Troy Lee Designs Body Guard 2 Review

November 15th, 2008 • Comments Review
Tags: 2008, Leatt, motocross, Review, Troy Lee Designs

A lot of riders prefer not to not wear hard plastic chest protectors because they are bulkier than foam under-protectors. However, I believe that the added roost and crash protection provided by the hard plastic shell of a traditional chest protector is worth its added bulkiness. For 2008, I choose to wear a Troy Lee Designs Body Guard 2.

Build Quality

The build quality on the TLD Body Guard 2 (BG2) is absolutely stellar. Like a lot of the TLD products I have owned, the fit and finish of the BG2 was excellent. Almost every aspect of the BG2 has been refined to near perfection. For example, the shoulder cups are removable, but even the flexible pieces underneath the hard plastic shoulder cups are refined and finished with a carbon fiber esque look to them. In addition, all of the foam pads are removable resulting in very easy cleaning. Another really nice touch is that the side buckles are large and always easy to remove. As opposed to my old Fox Airframe, the large buckles are much easier to undo and almost never get clogged with mud. Overall, everything about the BG2 is very high quality, the brace feels very solid both on your body and in your hand.

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Leatt Moto-GPX Club Brace Review

November 11th, 2008 • Comments Review
Tags: 2008, Aplinestars, EVS, Leatt, motocross, neck brace, protection, Review, Troy Lee Designs

The Leatt Moto-GPX Club and its more expensive brother, the “Sport,” have completely revolutionized the neck protection market.

For years, the most advanced neck protection available was foam neck donuts with little to no scientific credence. In the past few years, however, as neck injuries have risen, so has the level of neck protection available. The Leatt Brace essentially created the advanced neck brace market, and has been followed by many “copies” including one from Alpinestars and EVS. However, the Leatt Moto-GPX Club is by far the most popular, and one of the most affordable braces on the market, and this is why I choose it as my neck protection for 2008.

Build Quality

Overall, the build quality of the Club is pretty good. The brace feels very solid in the hand, and does not feel cheaply made at all. The higher end model, the Sport features carbon fiber segments of the brace which save about 70 grams (according to the Leatt-Brace website), but the added price is not worth the minimal savings, in my opinion. Another nice feature of the Leatt is the removable pads. This makes cleaning a snap after mud races. The pads can be thrown in the wash and the hard plastic sections washed with hot soapy water. However, I did find a problem with this method. When using water, the glue holding the velcro sections onto the hard plastic parts of the brace seemed to disintegrate. I have not heard of other reports of this problem, but it definitely makes me leery of cleaning the brace regularly. I hope that in the future the Leatt company will upgrade to higher quality glue in order to prevent this from happening in the future.

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