As a rider I can tell you how uncomfortable, heavy, and awkward a full leather riding suit can be. So lets take a lesson from the insect world. Create an exoskeleton out of light strong abrasion resistant material (ie kevlar, carbon fiber) proper design should keep you from breaking anything during a fall. Another problem I have with the current design is the plastic body armor is on the inside. usually without much padding. During a fall not only does the leather get ruined, but you get a bruise or fracture from hard impact with the plastic. Put the plastic on the outside of the exoskeleton. This way the pieces are replacable and do not contact the body.-- TBK, Nov 01 2002 HB: exoskeleton http://www.halfbake...om/idea/exoskeleton01 Nov 02 | It's a halfbaked remedy for osteoporosis, but another idea of the same name appeared on these hallowed pages in December 2000. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004] Yeah, that's "Bikers Glove" right here in this category (see upper right) but I think this is a bit different.-- krelnik, Nov 01 2002 I'm not into motorcycles, but I bet this could be made to look really really cool. You could even make the replacable plastic pieces you mention at the end such that they could be swapped out for aesthetic reasons, similar to cell phone faceplates.-- krelnik, Nov 01 2002 One of the problems with having the body armor on the OUTSIDE in a leather motorcycle suit is that you don't want the short piece protecting a limb bone to become SNAGGED upon something as the rider is sliding across the pavement. Its better to slide and burn away leather than to have a limb otherwise ripped away. Having the body armor on the inside is a legal answer... its clearly offering an additional line of defence rather than adding to the destruction of the driver in a chaotic free-body slide.-- Prof Manitou, Apr 21 2003 I believe that most motorcyclists ( I being one of them) survive intial falls and slides, providing they are wearing some sort of body/skin protection. Most major motorcycle injuries ie. death occur from decelleration trauma from hitting other things during your slide out. I do agree however that some better is needed other than current body leathers.-- Gideon0223, Jun 24 2003 And retro-blasters.-- Overpanic, Jun 24 2003 Everybody wants bulletproof. But trend in stats says blast and shrapnel is main casualty source. Guns basically DON't kill people. A very light clamshell of the kevlar helmet material would be much more useful than heavy torso armour vs ap/rifle rounds.-- dinosnider, Oct 02 2003 Hmm Kind of already baked by a company called Knox. Here's one product, rearrange the URL for others: http://www.planet-knox.com/Knox/images/kc2000t.jpg-- Doesnotcompute, Nov 16 2003 Your idea reminds me of imperial storm trooper armor. http://www.legionxxiv.org/images/stormtrooper/Default.htm
The closest thing I’ve seen to it is http://www.highvelocitygear.com/armor.html
There is a good article about this subject at http://pub127.ezboard.com/fhondasportbikenetworkfrm32.showMessage?topicID=214.topic
It’s long so I used my Ultra Hal Text-to-Speech Reader. For $10 I highly recommend it. http://www.zabaware.com/reader/
I use a helmet, Fox Racing knee and elbow guards, Brine lacrosse shoulder pads and a cup. I wear the knee guards on the opposite legs there intended for. This is so the Velcro strap closures are on the inside. This way they’re less likely to come off in an accident. I crashed with the closures on the outside and one of them came off. It still protected me from the initial contact with the pavement. I just got a skinned knee and skinned/bruised hip. The left knee guard, left elbow guard and left side of the shoulder pads show signs of the crash and definitely protected me. I’m going to make sheet aluminum sleeves that I will slide onto the straps of the knee guards. Then, after putting them on, I will slide over the Velcro closures. That will compress the closures and hopefully keep them from coming off in an accident. The knee guard model is Pivot. The elbow guards are an obsolete model. The shoulder pad model is Trident SP. http://www.motoworldracing.com/fox-racing-riding-gear.html http://www.brine.com/lacrosse.php?section=products&page=index&cat=shoulder-- cyanocobalamin, Aug 15 2004 random, halfbakery