And fortunately, today there are protectors for every part of the body - including the neck. But are they any good? Three neck braces put to the test.
Just two years ago, the dress code in the bike park was very much in line with BMX: T-shirt, plastic sleeves, jeans. If you wanted to be cool, you wore your protectors on a low flame and suffered like a man on the downhills. The pros of the slopestyle scene had led the way and many - including us in the FREERIDE editorial team - followed the absurd fashion. Absurd because our sport is dangerous. Ever better equipment allows ever higher speeds. As riding ability increases, so does the altitude over jumps and the drop height off drops.
Fortunately, full-face helmets have experienced a renaissance and are now standard in the park again. Whether you want to wear elbow pads or padded pants is still open to debate and perhaps also depends on your personal perception of pain. Bloody scrapes are allowed and if you are afraid of bruises, freeriding is simply the wrong sport. But the "worst case scenario", an injury to the spine, is something we all want to avoid.
In addition to the well-known and proven back protectors that protect the small of the back against impacts, there are now also a number of neck protection systems that are specifically designed to prevent injuries to the cervical spine.
We tested these three neck braces, the results can be found in the PDF download below:
- Leatt Brace "DBX Pro"
- Moveo "Moveobrace Carbon"
- Ortema "ONB Neckbracea
