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Tag: protection

Hit-Air MLV-C Detailed Review

Product: MLV-C Airbag Vest
Manufacturer: Hit-Air
Sizes: Medium (covers S – XL), Large (covers XL-3XL)
Color(s): Black, White, Red, Blue, Brown, plus special edition colors
Made In: Japan


Over the past few months I have been wearing an MLV-C airbag vest from Hit-Air. During this time I have written about adding an airbag vest to my everyday riding gear and how I came to decide on the Hit-Air MLV-C for me. Now that I’ve had some time to wear the vest on a regular basis it’s time to follow up with my thoughts and final review.

When I started riding with this vest it was late winter and the temperatures during the day barely broke 50 degrees (F).Now with Summer approaching and the temperatures already up in the 90’s (deg F) during the day here in Nashville, TN, I’ve had a chance to evaluate what it is like to live with the MLV-C vest over different riding jackets and ambient temps.

That leads me to the first point…

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EVS SportsR4K Race Collar Review

Product: R4K Race Collar
Manufacturer: EVS Sports
Sizes: Adult and Youth
Color(s): Black/Red and White/Green
MSRP: $199.00

Introduction

There are riders that subscribe to ATGATT (all the gear, all the time) and those that don’t. How much protective riding gear one wears and how often it gets worn ends up being a matter of risk management. Barring helmet laws, protective riding gear is not compulsory so the range of protection observed on street motorcycle riders tends to vary widely.

I am an ATGATT rider and lately I would say I’ve become an ATGATT+ rider. I consider “All the Gear” for the street to include riding boots, pants, jacket, helmet, and gloves that all contain armor as applicable.

Recently I added an additional piece of kit to my normal riding gear, a neck brace/collar.The following details my experience so far using the R4K Race Collar as an daily use piece of protective street riding gear.

I want to point out that EVS does not specifically market or recommend this product for street riding use. In the past I have taken other off-road safety equipment such as knee/shin protectors and used them to augment my street riding safety gear. 

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Neck Braces for Street Riding – Yae or Nae?

Being a bit of a riding gear “nerd”, I recently started following some discussions on ADVrider.com regarding neck braces. These aren’t the kind one gets put in after an accident but rather the opposite. These are the kind that attempt to prevent the need of the “post-crash” ones.

Off-road riders have been using the collars and braces for years but there hasn’t been much on the consumer market for the street rider. Over the past fifteen years or so, there have been a lot technological strides in the neck brace area due on no small part to Christopher Leatt, who patented his design for the Leatt neck brace back in 2003.

Where once there were just padded collars (or “donuts”) the Leatt Brace had a framework of flexible and rigid parts designed to keep a rider’s head from flexing to the point of causing injury. This design requires that the rider be wearing a full-face helmet and it works by presenting a surface around the rider’s neck that physically stops the helmet from moving beyond a certain point.
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