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Yay!!! cracked rib....and armor review

3K views 47 replies 28 participants last post by  CraigH 
#1 ·
had my worse crash on sunday, flip over head first of a drop, and basically pulled a body muscle....never had such a wonderful complete body soreness like this before, no area seemed to be spared lol. Anywayss after the codeine wore off i realised it hurt to breath this morning so went to the docs. Nothing outright broken (i get to maintain my never-broken anything status!), but i'm a bit weary of riding this weekend, or the next, if not just for the soreness. Anyways i got off lucky i guess.

This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
 
#2 ·
zedro said:
had my worse crash on sunday, flip over head first of a drop, and basically pulled a body muscle....never had such a wonderful complete body soreness like this before, no area seemed to be spared lol. Anywayss after the codeine wore off i realised it hurt to breath this morning so went to the docs. Nothing outright broken (i get to maintain my never-broken anything status!), but i'm a bit weary of riding this weekend, or the next, if not just for the soreness. Anyways i got off lucky i guess.

This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
sucks that you got hurt zedro. cracked ribs are no fun. earlier in the season i cracked 3 or 4 on the trail. armour is better than armour. i could have been saved a lot of pain if i would have had a flack jacket of some kind. probly would have helped my seperated shoulder too. get better.

maybe you should start designing armour that works :D
 
#3 ·
zedro said:
.................This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
that's why i just fall on my head........
 
#5 ·
zedro said:
had my worse crash on sunday, flip over head first of a drop, and basically pulled a body muscle....never had such a wonderful complete body soreness like this before, no area seemed to be spared lol. Anywayss after the codeine wore off i realised it hurt to breath this morning so went to the docs. Nothing outright broken (i get to maintain my never-broken anything status!), but i'm a bit weary of riding this weekend, or the next, if not just for the soreness. Anyways i got off lucky i guess.

This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
I would like to point this to you zedro, that the purpose of body armour is the stop further injury, I would like to see you with out your rock garden armour and see how you do. Then you would be ranting about I wish I had body armour. Yes I have body armour but it helps in some cases. If you want to wrap your self in buble WRAP all over your body and go downhilling then that's probably your best method of protection at least you get to bounce down the hill.
 
#7 ·
zedro said:
This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
Sorry to hear about the injury, Zedro. Have you seen the old Balfa / Casel Equi armor? A more total-coverage design...


 
#9 ·
Max_winner1 said:
...I would like to see you with out your rock garden armour and see how you do. Then you would be ranting about I wish I had body armour. .....
brilliant argument, cus for sure i was saying i would be better off without it:rolleyes:

in case you didnt get my point, good armor is better than so-so armor (oh, and you might of noticed the word 'review' in the subject line.). Half the reason i use armor is not to prevent major trauma, but to be able to get up quickly and keep riding through the day without the 5 mins of wiggling on the ground in pain.

My old armor is basically the same (if not identical) as the Balfa armor shown above, but its by V-Top and they are also discontinued. The padding is thin and soft-shelled on the inside but i was amazed at the chest protection it provided since it did disperse the force over a larger area (ie: lower pressure). I landed chest first on a big boulder once from a few feet up (thrown of a berm); it felt like i got sacked hard but to no consequence. In this crash, i actually fell on my head and back first, yet somehow still sustained a front side injury. I'm considering moving back to the V-Tops with the unfortunate heat penalty, but the elbow guards need some fixing.

I was just commenting on the pad design, and how i think it isnt properly optimized, not that i would of been better off naked with a caved in chest cavity....
 
#10 ·
.WestCoastHucker. said:
i lost a pint of sweat, just looking at that armour......
LOL. :D Yes, it does look a wee bit warm. I like the concept, though. I wear Freefall Gear. I've never really had many complaints about it's protection, especially the shoulder coverage. But I recently had a good run-in with a tree, basically t-boned it sideways, between the chest and spinal plates. Nothing broke (on me), but man, I had a super nice purple bruise, and the impact did unpleasant things to my lat and serratus muscles, besides knocking the wind out of me completely. I really wished for better rib protection at that moment...
 
#12 ·
ouch ...rib injuries are the worst to heal ...i just had one from a street sign that was on the outside of the beam of a street light in the middle of the sidewalk...couldn't see it at all and i was going around 20 mph

messed up both thumbs and went to the ER for that and i didn't realize i messed up my ribs untill i lay down on the couch and relaxed the next day...oooooooOOOOO **** it hurt ....
couldn't breath couldn't laugh and then my roomate tried to tape it and that made it worse mostly because taping your rib cage has a bad affect on pectorals they stick out :eek:
makes it look like clevage :eek: that was when my roommate started falling over pointing and laughing and when i looked down i discovered that laughing is the worst thing to do with a rib injury, untaped my rib cage and went back to the ER ...yuck ...twice in a row sucks ...and it took months until my ribs weren't soar and i still get a muscle cramp every now and then ...

tough wreck, good to hear your allright ...

hope it heals quick

my roommate keeps telling me that he could make a carbon fiber suite with interlocking body panels . it sounds cool and he's one hell of an engineer. i have been wondering about the actual saftey of armour due to the lack of side protection and size of the plates on my 661 still haven't gotten to use it though ...*sigh* ...

rest ...and try not to laugh too hard ...:p
 
#13 ·
That's true for just about any body protection. If you reach the limits of the design you will have bruising or injury. If you have ever been in a serious car accident you will find a large bruise from the seat belt. It's completely soft, but will still cause damage as you reach its design limits.
 
#17 ·
OGRipper said:
Hey Zed, do you think you would have been more or less injured if you were wearing something like a 661 defender chest guard - you know, one of those hard plasic shells raised away from your body?
i dunno, depends how it contacts the body i guess, but i dont think it would be ideal. Foam is really great at energy absorbtion, plastic is good at transmitting energy. So an outer plastic shell can transfer a small point impact area over a larger area to an underlying foam layer which can absorb a good deal of the energy. Over a large area, the body can take quite a deal of force as well.

As for the combat armor, whats funny is the V-Top stuff is originally riot and combat gear that they marketed (and maybe slighlty altered) for mtb use for awhile.
 
#19 ·
zedro said:
had my worse crash on sunday, flip over head first of a drop, and basically pulled a body muscle....never had such a wonderful complete body soreness like this before, no area seemed to be spared lol. Anywayss after the codeine wore off i realised it hurt to breath this morning so went to the docs. Nothing outright broken (i get to maintain my never-broken anything status!), but i'm a bit weary of riding this weekend, or the next, if not just for the soreness. Anyways i got off lucky i guess.

This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
if they told you that you "cracked a rib" - you LOOSE your never broken a bone status my friend...a cracked rib is broken - just not clean through...

and those intercostal muscles hurt for a LONG time when you strain them...(I've broken two ribs in the front & two in the Vicodin (hydrocodone & Tylenol) is very helpful for the first few days - and mixes really well with Stone beers (but don't drive please)... :cool:
 
#20 ·
macrider said:
if they told you that you "cracked a rib" - you LOOSE your never broken a bone status my friend...a cracked rib is broken - just not clean through...

and those intercostal muscles hurt for a LONG time when you strain them...(I've broken two ribs in the front & two in the Vicodin (hydrocodone & Tylenol) is very helpful for the first few days - and mixes really well with Stone beers (but don't drive please)... :cool:
ok ok, so i've never 'snapped' a bone then.....uhhg i cringe just thinking about it....

i guess this wont clear up as fast as i thought it would :( .....now wheres my pills....
 
#22 ·
zedro said:
ok ok, so i've never 'snapped' a bone then.....uhhg i cringe just thinking about it....

i guess this wont clear up as fast as i thought it would :( .....now wheres my pills....
uhh... yer Canadian right? Drink a ****-load of maple syrup and call a moose in the morning!
you will be fine tuff-guy- just put on a thick flannel next time,eh?
heal quick brother!
 
#24 ·
The heck with the body armor.

zedro said:
had my worse crash on sunday, flip over head first of a drop, and basically pulled a body muscle....never had such a wonderful complete body soreness like this before, no area seemed to be spared lol. Anywayss after the codeine wore off i realised it hurt to breath this morning so went to the docs. Nothing outright broken (i get to maintain my never-broken anything status!), but i'm a bit weary of riding this weekend, or the next, if not just for the soreness. Anyways i got off lucky i guess.

This however further reinforces my belief the overly hard and thick yet small surface area of the RockGardn and its other generic siblings upper body armor breast plates arent the best type of protection. The thick plating will eliminate the point impact, but the stiff and small area of the pad puts too much pressure on the ribs. I can feel exactly where the pads were since both sides of my rib cage hurt in the exact same spot, although the left side is where its worse with the crack. Overall i'd say i'm not fond of the overall design, from pad design/location/absence to strap locations (or lack thereof). Unfortunatly, too many companies seem to be using the same overall generic setup despite noted differences in fit
I noticed in your post that you had a nice codeine treatment "before" you went to the doc. Now I've heard about that sweet Canadian pharmaceutical system up there. Can't you fix up an old American buddy with some of the illicit and cheap "good stuff"? Wink, wink, nod, nod? LOL! Well, I hope your ribs and muscles limber up. You young guys are made of rubber anyway...aren't you?
 
#25 ·
All pads & armor does is minimize injury...

it will not prevent/stop injury. I have yet to wreck & land on my shin and/or knee w/o @ least scratching it while wearin' pads. The initail impact IS dissapated and/or negated by the pads/armor causin' said armor/pads to rotate around your legs/arms/trunk, however, the subsequent thrashin', slidin' across th' ground/rocks/roots exposes said lges/arms/trunk to secondary impacts/scrapes/scratches. You'd have to pad up like the guys that wear those huge suits to let people beat on them while they practice self-defense, to keep from "getting hurt."

I'm nursin' a seperated collarbone right now. Now there is an injury that needs some kind of pads/armor engineered to prevent from happenin'. As I understand it, collarbone is the most often broken bone there is among sports enthusiasts. Even if you can prevent impact from seperating a collarbone, hyper-flexation of the shoulder will still allow the shoulder to travel to the point of seperation from the collarbone.

If we engineer a perfect suit of armor/pads, then what is point of it all??? To me, the fact that I have to be "on my game" because "I could die if I'm not," is part of what draws me to dh & freeride. Bikes/new bikes/new parts/new trails/etc....these are tools that allow us to ride. The ride...thats what it is about. Its easy to get caught up in all of the new shwag @ Interbike & on MTBR, but lets not forget what we go after....the ride, the drop, the huck, the jump, the trail. Bikes are our tools that enable us to do what we are addicted to.

Get better Zedro, it happens to the best...sooner or later.
 
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