Interesting follow up article to the original video I posted. Totally rebuts the original FortNine video. Claims Ryan misunderstood the research.
Basically, wear body armor and protective gear if you ride.
Huge thanks to the Adventure Rider website for following up:
Ryan Kluftinger’s FortNine YouTube video featuring his version of Gumby Road Safety (sorry, Monty […]
www.advrider.com
Moto Gear Put Those Pads Back In, Ryan
There is a lot more to crash safety than FortNine would have you think
The Bear
5/29/2024
Here's a demonstration: IP goeth before a fall! (Photo: The Bear)
Ryan Kluftinger’s FortNine YouTube video featuring his version of Gumby Road Safety (sorry, Monty Python) in which he explains that he no longer wears motorcycle body armour (IP) continues to draw comment. He quotes the GEAR study by a friend of mine, Liz deRome, and I found it difficult to believe that she had written what he claimed she had, so I asked her about it. This was what she said.
“I did respond online to the FortNine post on YouTube,” she said. “It was a pity that Ryan had misinterpreted my findings and did not appear to have read my journal article in detail, nor the second one where we followed-up riders’ recovery. In my response I tried to correct his claims without getting into a battle royal, [but] my post seems to have been lost in the huge volume of other responses… It was fortunate that the majority of others who piled on to him with their views were continuing to wear their IP.
“The key issues included that Ryan misread the article as suggesting that there was no evidence of IP providing protection from fractures. However, he appears to have misunderstood the function of IP – which is not to prevent fracture injuries but injuries in general – including open wound injuries. In my research, riders wearing protective clothing fitted with IP were significantly less likely to have any injuries at all and, if injured, were less likely to be hospitalized.
“Fractures are relatively rare compared to open wound injuries. The number of participants required for the study was calculated statistically to ensure the sample was sufficient to determine whether any differences in injuries between protected and unprotected riders was statistically significant. We would have needed a much greater number of participants to get statistically significant results for fractures.
“To date research indicates that the severity of fractures may be mitigated by IP but is less likely to be prevented. For example, riders wearing IP may be less likely to have complex/compound fractures and more likely to have simple breaks, which heal better and are less likely to involve infections.
“He did not appear to appreciate that ours was a population-based study. We attempted to recruit every ACT resident rider who came off within the boundaries of ACT over 12 months. We limited it to residents because we needed to follow them up at 3 and 6 months after their initial interview to monitor their recovery.
“The sample of riders was not survivor-based. We did exclude fatalities but included all injured and uninjured riders involved in serious crashes. Injured who attended a hospital and non-injured from motorcycle repair services (n=14 ). We recruited over 70% riders from of known crashes.”
Liz deRome with some of the testing equipment at Deakin University. (Photo Deakin)
Liz is exceptionally well qualified. If you’d like to know more, see where she explains how the GEAR study (which Ryan quoted so selectively) investigated the performance of motorcycle protective clothing and body armour in real world crashes, and highlights the key findings. The study was Liz’s PhD work. Her post graduate research followed up those findings and investigated whether there was a conflict between rider thermal comfort and injury protection. She found that riders are 3 times less likely to ride protected in hot weather.
Liz with her friend Mr Thermal Sweating Mannikin at RMIT University. (Photo RMIT)
“We selected the 10 most popular garments including leather, textile and denim,” she says, “and tested them for:
- Abrasion resistance (at Deakin Uni) – none would have passed the CE standard EN 13595.
- Thermal resistance (thermal comfort)) on a thermal sweating manikin at 30C and 40% humidity at RMIT Uni. All performed poorly.
- The suit that performed worst for thermal comfort was then tested on 12 volunteers in a Climate chamber at Wollongong Uni. We compared each rider in three trials each at 25C, 30C and 35C with 40% humidity and in both full gear and when wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirt but with boots, gloves and helmet.
- The Climate chamber found that thermally resistant garments significantly increased wearers’ skin & core temperatures leading to impaired their reaction time, mood and perception of workload. They sweated so much I had to mop up puddles on the floor between tests. The results demonstrated that being too hot could impair riding performance and safety.
Liz also wrote Positioned for Safety – the first Australian road safety strategic plan written in consultation with riders 2002 and 2007, The Good Gear Guide, 2009. My PhD research led to the development of MotoCAP and, most recently, A guide to designing and manufacturing motorcycle protective clothing. She was also involved in the development of the Victorian Motorcycle Graduated Licensing System. In 2022 Liz received the inaugural ACRS Award to Women in Road Safety. MotoCAP was the winner of the FIM 2019 Road Safety Award.
