Neck brace or knee braces

[wardy]

neck brace for sure !

if you damage your knee you might have to worry about walking with a limp.

if you damage you neck you'll be worrying about who's gonna push your wheel chair !

[noobi]

Im not a mx rider, but some of the terrain tests in our enduros are flat out and sometimes ridden blind. I figure that if I get the bionic SB and the thor force knee armour things, that they can sort of work like a knee brace, and I have good neck protection.

I chose the bionic design over the leatt as I do think that sitting on collar bones is dumb, and the bionic is designed that so if you hyperextend I think, that the back portion of the bionic breaks off, the leatt doesnt, I think theres footage somewhere of Villipoto's bionic breaking in a crash.

[stainlesscycle]

the thor force looks like a knee brace, but is definitely just a guard. it's articulated but you can still hyperextend etc...

[noobi]

I was also looking into these as a cheaper knee brace option http://www.shopmania.com/shopping~on...p-8926735.html
does anyone have any opinions on these?
I work at a bike shop, so im in the loop with distribution etc, but so far the importer hasn't bought these 661 braces into the country, if I was to buy from the US, then they would cost about as much as the neck brace is to buy through work.

[GMP]

Steve,

I have the RC-3. Its attached to my CP with zip ties. The biggest difference I can see with the RC-3 is it opens on the side (velcro) for eaiser on/off. My younger son has a big melon and he always complains about pulling his RC-2/CP off over his head. For sled use I suppose you could rig up some type of velcro/snap retention to your jacket, or somne short straps under your arms. I do like the fact that there is some nice padding between my helmet and my clavicle as well.

The EVS brace makes a lot of sense to me in its progressive resistance design, distributed load fit on the shoulders, and reasonable price. Only downside I think may be comfort in summer tight woods stuff as it seems like it may block airflow.

Pull a Leatt on over your head and it will freak you out as it sits on your plate and pinches the skin, you know how that feels.

[stainlesscycle]

Originally Posted by noobi

I was also looking into these as a cheaper knee brace option http://www.shopmania.com/shopping~on...p-8926735.html
does anyone have any opinions on these?

i have not seen those in person, so i have no idea if they work well.

[Eric K]

I wore a pair of Asterix braces for years. I rebuilt them a number of times. I stopped wearing them after reading that knee braces don't do much to prevent injury.

A few years back, I was not wearing knee braces and twisted my knee badly when riding. Then I became motivated to wear knee braces again.

I pulled out my well used Asterix braces which were still structurally sound. I put on the Asterix braces with my boots and put my foot in the same twisting motion that injured my knee. The Asterix braces did nothing to prevent the twisting motion that hurt my knee.

Not satisfied, I purchased the EVS Web knee brace and did a back to back compare while twisting my foot just like I injured it. The EVS Web was far superior to the Asterix at preventing the twisting motion as felt by my tender knee. With the Asterix I could feel significant pain due to the twisting. With the EVS Web there was very little twisting of the knee and very little pain.

Later when my knee was improved, but still not full strength, I twisted it twice while riding in a very similar manner to how I originally hurt it. The braces prevented twisting and pain. The EVS Web knee brace offers great protection. The downside is they are hot.

I purchased a pair of POD knee braces. The protection is similar to the EVS. The benefits are better knee cap protection, less bulky and cooler due to better ventilation.


I have a large neck with fairly prominent traps.

The EVS RC-Evolution Neck Brace (X-Large) was too tight on my neck. It offered little protection against forward rotation of the head. It does not push up against the throat. When my youngest son was 6 years old (91 lbs & adult size medium helmet) he used the EVS RC-Evolution neck brace. He hated putting it on. When he outgrew that he went to the EVS Race Collar pad.

I wear the Leatt Adventure Neck Brace. It is comfortable to wear once I got it adjusted and modified. It looks like it would offer good prevention of over rotation in any direction. I have not done any serious crash testing yet. The load path is on the traps at the base of the neck (compression), the upper spine (rear rotation) and sternum (forward rotation). It doesn't press much on my clavicles.

The downsides are...

- It interfered with my throat in the Adams apple when sliding back - until I carved out the plastic underneath the padding in the throat area.

- The brace prevents me from looking up very high when riding in the standing up attack position.

- It prevents me from looking down when working on the motorcycle unless I lean forward.

- It retains more body heat - not good in warm weather, good in cold weather.

In spite of the downsides I still wear it. Aside from my head, my neck is the last thing I want to break.