Motoport armor

[phroenips]

All the talk lately about the Motoport Kevlar Mesh is making me revisit it. I'm already sold on the product, I just can't afford it yet.

What are your thoughts on the Tri-armor vs the Quad-armor. Supposedly the Quad offers nearly 50% more impact protection, but it also seems to add nearly 50% in the cost of each the Jacket and Pant. Do you think it's worth it?

Disclaimer: I fully realize this is a highly subjective question and will likely get many different opinions

 

[Big-D]

IMHO, what is it that a rider expects from his or her gear. As far as I know, leather is still the best product out there to protect you from road rash. Nothing will protect you from breaking bones when hitting an immovable object or being hit by a multi-thousand pound car, other than losing flesh (maybe).

Other than looking cool wearing the newest, baddest and expensive gear, it may not save you in all situations. What it does tend to do is give riders a false sense of safety or invincibility that promotes some riders to ride beyond their ability and/or take unnecessary chances than if they were wearing street clothes or maybe riding their young nephew or niece on the back for a ride around the block

Motosport is good stuff.......... I guess. Seems to be pretty expensive. Your question being is it worth the cost and should you spring for Tri or Quad protection. Its kind of like the razor blade race. Twin blades always seemed to work just fine, then I needed three blades and now they want me to spend huge amounts of money on four blades and a manual razor that now requires a battery. I'm still waiting for 12 blades razors to make their appearance. One swipe and you are clean shaven and possibly missing an ear or two. As far as Motosport, if you buy the Tri, you'll always kick yourself for not buying the better Quad stuff. But after you buy the Quad Armor, you know they will come out with an "E" rated 10 ply armor that will make your Quad armor obsolete.

The never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!!!!! :dntknw: :dntknw: :dinamo: :drinks: :fans:

 

[GreyGoose]

All the talk lately about the Motoport Kevlar Mesh is making me revisit it. I'm already sold on the product, I just can't afford it yet.
What are your thoughts on the Tri-armor vs the Quad-armor. Supposedly the Quad offers nearly 50% more impact protection, but it also seems to add nearly 50% in the cost of each the Jacket and Pant. Do you think it's worth it?

Disclaimer: I fully realize this is a highly subjective question and will likely get many different opinions

I just ordered my motorport jacket last week and had to make that decision. I went with the stock armor. Even though i think the upgrade would give you better protection, it also add quite a bit more bulk and weight to the jacket. LIke many of these types of decisions, its riders choice. Certainly heavier / Stronger / More armor will protect you better when you need it most, so theres a trade off.

Theres no doubt that motoport has done there homework though.

Greygoose

 

[Happy Rider]

It’s all about risk management. You can only do so much to protect yourself on a bike, with your gear. Sure you could go out and buy every piece of high speed, low drag, gear and hope that the planets are in line and the gear does the job for the exact set of circumstances that occur when you have a get off. Maybe it will work and maybe it will not. The bottom line is the best gear you have is between your ears and you should use it well.

I just ordered a full set of the Motoport Kevlar Mesh and went with the tri armor. Maybe the quad armor would be safer and maybe not. I guess if I was that worried about my gear not being sufficient then I would take the cage. Go with the tri armor and enjoy the ride, you will be leaps above the average rider in protection. Spend the extra money on an advanced rider course.

:scooter:

 

[specialk]

It’s all about risk management. You can only do so much to protect yourself on a bike, with your gear. Sure you could go out and buy every piece of high speed, low drag, gear and hope that the planets are in line and the gear does the job for the exact set of circumstances that occur when you have a get off. Maybe it will work and maybe it will not. The bottom line is the best gear you have is between your ears and you should use it well.
I just ordered a full set of the Motoport Kevlar Mesh and went with the tri armor. Maybe the quad armor would be safer and maybe not. I guess if I was that worried about my gear not being sufficient then I would take the cage. Go with the tri armor and enjoy the ride, you will be leaps above the average rider in protection. Spend the extra money on an advanced rider course.

:scooter:

what I did is get the tri-armor everywhere except the back where I got quad. Reasoning: the quadarmor DOES NOT FLEX. It is bulky and stiff. In the shoulders and elbows where you need a lot of articulation, the quad armor will be a continual pain (I know because I got the quad armor in my pants and it is still not that comfy on the knees). Though the quad armor will offer more protection, it likes to take a set and stay there and not continually be bent. My .02

 

[ctfjr]

IMHO, what is it that a rider expects from his or her gear. As far as I know, leather is still the best product out there to protect you from road rash. Nothing will protect you from breaking bones when hitting an immovable object or being hit by a multi-thousand pound car, other than losing flesh (maybe).
Other than looking cool wearing the newest, baddest and expensive gear, it may not save you in all situations. What it does tend to do is give riders a false sense of safety or invincibility that promotes some riders to ride beyond their ability and/or take unnecessary chances than if they were wearing street clothes or maybe riding their young nephew or niece on the back for a ride around the block

I would take issue with your comment. I have been riding a long time and wore leathers a fair amount of that time. BUT when it got really warm I could never stand wearing them. The result was, gasp, I ended up riding in a tee shirt. When leathers get wet they are a major pia - I guess I never had really effective rain gear. I ended up spinging for Motoport's 3/4 mesh jacket & liner. I don't feel like superman in it and I think its the furthest from cool looking. . . I do think it gives me pretty good protection. So much so that even though I just purchased Bohn armor pants liners, I am going to order the mesh Motoport pants when I get home.

 

[Allnight]

I got the 3/4 kevlar mesh jacket 2 years ago, and got the heaviest armor they had at the time (I don't think it was even tri, let alone quad).

I got the pants last fall, and did the quad armor. The quad stuff is a lot stiffer than what I have in the jacket, but I kinda like it. Does it make me feel like I can do less-intelligent things? Not at all. I'm still scared shitless of a get-off, and I don't think anything other than them becoming routine will change that.

ctfjr's point about weather-comfort applies too, when comparing leather vs. the kevlar mesh. The kevlar mesh didn't bother me riding to Sacramento to get my Clearwater lights installed, even though it was in triple digits. Yeah, the heat sucked big time, but the gear didn't seem to be making it any worse. In fact, it felt like the gear was cooler than if I didn't have it, because it kept the sun off of me; it heated up and the 70-80 mph airflow removed the extra heat. Wetness doesn't seem to affect the gear at all...I just leave it hung on over the bike when I get home and let the engine heat help dry it.

As for the question of the tri vs. quad...If I had to replace my gear, I'd probably do the tri or less in the jacket and quad in the pants, certainly around the hips and the tailbone. All the leather suites that I've seen get-off-damage on have their hips and ass worn down as well as a shoulder or two. Just my 2 cents.

 

[user 18411]

I have the quad armor and it definitely has the drawback of being bulkier, less flexible and much more expensive. If you're not familiar with it, the quad armor is the tri armor with one additional layer of "stuff". The job of the "stuff" is to disperse the force of impact over a wider area. So the quad will be better when you run into things and reduce force transmitted to bones/organs.

So it's not a question of "maybe safer, maybe not" because it is objectively safer - given the same set of impact/sliding, your body will take less force with the quad armor. But subjectively, is it worth it to you? More comfort and less cost for the tri. And there are types of crashes where the armor difference isn't going to be much of a factor.

 

[COLDCUT]

Calling Johnny80's...Johnny, please pick up the white courtesy phone!

 

[Bustanut joker]

Chubby is no doubt eating right now..

:jester:

 

[RsvlFeej]

What are your thoughts on the Tri-armor vs the Quad-armor. Supposedly the Quad offers nearly 50% more impact protection, but it also seems to add nearly 50% in the cost of each the Jacket and Pant. Do you think it's worth it?

For me, the starting point in this argument is: The best gear in the world won't do you a bit of good if it's still hanging in your closet when you have your get-off - If it's not comfortable, I'm not going to wear it.

My interpretation of relative comfort (based solely on the Motoport site's description) of quad vs. tri meant I went with tri-armor pants and jacket.

After reading this post, there are good arguments to have gone for quad in the lower back and possibly thighs (but not places that need to flex).

 

[phroenips]

Thanks everyone, I ended up going with Tri all the way around. It'll still be way better than the cheapie stuff I'm wearing now. I can always upgrade to quad later on if I really want to (sleeves would apparently require alteration (per Wayne) if that were the case).

 

[phroenips]

Calling Johnny80's...Johnny, please pick up the white courtesy phone!

Welcome from San Diego?