First off I’d like to point out I’m no Mikefule, so this write-up won’t be beautifully written with eloquent descriptions and big words. It will however contain as many pictures as I can possibly fit in one write up to go along with my poor explanations. I started this idea when I decided that the current leg armor on the market just didn’t work well for me. I liked the idea of full 360 degree protection and the only armor that even came close to that was Kh armor which had knee protection that I felt was over-kill especially for 65USD. I went out looking for materials to make my leg armor from. Inspired by some of the neoprene wraps with plastic plates in it I went and picked up 4 pack of 4 roll-up cutting boards for camping and such. I figured they had enough flex in them to be comfortable and still could be stiff enough if stacked together to protect my shins and calves. I found some at Bed Bath and Beyond for 5USD each. I bought 4 packs of them which is enough to make 2 pair of leg armor. Down the road a few miles at Home Depot I bought 2 rolls of Duct tape for around 2USD each. A few weeks later went to a local fabric store and picked up a yard of Duck canvas in black for about 7USD and about a yard of 2inch wide velcro which cost about 6.75USD
I marked out one inch increments across
Then drew in lines every two inches connecting to marks opposite the starting points
After I got all the lines drawn in I cut the plates out along the black lines
Then repeated those steps on all the needed parts
Out comes the duct tape to make the ‘armor plates’
Each armor plate is made of 4 slices. I was a little strange and made each one use only one of each color
after preparing each armor plate I joined them together temporarily with scotch tape to test the fit
I noticed that there was a gap in the back and decided that I could use a smaller triangle chunk as a wedge to lengthen the total protection area. I taped one up and tested it. Turns out I was right and that worked really well. Full protection all the way around
I took the finished chunks of ‘armor plating’ to the fabric, laid them out and traced around them with a chalk pencil.
Sew along all the white lines except the top and depending on which leg you are working on either the left-most three or the right-most three lines so you can attach the soft side of the velcro and still fit the armor in the sleeves.
Slide the armor plates into the sleeves and attach the velcro(I don’t have pictures of attaching the soft side or hard side velcro but will describe the attachment of the hard side later)
Slide the remaining plates into the sleeves and sew up the top edge.
To attach the hard side of the velcro take a length of scrap double the width of the velcro to make an extension. Sew the velcro to the extension and sew the extension to the edge of the whole piece so that when you fold the armor around your leg the soft side attaches to the hard side of the velcro. The armor is now ready to made to look pretty and test fitted.
Use whatever you want to finish the edges I used double fold extra wide bias tape and a zigzag stitch around all edges except the outside edge of the hard velcro because my grandma’s sewing machines were having issues with the canvas layers and velcro.
Repeat the sewing and armor making process for the other leg and you’re all done. They compact nice and easy and protect pretty dang well so far. I’ll be taking them out for a more serious first ride next weekend but so far they are very comfortable and have saved my pants and legs a few times. i wear mine over my pants to keep them intact but they fit just as well under my pants.
im gonna make some, but i dont got a sewing machine… so its gonna take a while. but every so often ill get a blister on my knee from my 661 4x4s and these would be perfect for takin a break from those.
they look perfect, just like something from 661 or something.
Went on a couple rides with them and they are fairly comfortable. In the next version(once these get torn up from riding) I’ll be tapering the tops of each armor slat and adding either elastic or a drawstring at the top to provide a better fit. Right now when I ride there is about a half inch of space between the top of the armor and my calf so they tend to feel a little stiff if I squat too far down on a higher hop. They work GREAT though besides that and have saved my shins and calves a few times the last few rides.
An update about the performance of the leg armor. It works awesomely although I do need to trim the tops of the panels still to contour to my calf better. Right now it sorta flops around and jabs into my backs of my knees if I do any serious tucking or foot on crown tricks.
There’s the facebook album that has all the pictures from the write-up. There are photos of the armor on my legs before they were completely finished near the bottom of the page where I was test fitting them. I’ll attach some photos of my wearing the armor later today.
Very neat.