The bike protections complement our clothing. They are truly necessary, more than just simple accessories and whose use will avoid some upsets, they are the armour of the two wheeled knights. Brands such as Dainese, Alpinestars or Held, have been innovating this segment for years, with more and more sophisticated materials and techniques developed on the track for use on the road.
The back protectors are perhaps the most well known and popular protection. Their creation in competition already indicates their importance as a protection element, by safeguarding our spinal column in the event of a fall on the bike. Complementing the protection on the trunk, we have the kidney belts for bikes. Behind this unglamorous name we have a practical protection that embraces the lower part of the thorax, ideal for bike trips around town, as their reduced weight and size make them more comfortable than back protectors.
Some shoulder guards are always useful. The area of the shoulder and scapulas is delicate. If your jacket has no reinforcement in this part, or even if the ones it has are worn, it’s always good to have some to hand. If you use textile pants, maybe you’d be interested in some inner knee guards. Inner as they go inside the pants as the exterior ones are sliders for your 1 piece suit.
There are as many off road protections as there are lesions! Well, almost. And that’s a good thing, as it puts a wide range of elements within our reach that will help us gain confidence and, therefore, go faster! Fox, Alpinestars or Leatt offer a large, quality selection that literally covers us from head to toes.
The extremities of our body have always been those parts which tend to suffer more knocks. Which is why we shouldn’t be surprised that the first protections to be invented were the knee guards and elbow guards. Nowadays they are more sophisticated: motocross fans can keep up to date with the latest orthopaedic knee guards, and we’ve noticed how the elbow guards have grown in size and quality of the materials with many models covering the whole shoulder. But that’s not the end of it: we can also have wrist braces, a less common element, but just as important, as often the instinctive act of sticking out our hands to protect us from a fall implies unnecessary wrist fractures.
The trunk area was the next step in the evolution of protections. With the roost deflectors came a great step forward in safety and currently the new integral roost deflectors already include elbow and shoulder protection. They’re also making versions with the neck brace included. It’s this protective element for the neck area that has meant a great advance in protection, and in just a few years has gone from being an experimental prototype for professional riders to an compulsory element for all users that aim to compete at any level.
Although the use of protections is not as widespread in trial as in other off road modalities, there are manufacturers such as Hebo that offer chest protectors that are a novelty on the market. Made with compressive fabric, they are completely elasticated, sleeveless vests that achieve great ergonomics, the great handicap that trial protections have to overcome.
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