Rocket, not trying to fight or be a jerk etc,
I don't understand why you keep bringing the experience up. At the end of the day there isn't testing on this brace. QUOTE]
First Georgie, I was bringing up my experience as a rider AGAIN due to Barrinton's comment on it in his response and thought I would expound on that point so people that may not know me at all know that I'm an old guy (42) that has been riding / racing since Age 4, for those that are math challenged, that's 38 years of riding, and all of that is without a neck injury or problem with the brace 3 years and 35 years without the brace. I still hit Loretta Lynns all the time (including this year) and pretty much know what is going on with the sport. I'm here today and will be here tomorrow still riding / racing motorcycles and am not a "Johnny Come Lately" to this party.
I just bought a second Leatt Brace for myself after looking closely at Zman's Alpinestar brace too. They work in very much the same way using the same theory....... and I don't see any testing / lab results by any of the neck brace companies at this point. When I originally purchased my first Leatt....... I watched videos of there testing procedures and dummy falls and swings with a neck brace on........... where those videos are now, I do not know. I didn't get one right away........ I waited, check out other's Leatts, and looked into the info that was available at the time. After watching the videos and seeing how Pitracer's worked / looked on him.......... I got one for myself.
Simple idea is that I believe in the load transfer theory in protecting my neck, if I ever need it. I would wear the Alpinestars brace too as I believe it does the same thing as the Leatt. Those are the only 2 braces I'm familiar with.
I don't believe for a second that Leatt will only help you when dropped on your head straight down like a pencil....... as that's a compression type hit and the Leatt can't protect you from the impact of the compression. It's more for the turning of your head past it's natural movement where your helmet hits the rim and transfers load from your neck to the brace and other parts of your body. I can see where in an extreme backwards neck movement where the load would be transferred to your spine down the "shaft" of the support and may culminate in more pressure at the tip of the support and possibly break your back there. I'm not arguing that it couldn't........... but what if without it, I roll my neck past the point of no return and it snaps and I'm dead on the spot......... is dead better than broken back? Maybe for some the answer is yes........
On top of this, people's bones have different density and strength in their structure, so what may break one persons back, may do nothing to another persons back with stronger denser bones. From Experience, I know that I have very dense strong bones that I'm genetically blessed with, as I've sheered off footpegs and broken handlebars at the clamps while coming up short on large jumps without any damage to my bones. I've watched others case the same jumps and end up with broken wrists / ankles, legs.........
As I stated, I wear the brace as a worst case scenario savior........ I hope to live through a horrific neck bending crash through the load transfer that the brace provides, that's it for my opinion on why I wear a neck brace. If it saves me from death one time, it's more than worth the $395 that I paid for it. Have I ever needed a neck brace yet.......... no, never needed the protection yet in 38 years..... but "WHAT IF???"
