Leatt Dirt Bike Neck Brace
To brace or not to brace?
That is the question. It’s a human thing. We have adventure in our hearts and are drawn to excitement and thrills. We love conquering new territory, exploring the unknown, and challenging ourselves to go further, higher, and faster.
If you are reading this, you are probably part of a relatively small group of fortunate humans who get their kicks from riding their bikes through dirt and mud. You love conquering the most gnarly terrain or tracks you can find. And you draw satisfaction from improving your skills and customizing your equipment to suit your unique style and preferences.
But, of course, it wouldn’t be a worthy adventure if there wasn’t an element of danger to it. And that’s where protective gear comes in.
Neck braces save lives. Period.
People are able to get upand walk away from most of the crashes they sustain from riding a Dirt bike.Nevertheless, some of these crashes and the injuries they lead to can be fatal. We don’t like talking aboutit or even thinking about it, but it’s a fact. Neck injuries are certainly among these. And for this reason, it’scritical to ensure you do everything you can tominimizethis risk. You need to equip yourself with theproper safety gear to protect your neck and spinal column from serious injury.Despite riders’ personal opinions, we now have real-life, objective data suggesting that wearing a motocross neck brace while riding can reduce cervical spine injuries by 89%. Need we say more?
The founding father of the Dirt Bike Neck Brace
Neurosurgeon Dr Chris Leatt can literally say that he “wrote the book” on neck braces. This chapter of Dr Leatt’s story began in the early 2000s after witnessing the death of a fellow rider. Significantly, this happened just one weekend after his own son, Matthew, began riding.
In an effort to protect his son from a similar injury, Dr Leatt started looking for protective gear that would minimize the risk of neck injury. To his great surprise, he couldn’t find anything! So, he set about to remedy the situation himself. Driven by a passion to protect not only his son but all riders from the dangers of catastrophic neck injuries.
As a result, Dr Chris Leatt developed the revolutionary Leatt-Brace® in Cape Town, South Africa. After this, he enlisted the help of some BMW engineers at their facility in Munich, Germany, to test the device. The first patents were filed in 2003, and the first production units were sold in late 2006.
Today, Leatt is the go-to name in neck braces. But this story began with one man’s determination and a tragic accident. And subsequently, an untold number of lives have most certainly been saved.
How does a Leatt Dirt bike neck brace work?
We designed all Leatt neck braces to work in conjunction with a full-face helmet. The goal for any Leatt neck brace is three-fold.
Firstly, limit any extreme forward, backward, sideways, and rearward movement of the head and neck.
A Leatt neck brace that fits correctly will decrease the available space between the helmet and theshoulders. As a result, in the event of a direct or glancing impact to your helmet, theneck brace limits howmuch your head and neck can move in any direction.
Secondly, it uses alternate load path technology to disperse any extreme forces.
Science 101 tells us that energy cannot be created or destroyed but only transferred. A riderhitting thetrails at 70mph equals a lot of kinetic energy. Now suppose this unlucky imaginary rider of ours losescontrol and slams face-first into the dirt. Some of that kinetic energy is transferred to his helmet. Next, thisenergy will cause a specificdirectional movement of his head, depending on the angle of the impact. If ourunlucky rider were to be wearing a Leatt neck brace at the time of his accident, the brace would limit thatmovement as the lower helmet rim makes impact with the “Halo” or theimpact rim of the neck brace.Simultaneously, the energy is transferred again, this time from the helmet to the neck brace.
Where to from here?
We designed the Leatt Dirt bike neck brace to rest securely on your chest and back. And this is precisely where these violent and extreme forces will be dispersed to next: the much larger and less fragile muscles of your upper chest and lower back. In other words, the neck brace creates an alternative load path tore direct incoming forces away from the small, fragile bones in the neck to more robust, less vulnerable body structures in a controlled manner.
Thirdly, tominimizethe risk of collarbone or other injuries.
Leatt neck braces also minimize the risk of collarbone injuries. In fact, you are much less likely to breakyour collarbone wearing a Leatt brace than without one. This is thanks to the large collarbone cut-out that forms an integral part of the design.
The adjustable thoracic strut isalso engineered to break away when too much force is applied. This will prevent the brace itself from causing further damage around the upper-body contact zones in the event ofa crash.
To summarize:
A good Dirt bike neck brace should limit the freedom of movement of your head and neck while at the same time safely dispersing all of the energy sustained during a crash to less fragile body parts. However, it should not limit this range of motion so much that it inhibits or negatively affects your riding style. Incidentally, range and freedom of movement are some of the major concerns some riders have when itcomes to the use of a neck brace. However, any rider that’s taken the short period of time required to getused to riding with a neck brace will tell you that these types of concerns are unfounded. Riding with aneck brace will still allow more than enough range of motion. Moreover, the added riding confidence youget knowing that you are protecting your neck and spine more than makes up for any rumored “limitations”.
That’s the theory. What about real-life evidence that neck braces save lives?
Great lakes EMS, also known as Action Sports EMS, is an ambulance service that caters to the motocross industry. These selfless guys are the boots on the ground who often provide care to over 1000 riders per weekend. As far as Dirt bike related injuries go, they have probably seen it all.
Action Sports EMS recently published a study based on real-world data that they collected over a period of almost ten years.
Below are some noteworthy stats that came out of the study.
- Death due to cervical spine injury is 69%+ more likely without a neck brace.
- Critical cervical spine injury is 89% more likely without a neck brace.
- Non-critical cervical spine injury is 75% more likely without a neck brace.
- A Collarbone fracture is 45% more likely without a neck brace.
These are real-world numbers. Collected by unbiased professionals. In their own words:
“The numbers don’t lie. We hope that people see this, educate themselves on the benefits of wearing a neckbrace, and make an informed decision regarding their safety when riding their motorcycle. “
Features & Variations
Below are some industry-leading features incorporated into our range of Leatt neck braces.
- Durable foam padding increases the effectiveness of alternative load path technology and also helps control and reduce rapid brain deceleration.
- The CoreFlex rear strut works with the body’s natural movements for a more precise and comfortable fit.
- Sliding SureFit adjusters on the front and rear offer more adjustability for a perfect fit.
- An intuitive and easy-to-use release system allows thebrace to come apart in two pieces. This allows easy access in case of an emergency.
- At 1.1lbs or 497grams, the 3.5 is one of the lightest neck braces on the market.
- Exotic construction materials include a light and stiff carbon fibre design on the 6.5. and a Fibre-reinforced polyamide on the 5.5.
- The 5.5 and 6.5 offer some of the best adjustability on the market.
The perfect fitment is critical to get the best energy transference away from the fragile spinal area. For this reason, the level of adjustability offered by Leatt is just one more feature that positions our neckbraces head and shoulders above our competition.
Conclusion
As used by Leatt athletes globally, our neck braces are class leaders and the choice of champions in both Motocross and MTB. They are durable, lightweight, fully adjustable and manufactured using the most high-tech materials and processes available.
At Leatt, we are very proud to be known as the original pioneers of this piece of life-saving tech. Today we still lead the way in research and development of neck braces for the Dirt bike, Road bike, and Snow mobile industries.
We dare you to experience the Leatt difference for yourself.
Feel protected. Ride with confidence!
