Anyone tried the Alpinestars Bionic Tech Jacket?

fullfloater
Edited Date/Time 5/1/2019 9:46am
I've had a couple of shoulder injuries in the past 2 years. Hard impact onto my side/shoulder so shoulder cups wouldn't have helped much anyway. I wear a TLD chest pro with front and back protection but no shoulder protection. I also prefer to wear a kidney belt.

Is this thing practical to wear under a jersey? Too hot? Full body pump? I'd take the lower sleeves off. Does the kidney belt work as well as the real ones (using a 661)?

https://www.alpinestars.com/products/mx/protection/bionic-tech-jacket



The Thor one looks interesting as well but I don't want the full arms.

Anyone using this stuff for mx?

https://www.thormx.com/products/?productGroupId=347821&productId=501598

I can handle the ninja turtle jokes if it works and allows me to bounce a bit better...
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Spooner
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Spooner 4/26/2019 3:13am
4/26/2019 3:13am
Yep I’ve used one and it’s really nice. it’s very low profile so it’s slim under the jersey. The kidney belt sat a bit high on me so I ended up cutting it off. I’ve since moved on to a couple other ones. Check out the bionic chest protector. It’s like an A1 but with CE level one chest, back and shoulders. The shoulders are removable if you ever wanted. It’s very ventilated too so you won’t get hot. I also use the short sleeve sequence jacket. It’s a soft armor but still CE level 1 all around and very lightweight and also very ventilated. I race off road and to me it’s a little more comfortable for a long race so it’s become my go-to. It does have a kidney belt that is adjustable up and down and is also removable via velcro.

Both are $159 so almost half what the older bionic tech jacket. The only thing the tech jacket has over these is it’s CE level 2 for the back protection, vs level one on the others.

Bionic Chest Protector:


Sequence Jacket:


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Madmax31
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Madmax31 4/26/2019 8:51am
4/26/2019 8:51am
I'm at the age where back protection really concerns me. Don't really care that much about weight, or if it makes me hot. Just what is the best protection? Shoulder and chest protection important as well.

I wrecked about 6 years ago and was knocked out. The bike hit me in the lower back and broke all the lower 8 wings off my spine. Dr said I was lucky not to be paralyzed. I was wearing the 661 pressure suit. Not sure what would've happened had I not been wearing it.

Wish someone would do a study on back protection like they have helmets and neck braces.

I know it's a "taboo" subject that people don't like to discuss but would love to see some data. What would Dr's think about Jessey Nelsons crash? Would a protector have made a difference?

I know every crash is different and that you can compress your back which no back protection will help, but what is the best option for impact protection?

Do the RXR's work with Atlas neck braces?



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Spooner
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Spooner 4/29/2019 6:56pm
4/29/2019 6:56pm
The Astars A-10 is about the most burly chest protector I know of. It’s CE level 2 chest, back, and shoulders. It’s a over the jersey protector if that matters to you. They look pretty gigantic in photos but it’s really not all that big in person. It’s pretty light too, especially when compared to some of its competitors.

In the semi near future they will offer their tech-air system for off-road as well which I’m really excited to see how they made it work. They’ve been running it in events like Dakar for a couple years now.
Brtp4
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Brtp4 4/30/2019 8:08am
4/30/2019 8:08am Edited Date/Time 4/30/2019 8:09am
fullfloater wrote:
I've had a couple of shoulder injuries in the past 2 years. Hard impact onto my side/shoulder so shoulder cups wouldn't have helped much anyway. I...
I've had a couple of shoulder injuries in the past 2 years. Hard impact onto my side/shoulder so shoulder cups wouldn't have helped much anyway. I wear a TLD chest pro with front and back protection but no shoulder protection. I also prefer to wear a kidney belt.

Is this thing practical to wear under a jersey? Too hot? Full body pump? I'd take the lower sleeves off. Does the kidney belt work as well as the real ones (using a 661)?

https://www.alpinestars.com/products/mx/protection/bionic-tech-jacket



The Thor one looks interesting as well but I don't want the full arms.

Anyone using this stuff for mx?

https://www.thormx.com/products/?productGroupId=347821&productId=501598

I can handle the ninja turtle jokes if it works and allows me to bounce a bit better...
Bionic Tech is a nice piece. Seems to run a little small. Note that the forearms are very, very....very tight on them.

BP

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Red141
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Red141 4/30/2019 9:13am
4/30/2019 9:13am
I had them. They run small and I got too hot.
ga_pike
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ga_pike 4/30/2019 9:37am
4/30/2019 9:37am
Something I don't understand is why there really are not more offerings like the old Fox Roost 2. The shoulder cup on that (and the HRP) seemed to really save lots of collarbones. The closed cell impact reduction doesn't seem to be as effective IMO. Maybe I'm wrong. I just know that I crashed big time several times with my Roost 2 and walked away without any broken bones but after switching to the AXO Pentagon, I broke 4 collarbones in 5 years.
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psg119 4/30/2019 10:06am
4/30/2019 10:06am
Madmax31 wrote:
I'm at the age where back protection really concerns me. Don't really care that much about weight, or if it makes me hot. Just what is...
I'm at the age where back protection really concerns me. Don't really care that much about weight, or if it makes me hot. Just what is the best protection? Shoulder and chest protection important as well.

I wrecked about 6 years ago and was knocked out. The bike hit me in the lower back and broke all the lower 8 wings off my spine. Dr said I was lucky not to be paralyzed. I was wearing the 661 pressure suit. Not sure what would've happened had I not been wearing it.

Wish someone would do a study on back protection like they have helmets and neck braces.

I know it's a "taboo" subject that people don't like to discuss but would love to see some data. What would Dr's think about Jessey Nelsons crash? Would a protector have made a difference?

I know every crash is different and that you can compress your back which no back protection will help, but what is the best option for impact protection?

Do the RXR's work with Atlas neck braces?



I had a similar injury as you braking off the bottom 14 wings. I am in the same boat as you when it comes to back protection. I rode for the first time in 8 years last week and what set up I am currently running is the Troy Lee 5900 with my old road racing custom Bohn USA back protector stacked over that. So I have the foam and plastic with the TLD and a thick foam and Kevlar with the Bohn on top of that. I bought the 5900 with the intention of eventually running a neck brace in the future. You probably still can run it the Bohn would just have to go on top of the brace. The tail of the Bohn does fit down into my pants to protect my tail bone and didn't effect my sitting comfort at all. I didn't even notice it was there. Bohn doesn't make the back protector anymore but I found this one similar to mine on mercari. For a killer $29 too (used to be $150 I think). Or maybe you can find something similar. I wanna make it home to my wife so I wasn't really concerned what it looked like but it actually didn't look bad at all as you can see in the photo below. I can post what the set up looks like under the jersey when I am able to get to it later.

And Nelson Troy both said he was wearing a protector. But they never said if it was the soft or hard one.

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m24725484685/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_source=…



Spooner
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Spooner 4/30/2019 10:22am
4/30/2019 10:22am
I’m a former roadracer as well and the newer chest protectors have a back setup very similar to a road race back protector built in. That’s how all the astars are setup and you just need to choose if you want hard or soft armor and what level of CE you want and they have several to choose from.
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psg119
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psg119 4/30/2019 10:37am
4/30/2019 10:37am
Spooner wrote:
I’m a former roadracer as well and the newer chest protectors have a back setup very similar to a road race back protector built in. That’s...
I’m a former roadracer as well and the newer chest protectors have a back setup very similar to a road race back protector built in. That’s how all the astars are setup and you just need to choose if you want hard or soft armor and what level of CE you want and they have several to choose from.
I did check them out but the protection didn't go low enough for my liking if i remember correctly. That's why I went with the TLD because it had the extra lower flap. It still wasn't up to par with my old Bohn though so I decided to experiment with both and it worked out. My Bohn is about a half inch of padding I'd say so it should help decrease any impact before reaching my TLD. I do agree they have come a long way in the moto industry as far as back protection but I think a lot of riders prefer little to no protection for comfort so it hasn't made headway like it should (which boggles my mind). The RXR does seem like a great concept though. In RR we had to have our back protectors with us at inspection at some organizations.
ga_pike
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ga_pike 5/1/2019 4:33am
5/1/2019 4:33am
psg119 wrote:
I did check them out but the protection didn't go low enough for my liking if i remember correctly. That's why I went with the TLD...
I did check them out but the protection didn't go low enough for my liking if i remember correctly. That's why I went with the TLD because it had the extra lower flap. It still wasn't up to par with my old Bohn though so I decided to experiment with both and it worked out. My Bohn is about a half inch of padding I'd say so it should help decrease any impact before reaching my TLD. I do agree they have come a long way in the moto industry as far as back protection but I think a lot of riders prefer little to no protection for comfort so it hasn't made headway like it should (which boggles my mind). The RXR does seem like a great concept though. In RR we had to have our back protectors with us at inspection at some organizations.
Doesn't the FIM make some sort of protection mandatory?
psg119
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psg119 5/1/2019 9:46am
5/1/2019 9:46am
ga_pike wrote:
Doesn't the FIM make some sort of protection mandatory?
In moto, yes. I don't know why they don't make that mandatory here. In road racing nearly every organization requires a back protector to either be worn or built into the leathers.

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