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Abrasion Testing Kevlar

I think this is an interesting thread...maybe you should contact Wayne at motoport and see if he will volunteer some scraps to you.

I like the kevlar because it has less variability than leather. leather can be affected by water, the animal it was taken from etc where kevlar becomes a more "repeatable" material because you can control what goes into it. one other note about the motoport material is that it is not JUST kevlar. the motoport website even points out that kevlar itself is not great for abrasion resistance...it has to be woven with other materials which motport does for their stuff.

the other piece to the motoport stuff is the seam strength....supposed to be much stronger than leather. there have been posts of expensive dainese and alpinestars suits coming apart at seams even though the leather was intact. point being that if you are going to test materials, there should be a seam involved that is sewn the way the manufacturer does it.

also, you should cycle the materials with water to simulate being wet (rain) and then retest.

food for thought for when/if you do this.
 
speciakl said:
I think this is an interesting thread...maybe you should contact Wayne at motoport and see if he will volunteer some scraps to you.

I like the kevlar because it has less variability than leather. leather can be affected by water, the animal it was taken from etc where kevlar becomes a more "repeatable" material because you can control what goes into it. one other note about the motoport material is that it is not JUST kevlar. the motoport website even points out that kevlar itself is not great for abrasion resistance...it has to be woven with other materials which motport does for their stuff.

the other piece to the motoport stuff is the seam strength....supposed to be much stronger than leather. there have been posts of expensive dainese and alpinestars suits coming apart at seams even though the leather was intact. point being that if you are going to test materials, there should be a seam involved that is sewn the way the manufacturer does it.

also, you should cycle the materials with water to simulate being wet (rain) and then retest.

food for thought for when/if you do this.
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you're kidding yourself if you think anything is an adequate substitute for plain ole leather. yes kangaroo is leather.
 
Data is exactly what he is trying to get. Rather than a million posts about how great leather is.
 
Just wrap some leather around the sole of one shoe, and kevlar around the sole of the other. Get up to speed, and drag your feet for a second. See how they hold up.
 
Brown81 said:
Data is exactly what he is trying to get. Rather than a million posts about how great leather is.
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no shit. I said POST not THREAD. read 2 posts above that about my suggestions on how to get something more complete. all posts in this thread are opinions
 
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Oh god not this crap again. Look, there was a thread about a year or two ago on adv rider where people (License2Ill in particular) called out the motorport guy. This turned into a 20 page post that made the motorport guy look like a complete idiot and was subequently taken down. I got the feeling that the motorport guy didn't really know what he was talking about and couldn't back up the redicious claims he made.

Lots of people make gear out of synthetic fibers (aerostich for one). But most of these vendors will tell you that their gear isn't comparable to leather. However most street crash are fairly low speed so the fact that a stich suit might not stand up to leathers isn't so much as a issue.

In my view, one of the biggest problems I see with synthetic suits is that they melt (in a crash). So it's important that you wear layers between the suit and your skin so that the suit doesn't melt into your skin. Furthermore since synthetic materials are weaker than leather you need more layers of it. Both of these issues are not addressed in mesh jackets where you have less material in the suit and you are trying to wear fewer layers cause it's hot.
 
speciakl said:
I think this is an interesting thread...maybe you should contact Wayne at motoport and see if he will volunteer some scraps to you.

I like the Kevlar because it has less variability than leather. leather can be affected by water, the animal it was taken from etc where Kevlar becomes a more "repeatable" material because you can control what goes into it. one other note about the motoport material is that it is not JUST Kevlar. the motoport website even points out that Kevlar itself is not great for abrasion resistance...it has to be woven with other materials which motport does for their stuff.

the other piece to the motoport stuff is the seam strength....supposed to be much stronger than leather. there have been posts of expensive dainese and alpinestars suits coming apart at seams even though the leather was intact. point being that if you are going to test materials, there should be a seam involved that is sewn the way the manufacturer does it.

also, you should cycle the materials with water to simulate being wet (rain) and then retest.

food for thought for when/if you do this.
Click to expand...

Who ever knows Wayne:

Ask him to donate four full suits to three volunteers on BARF. Have the suits worn by the three daily riders who volunteer for 6 months.

One set will be kept as a control.

Then we figure out a way to do some drag testing, including one suit in a wet condition and two used old leather suits in good shape. Injuries are what I'm concerned with.

We videotape it and put it on youtube if the stuff really works to prevent injuries.:thumbup

It's not important with how well the Kevlar holds up, it's what happens to the layer below it. I'll go look at the motoport site to see what it is blended with their suits.

If it's anything that can melt into your skin.:thumbdown

Now if it was a Kevlar/nomex blend like Advanced, by Southern Mills, which is water repellent (I'd like to see the data on that fabric)- it may hold up well. Dupont makes a Kevlar/nomex blend called Nomex on demand, when the fabric is heated, it is supposed to expand:nerd
 
I think the only textiles I would trust on the level I do leathers are ones like Dainese Dstone materials that heat up and harden during a slide which make them even more durable/protective during a crash then leathers. Not a whole lot of offerings with type of material tho'. I think Rukka offers one too.

On that note I would still prefer textiles over nothing.
 
A scientific test would be to weight the kevlar mesh and drag it along a belt sander. Repeat with leather and compare the results.

The amount pressure on the material and the surface it's dragged along will have a significant impact on how well it protects. The way the fabric is fit can also have a huge impact - synthetics are often loose fit, where textiles are supposed to be a tight cut.
 
wayne talks about the fact that his stuff does not have any plastic in it that could melt in your skin. This, besides the abrasion resistance and seam strength is what separates his kevlar stuff from other textiles.

I really like the belt sander idea if you can apply enough pressure to it to actually simulate the weight someone would apply crashing (force) and sliding. if only we could get some samples with seams from people.
 
speciakl said:
wayne talks about the fact that his stuff does not have any plastic in it that could melt in your skin. This, besides the abrasion resistance and seam strength is what separates his kevlar stuff from other textiles.

I really like the belt sander idea if you can apply enough pressure to it to actually simulate the weight someone would apply crashing (force) and sliding. if only we could get some samples with seams from people.
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Friction is friction. You can do it with a sander or get a fat guy to fall off a bike onto pavement, and it might abrade at the same rate or it might not. There's not an easy way to control for the huge number of variables, so you may as well just do a simple test and use a little gut feeling in the analysis portion.
 
Fat guys waves hand.. :wave

Never mind.. I am not fat enough for the test :twofinger

:smoking
 
ThomD said:
Thanks for the not very helpful reply. I'm looking to actually test the material (without crashing). If you can point me to a report of a crash from somebody wearing this gear (not the <sarcasm> very highly regarded </sarcasm> Joe Rocket), that would be helpful too.
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It does not matter what it is made of. Mesh allows the asphalt to abrade your skin. But you are different, so it won't happen to you.:rofl
 
afm199 said:
It does not matter what it is made of. Mesh allows the asphalt to abrade your skin. But you are different, so it won't happen to you.:rofl
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You do realize motoport "mesh" is very different then the usual mesh jacket you see around right?
 
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