Still indecisive on Armour.
As for the BPW Pics:
The less terrible one:
http://www.airshotz.co.uk/p480205056/h4b8571ff#h4b8571ff
The very terrible one: (with my "oh **** I've got far too much air" face
)
http://www.airshotz.co.uk/p480205056/h4b85b2fb#h4b85b2fb
Must invest in a full face helmet so no-one can see the stupid faces I pull...
The gurn. You haz it!
Regarding armour, as Cow said it's mostly there for skin protection and to stop rocks and trees from taking lumps out of your flesh. It a big crash, it's more about how loose you are and how you get rid of the energy when you crash.
For trail riding, I usually just ride in plastic fronted knee-shin pads, as they keep my legs warm and safe from pedal rash. If it's a bit gnarlier, I've some foam elbow pads which often go on, but haven't taken a hit yet so I can't say how much use they are.
For DH, I wear a 661 suit with shoulder pads and full face lid, along with the same knee pads and plastic elbow pads. I've come off a couple of times (may be a little lie, Innerleithen DH is scary!) and because I've learned *how* to crash I've never really had any injuries, you just bounce when you're all armoured up!
Hard to give any advice when just writing about it, but try some knee/shin armour, don't go too big air until you're confident on smaller stuff, and when you do crash on normal trails try to be as loose as possible and roll/slide rather than trying to stop yourself moving.
A friend got back into MTBing after a 10 year gap, bought a sweet DH rig, binned it on his first go on the local 4X track and broke both his arms. We told him he needed to ride more first, but he didn't listen.
![[TFU] Thegoon84](/styles/overclockers/avatars/6.png){kind=avatar}
