CRASH TESTED GEAR (DOH!!)

it's unfortunate that we go down at the track or street, but i happens. but im curious as to see how well your gear held up after a get-off. in light of Dangerdog's accident, and his Spidi Pentas just exploded while hand surfing, this would be a VERY helpful resource for the board. so here's the format:


Brand/Model:
How did you fall?:
Damage (pics or gtfo):
Overall rating (how well do you think they held up in the situation?):
Other comments:


__________________________________________________


Spidi JP3 Hydropak


How did you fall?: 50+ mph lowside in turn 1 @ Buttonwillow CW Config. greedy on the throttle.
Damage: ended up sliding into the dirt. rashed up hip and left buttcheek. stitching burst on the white paneling.



left elbow had a dime size hole and repatched.


Overall rating: due to the cosmetic paneling on the rear quarters of the booty section, im not surprised the stiching burst and a section of the grey stripe tore completely off. however, i question the quality of the suit from the hole that was made from sliding on the elbow to make a dime size hole. spidi is suppose to be a top-notched leather company and for it to fail easily like that makes me scratch my head.

Other comments: ive seen other brands hold up better in a similar crash

Puma 1000 boots
How did you fall?: 50+ mph lowside in turn 1 @ Buttonwillow CW Config. greedy on the throttle.
Damage: purely cosmetic damage. rashed up buckle, but still functional.




Overall rating: these boots are built like a tank. held up EXCELLENT! i still continue to wear these, but mostly as a backup. I would definitely purchase another pair.

Other comments: not the easiest boot to get in and out of, but they offer a ton of protection and dont have to deal with an inner zipper design like SIDI or TCX that might burst, due to rubbing on the rearset.

Excellent idea, Rene. I'll have to post the results from my recent lowside soon. The short of it: to AStars boots, gloves and suit.

Excellent thread Rene.

It's most certainly tough picking out gear you think you can trust. Safety gear companies change their manufacturing facilities, materials and practices, and all of the sudden a product that was once considered top notch can turn to complete crap in some cases. It's even tougher when you dont have the scratch to toss down on the best possible thing you can buy to protect yourself.

I'm tryin to ride the white horse on the Spidi Penta issue, as I really wish nobody the agony of a burning hot bloody hand with bits of the track ground into it while strapped to a flatboard for an hour and a half in the ER before anyone comes by.

BTW, sorry dood if I got you wonderin about your gear a bit.

For those who havent seen the thread in the Product Testing and Review section here it is...

Spidi Pentas and My Hand, Post-Wreck

Brand/Model: Spidi Penta Gloves

How did you fall?: 100+ MPH highside, with minimal drag on left hand, right hand drug in dirt.
Damage (pics or gtfo): See link above, beginning and current end of thread for condition of both gloves.



After further investigation of the right glove, the stitching was beginning to fail on it as well. So summed up, I've got a leather failure on one glove and a stitching failure on the other.


Overall rating (how well do you think they held up in the situation?): -10, & another WSMC buddy had his come apart in a T9 spill at the big track a couple months ago.
Other comments: Extremely poor customer service so far, multiple emails ignored. Stepping up our attack game at the moment to see if I can get some answers, or at least a "Go fuck yourself," would be better than I got now.

little depressed about posting this one, being that this suit was only 2 weeks old when i went down.

Spidi R-Course Wind Pro


How did you fall?: tucked the front going into turn 16 @ Auto Club Spdway at about 60ish mph. Rolling tumble into paved run-off.

Damage: don't remember my shoulder hitting the pavement much, but apparently it took the brunt of the damage.


mostly cosmetic damage on the arms and elbow areas.



Overall rating: again, ive seen other brands hold up better than this. granted the perforation aided in the shoulder burst, but COME ON!! this is below average performance for a top tier suit.

Other comments: maybe its a good thing the distribution to the U.S. went down the tank.

Damn Dangerdog,

I've been the one giving the Spidi Penta's rave reviews for years now. I own 2 sets and have multiple crashes in both of them, some crashes more than 100mph, and I'm still using them to this day. They get scrutineered over here to the 9th degree before every race weekend to! Most recent crash was when my forks snapped at Mallory Park and I went flipping over the front of the bike sliding on my hands for a ways at around 60-75 mph.

Just blows my mind that your gloves did that! I haven't ever heard of this happening with another set of Penta's, anywhere in the world!!!

^Yeah which is why I bought them originally, cuz I heard multiple accounts with the same types of reviews for some time. Always wanted em, could never find them in stock to try on before I bought em considering I was going to drop that kind of dough on em. Finally found them @ the Long Beach Show and nailed em.

Now I'm starting to hear about other people's Pentas coming apart, (Alan Llenaldo going into T9 Big track crash in WSMC practice,) and seeing considerable damage on Rene's suits given the nature of his two getoffs, and it has me wondering if Spidi's material & build quality may be slipping on their new products...

Originally Posted by DangerDog

^Yeah which is why I bought them originally, cuz I heard multiple accounts with the same types of reviews for some time. Always wanted em, could never find them in stock to try on before I bought em considering I was going to drop that kind of dough on em. Finally found them @ the Long Beach Show and nailed em.

Now I'm starting to hear about other people's Pentas coming apart, (Alan Llenaldo going into T9 Big track crash in WSMC practice,) and seeing considerable damage on Rene's suits given the nature of his two getoffs, and it has me wondering if Spidi's material & build quality may be slipping on their new products...

hmmm, wondering if Spidi has done the same thing as Dainese and moved their manufacturing to southeast Asia. When Dainese did that with their gloves, their quality went down.
If this seems to be a recurring theme of Spidi Penta's failing in crashes, I may have to look for new gloves when my two pair need to be replaced. This sucks and I'm really sorry to hear about your gloves failing on you and causing the injury!

Thanks Lloyd, much appreciated. My guess is something along those lines, switching mfg'ing locations & material quality taking a hit as a result of new suppliers using cheaper stuff, but of course that's just a guess at this point.

So far, the verdict is I need to pick up a set of Held Phantoms or the new Held Titan.