Haven't hit the road since I was a young teen. Last road rash I had was from playing basketball on an asphalt court. Took the body armour out of the few jackets I have bought that had it and throwed the armour in the trash. Too bulky. My usual riding attire is jeans, tee shirt, boots and a full face helmet. I hate sun screen. I wear the full face more for sun protection then head protection. Statistics here show a rise in skin cancer here. Each to his own.

 

I have several jackets that I use depending on the weather. All of them have body armor. I have yet to use them, but I have crashed out on my bicycle and even that road rash flippin HURT. I found a pair of Chaps last year at the dealer that even had knee armor built into them.

 

A friend and coworker of mine is in the ICU on the Trauma ward going on 2 weeks now. He hit a deer at 55mph coming to work. He was wearing his gear, full face helmet, jacket with armor, gloves, boots and jeans. The nurses said he was the best looking motorcycle accident victim they had seen. the doctor said the helmet saved his life. No head or neck injuries. The helmet was scraped up pretty bad. No broken limbs and minimal road rash. His jacket and gloves were shredded. He has 6 broken ribs with a total of 18 fractures on them.

It has me looking for mesh jackets with chest protection. Most do not. I had hoped to find a recomendation on this thread. Bohn and Alpinstars have some with chest protection. It's hard to decide between their different ones.

I did a low side in January on some frash gravel. They fooled me and put it down between going to work and coming home. Thanks to my gear I didn't get a scratch.

 

 

My Harley riding jackets all have armor in the elbows and back.
Harley also licenses Kevlar trousers with optional armor one can add in the knees. I use these fairly often.

 

If the armor feels uncomfortable, it doesn't fit you right.

IMO, any jacket without CE approved armor in the shoulders, back, and elbows is a fashion jacket.

 

This is a great country, and of course everyone gets to choose. Personally, I couldn't care less what anyone else wears or doesn't wear while riding.

I took professional risks all my working life, and the reason I believe I'm still around is that I only took what I call calculated risks; in other words, I didn't take a greater risk than I absolutely needed to in order to get the job done.

So I accept the risk inherent in riding a motorcycle. But on the bike, I wear leather or mesh jackets, depending on the weather, but always with the FXRG shoulder and elbow armor. I also wear jeans with hip and knee/shin armor that actually wraps around the knee, and FXRG-style boots with ankle padding. I also wear a full-face or flip-up helmet.

If you were to see me walking by, you'd have no idea I was wearing any of that gear (except the helmet, of course); it's that light and unobtrusive.

Several weeks ago I was stopped at the front of the line at a light. An 18-wheeler coming from my right made a left turn in front of me. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been, and something protruding from the truck hooked my left crash bar as it passed me and folded the crash bar back against my knee. Had I not been wearing the armor, I was told later, the knee would have been severely bruised, if not crushed. As it was, I was unscathed while the bike incurred $2600 worth of damage.

Moral: You never know when or where it's going to come from.

 

I have a River Road mesh that has armor in the elbows, shoulders, and back. I also have a leather jacket that has elbow and shoulder armor and a padded back. I haven't seen any "cruiser" or "road"style jackets that have chest armor. The off-road guys have that figured out.
I haven't really thought about knee protection though it sounds like an area that is often overlooked. The chaps I wear when it's cold are thick at the knees, but I would think that's only good for sliding. If the knee impacts first, then armor wrapped around the knee would be a really good thing.
It does not matter to me what you wear as I will wear whatever I think will benefit me. It's not a fashion show for me. For me, it's riding a motorcycle in which there are numerous dangers and a lot of crazy f**ks driving 2-tons of plastic, glass, and metal at speeds they shouldn't. And, I still gotta get a decent pair of gloves and now I need to think about my knees! I do wear a full-face/flip-up DOT approved helmet. And steel-toed boots. YMMV.

 

I have a set of Bohn armored mesh shirt and pants. This setup is designed to be worn under your jeans and/or shirt.

The mesh undershirt has armored shoulders, elbow/forearm, and back...and it's pretty comfortable under a shirt or an non-armored jacket.

The mesh pants are heavily armored too, with knee/shin, thigh, hip, and tailbone armor. They fit under my loose fit jeans no problem.

The only uncomfortable piece of armor in the whole setup is the tailbone pad, which I plan on taking out (very easy to do). I'm sure it would be a useful pad if I went down, but the damn thing feels like it's going down the crack of my ***, and homey don't play that.

Other than that, the whole Bohn setup is pretty nice, especially if I don't feel like wearing my armored leather jacket.

 

armor is great.

not only does it provide real protection when you meet the pavement (ive tested this personally, it works!) but it also kinda holds the leather jacket off you, so its kinda airier somehow.

dunno how to describe it better, but a good fitting armored jacket is more comfortable to me.

i like my spine and elbows a lot.