Updated my riding gear with a Safetech back armour: First impressions

I left the EVA Foam Pad inside while installing it to keep it secure, hardly feel it while wearing the jacket because the EVA foam pad is ridiculously thin anyway

BHPian WhiskeyTangoFox recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Gear Update: Back Protector

Hey Folks, I use a Royal Enfield Explorer v3 jacket, which I think is great VFM, with the exception of two glaring disadvantages. One, there's no Back Armour per se, just a thin EVA Foam Pad and two, there isn't a provision for Chest Armour. However, you do get an integrated and removable thermal liner and rain liner included, which does put it at par with its competitors from the likes of if you do decide to purchase it with liners.

To illustrate;

• RE Explorer V3 - Jacket w L2 Elbow, Shoulder Armour, EVA Back, Rain Liner and Thermal Liner - Rs 8950 (If you Add an L2 Knox Back Armour from RE It'll come up to Rs 11,750)
• Rynox Tornado Pro 4 - Jacket w L2 Everything including Chest - Rs 8950 (With the Rain Liner and Thermal Liner it'll come up to Rs 11940)
• Viaterra Miller - Jacket w L2 Everything including Chest - Rs 8000 (With the Rain and Thermal Liner it'll come up to 11900)

This means that they are all in the same ballpark. If you were to choose between these three now, I would recommend the Rynox or the Viaterra due to the added protection, but the tornado wasn't available anywhere when I was purchasing mine, and the miller is a very recently launched product. Although, I must say I don't regret my purchase and am pretty happy with the Jacket.

The jacket has been great so far, and I have used it for all rides documented on this thread, with the exception of the Kunigal Ride, which was before I purchased it. It has been great in terms of comfort, and the dual zip mechanism is an absolute boon when it gets hot.

I was planning on getting the Knox L2 back armour initially, which has a fairly steep price of 2800Rs. However, I stumbled on the Safetech Viscoflex Armour, which is the same armour used for the Back, on the Rynox Tornado Pro 4. Hence I picked one up from the Mototech Store online. Very reasonably priced at Rs 1500.

I picked up a Size M for my Size L jacket (slightly smaller, doesn't really move around too much, but I would recommend you get the Size L protector). I left the EVA Foam Pad inside while installing it to keep it secure, hardly feel it while wearing the jacket because the EVA foam pad is ridiculously thin anyway:

The Armour is CE Level 2 Certified (EN1621-2:2014).

Size comparo between the armour and the foam pad.

The jacket isn't too heavy altogether. With All the armour, EVA Foam Pad and the thermal Liner, it weighs just 2.6 Kgs which is totally fine IMO. I'm yet to go on a ride with this installed, but I'm pretty sure it'll be fine.

That's all for today folks, cheers!

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