Jasle
Sponsoring Member
- Nov 27, 2001
- 1,358
- 0
Well we had the unfortunate luck and did some safety gear testing this past weekend. The little guy crashed HARD...One of the worst looking crashes I've seen.
He jumped a double and the ...... end came around a bit and he high sided. His body was slung in the air and he landed on his side and head simultaneousely then did many flips and rolled a bit. The result was a cut and bruise on the kidney and a mild concussion. The chest protector was shattered right down the center and right over the left collar bone.
Now to the point. Under the chest protector Will was wearing one of the YPG supplemental pads. Typically Will wears one of their rib/kidney protection shirts. These are similar to the football flack jacket. But unfortunatley we raced Sat and forgot it at home for the races at a different Track sunday. I wish like hell we'd not forgotten that single piece of gear, it could have saved a lot of pain in my estimation.
Now the helmet. the visor was smashed but overall the shell was in pretty fair shape. There is a small scuff on the left side right behind where the ear is. Its not cracked there and just a little paint chipping. One might think hey all it needs is a new visor. I decided to pull the insides out and take a peek at any possible damage. The first thing to note was visible signs of the left side styrofoam being thinner than the right side. I also noticed that if I pushed on the right side foam it was very noticably softer than the left side foam. It was very evident that the foam was compacted and I feel very strongly that if this helmet were ever in an accident again it would be of no use to the wearer if they were to hit the left side of the helmet.
I basically want to drive home the point that a helmet that astetically looks functional after a wreck is junk. It served its purpose well but now its usefullness has run its corse. And take the time to remember ALL your gear.
He jumped a double and the ...... end came around a bit and he high sided. His body was slung in the air and he landed on his side and head simultaneousely then did many flips and rolled a bit. The result was a cut and bruise on the kidney and a mild concussion. The chest protector was shattered right down the center and right over the left collar bone.
Now to the point. Under the chest protector Will was wearing one of the YPG supplemental pads. Typically Will wears one of their rib/kidney protection shirts. These are similar to the football flack jacket. But unfortunatley we raced Sat and forgot it at home for the races at a different Track sunday. I wish like hell we'd not forgotten that single piece of gear, it could have saved a lot of pain in my estimation.
Now the helmet. the visor was smashed but overall the shell was in pretty fair shape. There is a small scuff on the left side right behind where the ear is. Its not cracked there and just a little paint chipping. One might think hey all it needs is a new visor. I decided to pull the insides out and take a peek at any possible damage. The first thing to note was visible signs of the left side styrofoam being thinner than the right side. I also noticed that if I pushed on the right side foam it was very noticably softer than the left side foam. It was very evident that the foam was compacted and I feel very strongly that if this helmet were ever in an accident again it would be of no use to the wearer if they were to hit the left side of the helmet.
I basically want to drive home the point that a helmet that astetically looks functional after a wreck is junk. It served its purpose well but now its usefullness has run its corse. And take the time to remember ALL your gear.
