How Motorcycle Armour (Dosn't) Work

Most riders never question it. You buy a jacket, it comes with armour, you assume you're protected. But what if the standard your gear is certified to was never really designed to protect your bones? In this video I go looking for the answer to the question why does every motorcycle jacket come with armour, and does it actually work? We look at EN 1621, the European standard still followed in the UK, the performance thresholds that may be too high to prevent fractures, the pad sizing problem that affects riders at both ends of the size spectrum, and a decade of research that keeps arriving at the same conclusion. This isn't an anti-gear video. Wear your kit. But understand what it is and more importantly, what it isn't. CHAPTERS 00:00 - INTRO 01:05 - THE SAFETY LABEL 02:25 - WHO WROTE THE RULES? 03:55 - THE NUMBERS DON'T WORK 06:10 - THE SIZE PROBLEM! 07:44 -WHAT'S THE RESEARCH SAY? 09:24 - SAFETY WASHING 09:49 - WHAT REALLY PROTECTS YOU 12:24 - OUTRO 🔗 References & Further Reading De Rome et al. (2011) — Motorcycle Protective Clothing: Protection From Injury or Just the Weather? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21819... Albanese et al. (2017) — Energy Attenuation Performance of Impact Protection Worn by Motorcyclists in Real-World Crashes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28383... Wu et al. (2019) — Effectiveness of Protective Clothing for Motorized Two-Wheeler Riders https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30901... Meredith et al. (2019) — Assessing the Performance of Motorcyclists' Impact Protectors in Simulated ATD Knee and Shoulder Impacts https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30888... EN 1621 Standard Overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcy... 👕 Clothing in this video Wearing RIP Industries: skate, coffee and automotive street fashion. Nothing to do with the motorcycle gear industry, which felt oddly appropriate. Get 10% off with code: JACKTORQUESBIKES 👉 https://www.ripindustries.co.uk/JACKT... AFFILIATES & GEAR I RECOMMEND Tru Tension — Chain lubes and maintenance products 👉 https://trutension.avln.me/c/ddMXtwTF... Beeline Moto II — The best motorcycle navigation on the market 👉 https://beeline.avln.me/c/BjerlhoyZwxJ If you found this useful, consider subscribing. New videos every week covering the UK motorcycle industry, rider culture, and the stuff worth talking about.