Riding Safe

This post is for my Aunt Sandy. She expressed great concern over Ben's safety while riding so I thought a riding gear post might perhaps ease her fears a bit. Perhaps.

Ben has on his KTM riding jersey, which is just a lightweight but very durable fabric. His pants are even more durable, with leather clad knees, reinforced back and interior hip pads (removable for washing). His riding gear is so tough, I wish they would make kids jeans out of this stuff.

He also has on a chest/back/shoulder/upper arm protector. In the morning before the race he changes into his riding clothes before we leave, but slips this on once we are at the race.

Now he is putting on a Leatt neck brace. This contraption is perfectly adjusted for him and keeps his head from whipping too far forward or backward. After seeing a kid hit a rock last year and his bike come to a dead stop while he was flung end over end, we ordered one for Ben right away. 
This advice comes from Gena, another experienced motocross mom I met last year in Seattle- Don't get a cheap one. This is one piece of equipment you do not want to skimp on.

In this shot you can see Ben's hydration pack. It's a Camelbak. I found it on clearance at a sporting goods store. 

He's also putting on his riding boots which are a heavy duty material with no give at all. It keeps his legs and feet safe while he turns, bangs through bushes and in case he falls, keeps his toesies from being crushed. He wears a thick longer riding sock under his boots, also. 

 Ben is fastening his helmet under his chin. Helmet- don't ride without one. Ever!

 The goggles strap over his helmet. While they can be hot during really warm days, I would rather he have them than have an eye poked out with a branch or from dirt being roosted at him.
Roost- dirt flung up by another rider in front of you (Ben's exact words)

 Finally Ben pulls on gloves. Gloves help protect and keep blisters from forming.

Now that he's fully geared up, it's time to ride!

Ahem, you may have remembered from yesterday's post something about him hitting a tree. 
I guess one piece of equipment I didn't show you was his helmet cam. It clips on the brim of his helmet. After a year of tinkering with the other helmet cam we got him for Christmas, we bit the bullet and bought a GoPro camera (the one you see all the awesome commercials for). And it's taken us two races to get it figured out so we were really excited to see his race from his perspective. 
We let the fans who came to visit us know which color of bike, number, and helmet color Ben was and pointed out that he had a helmet cam on. Well, Aunt Carol pointed out in the middle of the race that Ben's camera was missing. OHMYWORD!!
Thankfully, someone found it and returned it to us. (He was searching for his kid's camera and found ours instead.) 
After Ben's race we asked him about the missing camera and he said "Oh, that must have been when I hit the tree." What?!!
When we got home, Bill was able to upload the video and it turns out that that GoPro camera is one tough little camera. As it turns out, it kept recording after being knocked off and being run over five times!! Ben watched the whole video and counted. 

Bill uploaded the video to YouTube. It's thirteen minutes long, so if you have time you can watch the whole thing, otherwise if you want to see him hit the tree, jump to the end. 


Well, Aunt Sandy, I hope you feel a little better about Ben being safe. 
Now I'm off to wash everything.

For accuracy, I had assistance in writing this post from Ben.