Aftermath Of Real World Crash Results And How Gear Held Up

[RogueWave]

Here is a guy who was wearing a textile jacket and describes his crash. I really am skeptical about textile. His jacket was pretty torn up.

This woman had pretty good gear. If you look at her helmet, imagine what would have happed if she was wearing an open face helmet. My first helmet was open face. Ignorance is bliss.

If you know of any good testimonials, please share.

Here is a guy testing a leather suit. I don't know the brand. He looks to be going about 20 mph

[Frogfoot]

Will look at these videos when I get home but Check out my blog pages last couple of entries for personal experience in the last six weeks from a serious wreck in textiles.

[Duc2V4]

Here is a guy who was wearing a textile jacket and describes his crash. I really am skeptical about textile. His jacket was pretty torn up.

Even though his jacket is torn up, he does say several times that it did its job but he also never said whether he suffered any road rash in the places where the jacket was tore up. That being said, leather suits are the way to go, especially if you're going to be sport riding, but textile is easier to deal with when commuting to work, particularly the lower half of your gear. I wear my leather suit any time I'm just sport ridng and my textile gear when I'm commuting, it's a compromise IMO but sometimes these are the things we come to live with for the sake of convenience.

[Frogfoot]

I don't know if I high or low sided, but I suspect it was a low side at about 120kmh. I didn't hit anything as I slid, but am also pretty sure I tumbled as there damage all over my gear, front back, sides. The photos in the blog show similar but worse damage to my Dainese jacket as this guy has.

My only injuries were small graze where the guantlet part of my gloves wore through and the large wound on my leg. But I was only wearing Kevlar jeans without hard armour inserts. The areas protected by the jacket were not hurt at all.

I am still of the opinion that leather is better but QUALITY textile gear can do a great job too.

[Auspanglish]

I have come a cropper many times with both textile and leather gear. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I have tested the limits of my bikes.

The textile gear has never failed me. We re talking good-quality fairly-well "known" brands (Evo, Spidi and IXS). Came out unscathed and the Evo jacket was actually fine to continue being used. I have been very pleasantly surprised.

Came off at the racetrack one day in a 2-piece leather suit which promptly unstitched itself and left my skin to to its job. 2nd - 3rd degree roadrash burns on my left hip. That's fun over the 40ºC summer. The shoulder protector popped out and disappeared. My shoulder still hurts several years later. It was an "unkown" brand of leathers a buddy was selling and we were all wearing his gear (4 out of 5 buddies that entered regularly on racetracks).

So the moral of the story is: cheap is nasty.

There are some textile suits that are lightyears away from some leather ones.

the first video states clearly that the guy is pleased with the jacket's performance in the crash.

[Switchblade]

I have plenty of scars to show whats happens when you don't wear any .

Glad you wearing it .

Friggin R1 is wicked .

[2thdr]

What's interesting to me is that the guy in the first video seems very detail oriented and intelligent sounding, but he admits to avoiding telling the ER physician about his probable head injury "because he didn't want to be admitted overnight", and then says how he is lucky he didn't have permanent brain injury. Lucky is right, since if he went home with a brain bleed he might not be so verbally articulate today! Then he goes on towards the end of the video to say he got some new protective "kevlar lined" jeans. Good luck with those jeans the next time you go down sport riding in a 70 mph corner. I guess he learned some things, but ignored some others.

[V4 Rosso]

For those that buy their gear online, beware of fakes:

[Duc2V4]

For those that buy their gear online, beware of fakes

Sticking with authorized dealers and waiting for their blowout sales or close out specials is the way to buy good gear for less. Buying through ebay or a Craigslist type of site is usually where you'll find the imitation stuff. Although there are authorised dealers who do have an "ebay store" and either have auctions or "buy it now" offers. To be safe, whenever the price seems too good to be true, check the manufacturers website to see if the store is an authorized dealer and be sure to read all the "fine print". I bought one of my Dainese suits from an ebay store and turns out it was the same dealer I bought my first suit from and they are indeed an authorized Dainese dealer. Made an offer and got it $200 less than normal price.

[VFRBert]

What's interesting to me is that the guy in the first video seems very detail oriented and intelligent sounding, but he admits to avoiding telling the ER physician about his probable head injury "because he didn't want to be admitted overnight", and then says how he is lucky he didn't have permanent brain injury. Lucky is right, since if he went home with a brain bleed he might not be so verbally articulate today! Then he goes on towards the end of the video to say he got some new protective "kevlar lined" jeans. Good luck with those jeans the next time you go down sport riding in a 70 mph corner. I guess he learned some things, but ignored some others.

If someone smashes on his head, wake them up every hour during night. They do the same in hospital. When something is wrong bring the person to the hospital. Sometimes the bleeding starts mutiple day's after a crash. So staying overnight is not really effective. Except for the hospital bill. Good information how to handle to partners/friends/family is more effective.

[TampaDave]

I've been on a gear buying frenzy lately so I've been researching this. I have no doubt a decent textile garment (eg Aerostich) will offer a reasonable level of protection. Although unlike Vanson leathers (say) you aren't going to get multiple crashes out of a single suit. Aerostich will repair a suit after a 30mph crash but they usually total suits after a high speed crash (per their website).

Reality is, all materials shred in a crash, the question being how quickly and whether it works to prevent injury. Given companies like Aerostich and Motoport, who carefully choose quality materials and know how to design and build a suit, I feel pretty confident at sane highway speeds. Give me a suit make out of cheap materials in a Chinese sweatshop, eh not so much. Even if it carries a marque you're familiar with.

My feeling is that jackets aren't as stressed as pants, and that it's not hard to make a jacket work. I am personally highly skeptical that cheap Chinese made pants, made of generic textiles, are any good at 30mph+ crashes. There's one guy griping about his textile pants shredding in a 5mph getoff, on a minibike. I had the same brand; they are in the dumpster after I realized the knee had abraded down from kneeling in the garage to check my oil level.

Nobody's going to wear race leathers on a 3000 mile cross country. I think textiles work for that application, but plan on dropping some money to get something that has some hope of working at highway speeds.

[VFRBert]

I've been on a gear buying frenzy lately so I've been researching this. I have no doubt a decent textile garment (eg Aerostich) will offer a reasonable level of protection. Although unlike Vanson leathers (say) you aren't going to get multiple crashes out of a single suit. Aerostich will repair a suit after a 30mph crash but they usually total suits after a high speed crash (per their website).

Reality is, all materials shred in a crash, the question being how quickly and whether it works to prevent injury. Given companies like Aerostich and Motoport, who carefully choose quality materials and know how to design and build a suit, I feel pretty confident at sane highway speeds. Give me a suit make out of cheap materials in a Chinese sweatshop, eh not so much. Even if it carries a marque you're familiar with.

My feeling is that jackets aren't as stressed as pants, and that it's not hard to make a jacket work. I am personally highly skeptical that cheap Chinese made pants, made of generic textiles, are any good at 30mph+ crashes. There's one guy griping about his textile pants shredding in a 5mph getoff, on a minibike. I had the same brand; they are in the dumpster after I realized the knee had abraded down from kneeling in the garage to check my oil level.

Nobody's going to wear race leathers on a 3000 mile cross country. I think textiles work for that application, but plan on dropping some money to get something that has some hope of working at highway speeds.

I agree with you, textile will do off road, but for highway speeds leather is the only option. I have crashed one set of textile with 40 mph and the result convinced me to buy leather immediately, especially the pants were completely shredded. I have done a lot of autobahn trips cruising with speeds around 130 to 140. Leather is the only stuff saving your skin with that kind of speeds

[TNRabbit]

Perforated leathers are cooler but protect MUCH better than mesh textile.

[RogueWave]

This guy gives a good review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt5O-N_QM3A

I've been on a gear buying frenzy lately so I've been researching this. I have no doubt a decent textile garment (eg Aerostich) will offer a reasonable level of protection. Although unlike Vanson leathers (say) you aren't going to get multiple crashes out of a single suit. Aerostich will repair a suit after a 30mph crash but they usually total suits after a high speed crash (per their website).

Reality is, all materials shred in a crash, the question being how quickly and whether it works to prevent injury. Given companies like Aerostich and Motoport, who carefully choose quality materials and know how to design and build a suit, I feel pretty confident at sane highway speeds. Give me a suit make out of cheap materials in a Chinese sweatshop, eh not so much. Even if it carries a marque you're familiar with.

My feeling is that jackets aren't as stressed as pants, and that it's not hard to make a jacket work. I am personally highly skeptical that cheap Chinese made pants, made of generic textiles, are any good at 30mph+ crashes. There's one guy griping about his textile pants shredding in a 5mph getoff, on a minibike. I had the same brand; they are in the dumpster after I realized the knee had abraded down from kneeling in the garage to check my oil level.

Nobody's going to wear race leathers on a 3000 mile cross country. I think textiles work for that application, but plan on dropping some money to get something that has some hope of working at highway speeds.

I agree with you, textile will do off road, but for highway speeds leather is the only option. I have crashed one set of textile with 40 mph and the result convinced me to buy leather immediately, especially the pants were completely shredded. I have done a lot of autobahn trips cruising with speeds around 130 to 140. Leather is the only stuff saving your skin with that kind of speeds

True, at those speeds a leather track suit is the only real option.

Perforated leathers are cooler but protect MUCH better than mesh textile.

I am looking at the AGV Breeze jacket for summer use. Its a thin leather, but I assume it will still do better than a textile.

[V4 Rosso]

Nobody's going to wear race leathers on a 3000 mile cross country. I think textiles work for that application,

I have, two weeks on the road: 3500mls. I prefer my leathers over my textile suit especially when it is hot. I use my textile suit mostly for short trips/commuting.

[WGREGT]

Nobody's going to wear race leathers on a 3000 mile cross country. I think textiles work for that application, but plan on dropping some money to get something that has some hope of working at highway speeds.

I disagree. On my long vacation rides (I do 2 weeks a year on a bike for vacation...usually not 2 weeks back to back though. Usually one week at a time, depending on my workload) I suit up in full leathers each and every time. Spine pad. Track boots and gloves too. Full Battle Rattle.

Usually these are 1500-2000 mile trips. Sometimes a bit more.

I figure I'll be on the road more hours, outside of my regular area, with drivers who may or may not expect to see a bike (not like around here in SoCal where bikes are everywhere). So I'm playing the odds and stacking the deck in my favo(u)r.

Hell, I even suit up like this for weekend rides as well. In fact, the only things I leave off from the above gear on my daily commute is the spine pad and the leather pants, and I go with armoured ballistic overpants instead.

[Duc2V4]

Nobody's going to wear race leathers on a 3000 mile cross country. I think textiles work for that application...

Leather suit, yes, "Race" leathers no, as those are pre-curved to be more comfortable in the "tuck" position. I have worn my 2-piecse suit though on several multi-day trips and I have no issues. I will say that I recently bought a two piece textile suit for touring and for "dodgy" weather and although a bit more comfortable than the leather suit, I feel much more protected in the leather gear. Typically touring speeds are much more mellow, so I don't feel too out of place in my textiles but prefer the leather suit. Similar to Greg, I gear up in leather for most rides unless I'm commuting or want to stay a bit warmer as the textiles have a nice warm liner. I'm working on getting some electric gear that will fit under the leathers so I can use those more often than not.

[LudwigVan]

Sure, the leather suits giving best protection. Its a fact. But sometime, when I ride to work (office - its means dress code - jeans and white colar minimum) I put some jeans, white shirt and leather/textil jacket. (Leather with textil mesh) Quite good combintation I think.

Jeans test:

When I going riding just for speed and fun - full skin suits (have IXS)

When I going long way trip - Textil one piece suits (have Joe Rocket Survivor Suits)

Riding to work - moto jeans and Joe Rocket Reactor for hot days and Ixon Sismic Flasch when is not so hot.

Thats my all motorcycle gear arsenal.

I compltetly nothing konw about Joe Rocket. Just commercial material. Its not availble in Poland, only web shopping. I like Rocket style and his exotic in my country. But if you have some bad info about it, pls let me know. I dont wanna be suprising after crash or slide.

[RogueWave]

Here is an interesting tests of textile. Not all that scientific, but not too bad. I am not sure why this guy is dressed like a Spaceballs trooper, but the test is good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qujCGjodxPI

[RogueWave]

I just came across this. Its made of a material called Dyneema. Pretty impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YDS9FDibc0

[Dae]

My leather gear, I know the armor will stay in it's place during a get off. My textile gear I'm not so sure the armor will stay in place, especially the pants. That being said I wear textile 85 percent of the time, they are lighter, waterproof and washable.

[Dutchy]

I just came across this. Its made of a material called Dyneema. Pretty impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YDS9FDibc0

You see, the Dutch *ARE* good for some things.....

(DSM patented it in the late 70's)

[Shinigami]

Dyneema melts at a relatively low temperature.

Here's the result of a pair of Vanson Sport Rider ($600.00) pants from a get-off (cager jerked wheel into me on an onramp taking out my front wheel) which failed at the knee panel on contact with the pavement.

Annnnd the result.

That left an impressive scar.

[Snowdog]

And then get a very grumpy and tired relative/patient

No need to wake them up, this is a myth.

Patients are not woken up hourly post HI in Hospital, at least in the UK.

No need to wake them up, this is a myth.

Just ensure they respond to stimuli, ie, gentle shake and if they respond they are asleep not unconscious

See here

http://patient.info/health/head-injury-instructions

[Rectaltronics]

My ancient Hein Gericke V-Pilot stuff, though padded with foam, is damn near indestructible.

I struck a car doing somewhere over 100 MPH, went flying over it after bouncing off the back window, came down tumbling, cartwheeling, bouncing, sliding. One seam covering a padded area opened up a bit and some other stitching was worn down some but aside of the leather looking very "broken in" that was about it.

YMMV.