Was thinking about what Su-pervemoto said about how his alpinestars body armour probably saved his spine, and was wondering what back protection to go for. I’ve got an alpinestars leather jacket fitted with soft padding for back protection. Should i just go for an alpinestars back protector or the full body armour? Any advice appreciated.
I was looking at the armour jacket today against the Dainese version at ally pally. I think the Dainese version looked like it offered better protection and is what i’m going to go for. The Alpinestars was £150 and the Dainese £200 but I havent done any shopping around yet.
I had the full vest suit on when I crashed last September and it saved me from a heck of a lot of damage. Highly recommended. My outer jacket was ripped and mangled but the body suit held strong, will be wearing one of those again without hesitation.
The Dainese armour actually looks pretty good, but seems so much hassle compared to just having in-built jacket protection, unless your thinking of being super protected and having both 
A quality back-protector is an absolute must-have, they are invaluable! I use a full length (coxix to neck) protector in my one-piece leathers, and have a seperate (sixsixone) full-armour jacket for summer use.
You’ll have to make your own mind up if it’s worth compromising, but personally I don’t mix the full armour jacket with a regular leather jacket, but use the dedicated back-protector.
I took out the armour from my usual gortex jacket and used the body suit instead. It has a couple of advantages. I can tell you thats its very warm for a start. The main plus side for it for me is the fact that its attached to your body and not clothing. In the impact that I suffered, my clothing, which I thought was pretty good, twisted and rucked up. This would have meant that the body armour moved with it and afforded me less protection. The body suit did not move and I swear that is the reason that I did not break any other bones. The only bone I broke was in my right wrist and this was not protected by the suit.
Having looked at the damage to the kit afterwards, you can see in places where its taken a pounding but it it stood true as designed.
I wouldn’t wear the bodysuit in conjunction with leathers, my leathers don’t seem to move when I crash. For under Gortex or lighter weight summer kit I would highly recommend it.
On another note for kit, I always remove the back protector from clothing and wear my own one. Its connected to me and I trust it to do the job. I usually wear Knox kit and having crashed with it on, I highly recommend it.
I second all of Chuffsters comments.
I bought the Alpinestars suit at the NEC in October - I tried on the Knox and Dainese versions but found the Alpinestars to be the best fit. I’ve taken the CE armour out of my jacket and wear this instead and it’s great. Can’t testify to it’s crash protection as I haven’t crashed with it on yet 
Not sure if I will wear it under my leathers, as it may get uncomfortable, but I’ve got a back protector that I wear under leathers and have removed the built -in one.
HTH,
David.
We’ll only ever know if it works when the worse happens, I managed to get myslef a know back protector but confess I only use it on track days.
mine’s a knox (Abougt £80 from George White) and it’s really comfy.
I’ve got a Knox but was thinking about getting one of the full length things that Jay talks about at Ally Pally.
I currently wear the Dainese knee/shin guards and the shorts version of the suit on the first page with hip and coxix(sp?) protection. The full suit is a nightmare as you cant pee with it on and are sort of stuck in it!
This is the Safety Jacket V which has the hinged shoulders, which i am going to get and remove the armour from my jacket as it will move out of the way in an accident. Hopefully i will look better than this guy!!! Its got a full length back protector and the built in kidney belt which keeps everything nice and in place.
Appears to be called something different in the UK but here it is on the Adrenalin X site:
http://www.adrenalinx.com/product.asp?product=4749277
