What I wish i knew about gear before i crashed
So I crashed, landed on my knee at 61 mph, and slid for several seconds. I was wearing full gear but I did some digging and learned I could’ve worn better gear. With full gear - nothing was broken. I thought my giant knee was because I landed on it at 61 mph - but according to my knee doctor, who is also a rider, and researchers at Deakin University, who I’ve been meeting with to learn about their studies on hundreds of motorcycle gear, they don’t believe my injury was due to impact - it seems the armor did its job because nothing broke. What I had was a hematoma - or pooling of blood - and a de-gloving effect - which is where the skin and tissue tear away from the muscle. They believe this injury was actually a skin shearing injury due to friction. You ever hear how racers wear silk underneath their suits? That’s why. So in theory, if there was a different material that allowed for less friction on the skin, the injury I had could’ve been reduced or prevented. There is very little research on skin shearing, so neither my doctor nor the researchers at Deakin University could say this with 100% certainty, but in reviewing my injury they plan on doing more research on skin shearing injuries and materials.
As for armor, I had on the D30 T5 EVO knee armor, but according to testing, the D3O LP2 PRO and even the D3O Ghost L2 scored even higher. (I have no affiliation with D30). Check out the photos above of impact testing done on these different armor by Deakin University.
Here’s where you can look into testing results on gear - why I’ve switched out all my armor to D3O LP2 PRO and the D3O Ghost L2, and bought some silk base layers off Amazon.
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After this wreck, I realized I know pretty little about gear - so I’ve been DEEP DIVING with experts into gear and planning on building a whole series on the gear we wear from head to toe. Before I go further into armor and fabrics, the first video that I’ll do in this series will be all about helmets - we’ve come a long way from the days of leather caps 100 years ago, but the tech and testing in our helmets still hasn’t caught up with what neurosurgeons are finding. Stay tuned!