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How Many Riders Have Switched To Leather Race Suits For 2017 Season


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She was called Jason Crump, grasstrack was speedway and exhaust was spinning back tire with his bicep between the tire and mudguard... end result is the same and those chequered nylon suits are practically history.

I was told, by the suit maker, that it was an 11 year old girl. He illustrated the point by demonstrating that a hot soldering iron didn't melt or burn kevlar like nylon. Probably the ACU were more exercised about a young girl than an adult male rider!

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I was told, by the suit maker, that it was an 11 year old girl. He illustrated the point by demonstrating that a hot soldering iron didn't melt or burn kevlar like nylon. Probably the ACU were more exercised about a young girl than an adult male rider!

No doubt this has happened as explained to you. What I said is how I've seen it happen on international level from over here.

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you Put a hot soldering iron anywhere near a race suit and it will melt . take a look at most peoples right suit leg and you will see a chunk missing where it touches the exhaust . they should get done under the trades descritions act for calling those suits Kevlar . they are 94% polyester , the reason they were foisted on speedway is they are easy to print . and as cheap as chips to buy the raw material .easy to sew and massively profitable. they provide no protection whatsoever .even a small slide off will result in abrasions and burns as the polyester melts .. real kevlar as used in police uniform and top of the range motorcycle clothing is nothing like the rubbish that is sold as kevlar for sppedway suits ..

 

the danes had lightweight suits made from pig skin

Do the riders not know better?
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And for the hundreth time on here it seems.....I have used leathers and kevlars for speedway and grasstrack. I had more burns from using leathers than I did when wearing kevlars. Leathers are brilliant when sliding a long way along a tarmack track at speed but most speedway injuries are caused by impact where material choice makes no difference.

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I use leathers because I think they offer better protection in small crashes and rarely ride more than once in a week so have plenty of time to look after them. There is a bit of a hole in the leg where they touch the exhaust!

 

However I would wear kevlars and an undersuit with no problems at all if I were riding more often as they are much more practical to look after. Especially with this armour http://www.d-starracewear.co.uk/covecbodyarmour.html underneath I believe they offer protection as good as more restrictive and harder to maintain leathers in the vast majority of instances.

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Adding my 2p worth: 7 or 8 years ago either the first or 2nd time I rode a speedway bike, I slid off (admittedly at lowish speed), left leg temporarily trapped under the bike, struggling to free myself, didn't initially realise my right foot was also somehow under the footrest. Once aware of how hot my foot was getting I did manage to extract myself, but the exhaust downpipe, just before it meets the silencer, burnt through the reinforced heel of the leather Daytona boot and 2 pairs of socks leaving me with a lump the size a golfball. I applied a cold bandage immediately and the lump went down in a day or so but to this day I still have scar the size of a penny on my right heel....

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Just bumping this back up . waiting for JJ .or long eye .to admit they were wrong

All I can say is, that I watched the suit maker apply a hot soldering iron to nylon (melted, of course), then to the kevlar material. No melting. Why should I admit to being wrong?

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Kevlar costs a fortune doesn't it, these suits are never all Kevlar?

Exactly. The suits are a kevlar/nylon hybred.

 

I believe that about 4 or 5 years ago what was being marketed as kevlars was pretty much all nylon which the odd bit of kevlar/nylon in places. They were banned, and the kevlar content had to be increased to allow them to be marketed as kevlars.

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Exactly. The suits are a kevlar/nylon hybred.

 

I believe that about 4 or 5 years ago what was being marketed as kevlars was pretty much all nylon which the odd bit of kevlar/nylon in places. They were banned, and the kevlar content had to be increased to allow them to be marketed as kevlars.

Me thinks the biggest problem in this discussion is that in the "speedway english" dictionary the word kevlars means everything from 2piece mxsuit to full kevlar 1piece speedway suit and leathers even.
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If you watched a suit maker apply a soldering iron to Kevlar , it certainly wasn't a speedway suit . I have seen someone hanging from a board in overalls stuck to the board with wallpaper paste , doesn't mean I'm daft enough to believe it or to try it , because in the real world manufacturers make claims for their product that aren't true people buy stuff on account of the manufacturers claims and are largely disappointed when the claims turn out to be false

for liking JJ's post which is completely wrong

It was in his workshop, with material from which he was making suits. Personally, I see no reason to disbelieve him. The 'part nylon' suits are now banned; all race suits have to have a label stating that they conform to modern ACU standards and this is checked by the machine examiner before racing.

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