Body
Armour
Troy Lee Designs
BG5900 Chest Protector
Race Face
Covert Knee Guards (2021)
Body armour is fast becoming increasingly popular in the sport of off-road cycling, as it is no longer as clunky and uncomfortable to wear on longer rides, with many more mountain bikers opting to wear elbow and knee pads on their rides to protect themselves from potential harm. Further protection is available in the form of armoured shorts and back protection.
Although for more bullish riders with a disregard for health and safety, Body Armour may sound like overkill, there’s a long list of reasons why riders of all abilities should invest in body armour to pad and protect areas which are most at risk of injury when mountain biking, especially on steep and fast downhill trails.
The key areas in which our body armour protects is the shoulders, chest, spine, elbows and knees - with a helmet obviously protecting the head, and in some cases, face. Whilst sensible precautions can be taken, mountain biking can be a high speed and dangerous sport - over uneven, rough and uncompromising terrain which can encompass tackling many obstacles at speeds, such as jumps and downhill trails.
As well as body armour reducing the risk of serious injury if a crash were to happen, body armour can also increase confidence whilst riding the bike - allowing you to achieve the best possible times and speeds over a wide range of terrain.
Of course, the right level of body armour required depends on your riding discipline - and we would hardly recommend the maximum amount of armour for a mountain biker who tackles only moderately difficult trails and tracks on their ride out - for them we would recommend a good set of elbow and knee pads, which provides the right amount of protection VS comfort. For those who do very little uphill riding however, and are all about the downhill - we recommend the full works of body armour suits, including roost guards.
You can view our full range of body armour above, and as always - please do get in touch if you have any questions at all about these safety products - we are always happy to talk through the best options for your riding style.