Bike Trader

NEXT year the CE standard for armour in motorcycle clothing changes.

It means that any of the foam or plastic armour around the hips, knees, shoulders and elbows must meet a minimum level of performance.

Many of the big clothing makers are currently looking at how they will achieve these standards but the first to do so is a British company called D30.

D30 is actually the name of the magic, orange material which stiffens and spreads the load when it's subjected to a force or sudden impact. It also sucks up the long, hard scrapes that we might find ourselves unlucky enough to get into if we come off our motorcycle giving us the reassurance that our arms and legs won’t end up grazed through to the bone.

D30 has called this new range of protection XERGO and there is an individual item (all ergonomically shaped) to protect the shoulder, the knee, the elbow and the hip. XERGO is not only the first to meet the new CE standard, but it’s also the first to exceed the highest performance level of the standard (which is called Level 2).

Furygan is so impressed with the protection that it has chosen to put XERGO in all its leathers from now on and many other clothing makers are expected to follow Furygan’s lead. Companies such as Rukka, Held, Hyod and Klim already use existing D30 protection so this new XERGO range is an exciting prospect.

But even better is that we can also buy individual items for the elbow, knee, shoulder and hip to replace the armour in our existing clothing.

Still not understanding? Check out this short video:

The new CE standard explained
There will now be two performance levels in the proposed new standard.  The Level 1 pass means less than 35kN of force is transmitted in all tests claimed; whilst a Level 2 pass means less than 20kN of force is transmitted in all tests claimed.  There’s now also a mandatory ‘wet’ test (because we ride in the rain too and that can affect how impact protection works when smashing against a wet road) and both Level 1 and Level 2 now have a ‘hot’ (40°c) and a ‘cold’ (-10°c) test to make sure that the armour will work as it should when we’re riding in extreme heat and in extreme cold temperatures. 

See Furygan’s 2012 clothing range here. We like the Spyder and the Vince jackets.

And if we also value our technology as well as our limbs, we can get a protective case made of D30 for our mobile phone. Tech21 have strengthened their iBand product with a strip of D3O.

By Daniel Tye, Bike Trader Editor