So what are leg protectors?

[Itchy]

I keep reading about the attempted introduction of leg protectors on bikes , but what are they? , in my mind I'm sort of thinking they are the plastic bits that stick out on the sides of Honda C90s which are more wind sheilds than anything else, google turns up general sporting gear etc, anybody any ideas?

Ta
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[Handsome]

I always assumed it was two metal bars down the sides like enigine bars stunters use, but I'm probably wrong...
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[MarkJ]

I always thought it was some sort of piping down the side of your leg to stop them folding in ways they're not meant to in a crash, but bars on the bike seem a more logical idea

[doggone]

Basically a sort of extended fairing that went out beyond your legs and then shrouded around them so you could only get your leg out backwards.
A bike like an ST1100 might wear this sort of thing reasonably well but imagine the barn door look of it on a CBR600 or SSV650.

There was some evidence that your lower leg would be trapped and broken horribly when without them you might just slide off.
Also it seems to be quite difficult to accomodate different sized riders, these and other arguments were used successfully especially by MAG & BMF to stop them becoming legal requirements on new bikes.

[Kickstart]

Hi

They shouldn't have trapped your legs as they wouldn't have gone around the leg. Ultra wide and solid fairings designed to take the impact if you got hit from the side.

The main issue was that they had virtually no testing in the UK before Peter Bottomly started talking about them being made compulsory, and at the same time no effort was made to investigate evidence in other studies that the leg protectors would likely change the trajectory of the rider in a head on crash, increasing serious head injuries.

The TRRL produced a GPZ500 with them stuck on and showed it off to the press.

All the best

Keith
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[Grav]

I remember the damn things, bloody horrible idea.

TRRL showed off it's best design that strangely only worked at 30 degrees from head on. Every other angle of impact resulted in the dummy's leg being ripped off below the knee.

[McGee]

[Handsome]

[bazza]

<Homer Simpson>Mmm... compulsory leg protectors.</Homer Simpson>

You just know the road safety nazis are thinking along these lines:

https://www.earlymotorcycles.biz/articles5/protection/fig8.jpg
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[Tarmacsurfer]

You know it could have worked if they had managed to get the proposed BHP limit in place as well. It's like the criminal justice and public order act. It's all for our own good
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