Body Armour

[Pebble]

I don't think it's so much about confidence, sure you feel more protected and perhaps gain confidence from wearing armour but in the end I want to wear it for different reasons. Mainly because I ride on my own. I value my knees, and I have a couple of young kids to look after at home so downtime would not be very nice.
If I wear it and never fall off well I guess I'll consider myself lucky. I still think it's worth having and using if you want to. Just like helmets never used to be mainstream and not everyone wore them if they had the option, perhaps armour is going the same way, becoming more widely acceptable as the standard, probably due to DH & FR influences in the sport.

I reckon there are probably alot of people, and new riders in particular who would like to wear some form of armour even in xc races, but in the end worry too much about what people thing and end up going with the main stream.

It's unfortunate that most of us have to have some kind of incident before thinking "what if" or "i wish i had armor" and then the pain is soon forgotten again.
From a womens perspective if pain wasn't forgotten I don't think anyone would be having more than one kid

I think I'll be deciding between the mace tectoninc, & race face FR.

[wavedancer]

It's true that nothing builds confidence like practice and skills training. I have done a couple of skills sessions and definitely want to do more. The reality is that I'm taking up this sport a little late (I'm 57) and already have osteoporosis, so a little extra protection is probably prudent.

I try to analyze what happens on my falls, but sometimes it seems to be boom! I'm down! So far no severe damage, just lots of hematomas. I love riding single track, though, and while I would love it if all the trails were smooth, buff, swoopy, with the occasional ramped boulder, that's not always the case. I still walk a lot of loose twisty downhill stuff, but I know that much of it I could roll down. Just looking for a bit of insurance as I let myself do it.

I have not had much luck in finding guards locally to try on. I tried some 661 knee and knee-shin guards, but they were still too big, even in a small. At one shop I picked up a set of kids scooter pads! They look like they might give some decent knee protection and they even came with elbow guards. For $12.95 for the set I figure I'll give them a try!

The Skinz look interesting. SK, do you use the ones with the hard shell in them or just the nylon and neoprene? Has anyone tried Rockgardn guards? Rockgardn
They seem to have some different size options.

Once again, thanks for all the suggestions.

Linda

[SadieKate]

I just use the basic knee right at the top of the Body Armor section. It looks like the same product is made in children's sizes.