I dont believe any race suit has a guarantee that states any rider who wears the suit will never be injured. Its the same with hard hats at work. A brick falling from a height is still gonna hurt regardless of hat and will possibly kill you with or without wearing it (more likely if not). The reason suits are what they are currently is that lessons have been learnt from previous incidents and experience. Theres just way too many variables for a racer wearing a suit and failures can occur for a myriad of reasons. At best all a manufacturer can do is learn and adapt to make it as best as they can. The zip failing of FQ is just one of those random variables where I suspect the contact with the rear tyre pulled it apart. The best a suit can do is offer as much protection as is reasonable whilst maintaining rider comfort and movement. To expect more is frankly niaive at best and disingenuous at worst. Then we have the instances of cheaper vs more expensive. Some offer better protection at a cost. You buy the best you can afford generally. But if you chose the less expensive option because thats all you could afford and had an injury wearing it, would the maker be liable or would you be liable? Sorry XH, but your 'claim' idea is nuts. The net result is that manufacturers would stop making them. My new converse gave me a blister, I'm gonna claim.
The point i was making if the zip came away at the stitching because of poor workmanship without another third party coming into play, that's all. Perhaps we should all rollover and have our tummy rubbed for an easy life.
I think your fancy footwear is a unfair comparison compared to a full race leather suit used on a race circuit, they've a care of duty whatever they manufacture and it should be fit for purpose in my opinion, but i do understand yours and other peoples views on this matter.
Even if what you’re saying is true he’s sponsored by those manufacturers I’m not sure it would be a wise decision for FB to prosecute a claim against his racewear providers. It’s hardly like he received life changing injuries and as stated previously he has form for not riding fully zipped up.
Its 'Duty of Care'. Hopefully we shall soon have an XH 'Approved Opinion' sticker/label on all protective equipment. Your understanding does not exclude you from a ribbing on the matter. After all, we're all mostly middle aged and bored and need all the distractions we can get.
Haha going to go with the old adage of if you dont have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all with that one.
Let's wash this one down with one or two glasses of wine for peace & quiet, i'm happy for the XH Approved tag, but as along as they sign a disclaimer.
Here's the video.... As you can see he hits the back of Marquez's bike, falls off, then his own bike runs him over. Airbags would have deployed, lots of G-force and inertia. I think the zip actually broke not the stitching, and he lost his chest protector, which I am going to assume was probably cause by one of his own wheels spinning against the area in question, and probably whipped his chest protector out also. If anything I'd say his leathers surpassed what they were designed for, and I'm sure no manufacturer could anticipate this kind of accident/circumstances when product testing.
Thank you, i fully understand now, Alpinestars have announced it was the zipper that let go and will not let it happen again.
My gosh, all this over a bloody leather failure... the point people are missing, is that he doesn't wear ANYTHING underneath his leathers, I think actually it's weirdly a french thing, as all the french riders were like it, Sylvan didn't used to, DePuniet never did and Fabio doesn't, maybe just a co-incidence... If he's been wearing 'something' maybe a technical baselayer, it wouldn't have survived a nano second of tarmac contact but would have stopped gravel rash etc from stones. Personally I think they should wear somesort of technical baselayer with a very very light mesh to try to give them a tiny bit of help in the event of zip failure, let's face it though, zip failures are pretty rare.
Won’t make the slightest bit of difference. I crashed our racing moped over a month ago getting my knee down. My knee armour on my leathers moved and I got gravel rash from a skinned knee through the fabric of the leathers and an Under Armour base layer. The red mark (burn) is still there today. My crash was below 20 mph. The armour moving in my leathers pissed me right off. They were a made to measure set that clearly were not very good. They will never be worn by me on a proper track day ever again.
Don’t blame the leathers, it's not uncommon to see a knee slider rotate. Watch some of the slow mo’s of the top MotoGP/Moto3/Moto2 riders. Andy
I would at least complain, it would seem your leathers aren’t so well made? It can’t be cheap to buy a MtoM race suit that you now refuse to wear on track. Or ‘cough’ have your measurements changed so much since the manufacture.
