Ladies Body Armour

OnYourLeft said:

Have you tried Fox? I don't remember the style name as I got mine about 4 years ago, but I liked it because the chest portion of the armor only came down to my ribs and the waist belt was very adjustable and having the two sections basically separate made it quite comfortable. Good luck!

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The Fox Launch upper body armor has a soft chest plate, meaning it conforms to the body so it accommodates boobs better than the other hard plastic plate styles I've tried. Most of those end up sticking out at an angle one way or another. I know a few have developed "women's specific" versions with hard plastic, but if you're on the bigger end of the spectrum, that's still not going to help.

https://www.amazon.com/FOX-LAUNCH-SUIT-BLK-RED/dp/B001JE308A

darkness777 said:

actually all we have looked at was 661 and rock garden. does the soft plate offer as much protection as the hard plate, or at least close to it?

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I've never seen any sort of testing or anything on this topic. And I think ultimately it becomes a personal decision. Compared to the hard plate chest protectors I've worn, I prefer the soft plate, as I am more comfortable and can move better in it. If I feel stiff and my range of motion is restricted, I'm more likely to be riding stiff and fall more frequently in the first place. And you can't protect against every possible injury or you wouldn't be able to move... I've had a few where both the hard chest plate and/or the hard spine plate would bang into my helmet and I didn't want to wear the armor at all because it drove me nuts.

And I think I also picture that if you've got a big enough cup size that fitting upper body armor is a challenge, you've got some extra natural padding in there as well. The foam/neoprene chest plate padding is going to protect from scrapes and bruises just fine. The harder plastic style might be better at distributing a really solid impact to the chest, but if you've got "natural padding" underneath it, that's going to help as well in preventing broken bones, I'd think. But (knock on wood), these aren't the most common types of falls in my experience. I'm much more likely to land on my shoulder, flip onto my back, and if I do land on my chest, my arms tend to be under me as well, so I guess the bottom line for me is that it's not the highest priority area to protect and therefore the soft plate seems adequate to me.

Demon Dirt?

Hey folks,

Has anyone tried the Demon Dirt Flex Force armor? I am looking at getting a set for the wife.



She doesn't race or do freeriding but she loves gravity and we'll be doing a bit for park riding this year. She likes the idea of freedom of movement and some protection.

Thoughts? Opinions?

I have the Rock Gardn. The modification in the pic (hopefully the pic worked; if it didn't, it's at http://www.pbase.com/j_harvey/image/132953000) helps keep the hard plastic from sticking out. The piece I added is a wide elastic, so it moves and stretches with the armor. I'm much happier with it now. I landed hard on my chest on a pointy rock and the armor saved me from a huge bruise and maybe a broken rib. I doubt I would have been able to ride any more that day if I hadn't had the protection.