SOB, Unreliable Italian exotica, Lardy tourer

 

I remember an episode of Brainiac where they filled a swimming pool
with custard and got that bloke off Big Brother to walk across it.

 

This is true, and it quite probably saved my life. I was wearing this
stuff (in German only, but babelfish gives an idea)
http://www.schwabenleder.de/index.cgi?a=texte&b=show&c=1158&d=&i=1099&j=1270
which isn't CE approved, but sounds like it's similar to those you
describe.

When I hit the armco with my back flat-on to it (albeit upside-down)
at aroun 50mph the padding managed to divert enough of the impact away
from the spine to break 9 ribs _at the front_, as well as the 8 cushed
vertebrae. Clearly with no armour the spine would have snapped and I
wouldn't be typing this now, but I've often wondered how good the
Dainese armadillo stuff would have been in the same circumstances. It
may well have stopped the spine breaking, but I suspect it wouldn't
have transferred the forces nearly as effectively, such that there may
have been a lot more spinal damage.

I'll never know, of course, but I'm certainly grateful to the germans
who made my leathers the way they did.


--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

I had no idea I'd done so much damage. Once I'd started myself
breathing it was clear from the pain that I'd broken at least one rib,
but I stood up shortly afterwards, which sadly did nothing to help the
rib pain, then lay down again, at which point the jacket hump made it
very uncomfortable - so a few minutes later, when the first ambulance
crew arrived, I asked them to help me take it off, and they duly
obliged.

Shows how much training they'd had - quite obviously a spinal impace
and they not only failed to immobilise me but actually helped me move
my arms and back around to get the tight-fitting jacket off. Lesson
learnt - the normal SAMU-type French ambulance crews have slightly
less knowledge that I get from my tri-annual 2-day emergency 1st-aid
courses.

The (Swiss) helicopter paramedics and hospital staff were less than
impressed when I told them, although I was less than impressed with
them when they cut my trousers off, despite the fact that they could
have just pulled them off. Bastards.

Still, they patched me back together, I suppose, but that's one pair
of leather trousers I'll neve be able to use again.


--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

It does

 

Nope.

 

Ace wrote:
snip ouch

Cheap at that price if you ask me. I can't even *think* of the damage
you did to yourself without grimacing.

Hate to think what living with the aftermath is like, still, better than
being some ashes in a box under the stairs.

 

Don have you heard from Gavin? has my money but no goods yet

 

Oh good,an excuse to get out of bed and be properly psychotic before the
men and women in white drug me up and press gang me back to work.

I'll swing by the house wearing my best Jack Nicholson "Here's Johnny"
face and see what's up.

 

Get yourself a Harley and you've a ready-made pair of chaps.

 

I _will_ get back to a pain-free, properly fit state eventually. It's
just taking longer than I expected, but I'll get there.

Out mountain biking today, did 20 miles or so without struggling too
much.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

I splashed out on as an experiment for my Kevlar jeans. They came with hard
knee/shin and thick hip armour, which was so uncomfortable, I had to remove
it. The Hiprotec has revolutionised the jeans, which are now just as
comfortable as normal ones.

If I like it, I'll consider getting some more for other items of clothing.
It's not cheap, but at least I can move it from item to item, a bit like
getting a good stereo put in a car.

--
TD
1991 VFR400R NC30 (black and red)
2001 ZX-9R (red and black)
1999 M5 (neither black nor red)
Missing: SOB, Unreliable Italian exotica, Lardy tourer

 

Thixotropy?