LEATT BRACE

PRICE: Club: $395; Sport: $595; Pro: $995

SIZES: Small and medium

MOTOCROSS.COM RATING:10

CONTACT:800/691-3314 or visit www.leatt-brace.com

Motocross is a dangerous sport, so why not take every precaution nessecary to ensure your safety? As the bikes have evolved, so has the speed ad difficult of the tracks, and in today’s world of big jumps and fast bikes, wearing the revolutionary Leatt neck brace is probably one of the smartest decisions anyone can make.

Made from a combination of carbon fiber/reinforced nylon and Kevlar, the Leatt Brace is designed to protect from five different types of neck injuries—Hyperflexion, hyperextension, lateral hyperflexion, axial loading, and posterior hypertranslation. In layman’s terms, this brace is made to keep your neck from going forward, backwards, and side to side in the event of a crash. It also keeps it from being compressed if you happen to go over the bars and land like a lawn dart in the dirt. The Leatt Brace is fully adjustable and can be custom fitted for each individual rider. It also comes in three different models. The Club version is made fully from glass-reinforced nylon; the Sport is a combination of nylon and carbon fiber, while the Pro model is made fully from carbon fiber.

Like we said, with motocross, why not take every opportunity you can to be safe? We’ve been riding in the Leatt Brace for a few months now, and to be honest, we really don’t want to ride without it on anymore. Even though we haven’t had the unfortunate opportunity of testing the effectiveness of it, the piece of mind that we get from having it on makes a world of difference. We’ve heard stories of the Leatt Brace saving people, and we believe it. The strength and durability of the brace is second to none, and while riding we rarely ever notice that it’s on. The brace can be worn with or without a chest protector, however, if you choose to wear a chest protector, you usually have to cut the shoulder pads and front and back panels to make it fit. Thankfully, though, Leatt took the guesswork out of it as they included a handy template to make the cuts with. There is also a chest protector available from HRP that is made to easily fit around the brace.

RATING

Even though we haven’t really had an instance—knock on wood—where we have needed the Leatt Brace, we still gave it a perfect 10 for the simple fact that investing in this brace is probably one of the smartest decisions you can make when it comes to motocross. We can’t ride without one on anymore, and we don’t believe anyone else out there should either.