After researching some of the different styles of body armor we decided on the Rockgardn Flak Jacket. Rockgardn's exposure into the dirtbike market is relatively new but they have already grown to be fairly popular and have great reviews with downhill mountain bikers. The Flak Jacket was first introduced back in 2002 and has had almost two years of real-world extreme sport consumer testing. With moisture-wicking Lycra and perforated 10mm soft EVA padding the Flak Jacket is designed to keep you cool. Chest and rib protection comes in the form of nylon-covered, hard EVA chest plates, while the back and spine protection is a wide, impact-dispersing, articulated back slider. There are also built-in shoulder caps & upper arm pads, elbow & forearm guards and even a built in kidney belt with a storage pocket.

While putting the Flak Jacket on and zipping up the front zipper it becomes clear just how comfortable the Jacket is. Rockgardn advertises you can wear the armor right against your skin with no undershirt. Having tested the armor for the last few months I can attest to not needing an undershirt. In fact, the material vents so well I think an undershirt would restrict the moisture wicking effect of the Lycra.

The one negative I found when comparing the Flak Jacket against a normal chest protector is that the Flak Jacket can get hot if you're stopped in direct sunlight without any airflow. The minute you start riding however things cool down very quickly and wearing a vented jersey greatly helps with this issue even more.

Riding with the body armor has a different feeling that riding with a normal chest protector. Wearing the armor gives you a better feeling of safety, and unlike normal elbow guards, the guards built into the Flak Jacket actually stay in place. Your firsttime wearing the armor you might feel a little bulky after putting on your jersey but looking into a mirror reveals it really isn't that bad after all. In fact, when you get focused on riding it is easy to forget you even have the armor on at all. Wearing a large hydration pack with tools and a video camera was much easier with the Flak Jacket that with the traditional chest protector I usually wear. The armor stayed in place and didn't ride up at all like usually happens with that much weight on my back.

Ok, so by now your thinking this sounds all fine and dandy but how well does it really protect you? Well don't you worry - we had several opportunities to put the Flak Jacket to the test. First up was the shoulder and arm protection test on the rocky single-track trails of Kennedy Meadows in Southern California. Falling into a tree for support while negotiating a tight switch back allowed us to utilize the shoulder and bicep protection. Not only did we successfully make the hairpin, but also we didn't feel a thing and even avoided hitting the ground or going off the trail. A washout in a sandy rutted corner also gave us an opportunity to make sure the elbow guards stayed in place, check.

For the forearm test, and particularly for the impact test, we knew needed to step it up

a notch to prove this Flak Jacket isn't all talk. We decided the 14 mile double-black diamond Snowy trail in Southern California would be a perfect option. Snowy is really only "somewhat nasty" and VERY tiring for about 5 miles when dropping into the canyon and climbing through the rocks going up on the other side. In case the testing didn't go well I brought along two Marines, since their motto is never leave someone behind I figured I had my bases covered. The elbow and forearm protection quickly tested positive after a front end wash-out in a rock section left me reaching out to break my fall. With that tested all that was left was the real deal, the impact test.

What better way to do an impact test that to go head to head with a competing magazine rider! For your viewing pleasure I made sure to capture the impact test on helmet cam. After coming to the perfect blind corner, the test was on. While viewing the video clip please note how complete the test is, from the initial impact to the drop and roll technique to test out all of the available protection. The results speak for themselves, note how quickly I am able to snap to my feet and check on the rider still on the ground wearing the "standard" chest protector. In all seriousness this impact test was obviously not planned and luckily neither of us was hurt. I did however ride away with a new appreciation for blind corners.

http://www.rockgardn.com/