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D30 armor - anyone here try it?

Eugene

Eugene

New member
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Location
San Francisco
Moto(s)
S1000R
I first started reading about this stuff a few years ago... this is some space age stuff (or so they claim) - soft and flexible, but hardens from a sudden impact.

They sell CE rated replacement armor made of this stuff:

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/klim-d3o-t5-evo-pro-x-kneeelbow-pads#reviews_tab

Has anyone tried it?

I'm struggling with the armor in my 1-piece right now, so I'm kind of considering this. I'm on a shorter side, and I feel like A-stars uses 1-size-fits all armor in their suits. It ends up pushing my gauntlets off and being too tight in my wrist... if I move them up they poke the back of my elbows too much. Maybe I should just take a saw to my OEM armor and chop a few inches off the elbow pieces... but this spage age armor stuff has me thinking, though.

Thoughts?
 
One of my BMW jackets has it, never crashed in that jacket so can't comment on protection, but it's the most comfortable and fitted of the armor in any of my jackets.
 
I liked it. Rock hard if it's too cold though. I mostly use forcefield armor now but I still have some D3O and similar type armor left in some of my gear. Way more comfortable than hard armor overall and makes the gear itself less bulky as a result.
 
I've been wearing forcefield religiously for awhile and it's served me well, but I'd also be interested to hear form the crashers in d30 stuff and also the the Rev'it seeflex. How'd the point of impact fair?
 
Those of you who use force field, do you wear the "shirt"? Could you wear one of them in a one piece and remove the one-piece armor/liner and just use it as the leather shell?
 
I have it in my Firstgear pants... very soft but feels like it would work in a crash... its this and forcefield for me...
 
Revzilla also sells RevIt Seeflex armor, which I prefer over the D30. It retains its flexibility in the cold, and when fitted right it's so comfortable you don't even notice it.

I've replaced the armor in several of my suits with the Seeflex stuff, it's so good- and yes, I have put it to the test and it passed perfectly well.
 
I've had forcefield lvl2 replacement armor in all my street and track clothes for the last 8 years.

Ive crash tested it in both settings. It works very well.

If d3o can deliver the same results as Forcefield lvl2 in a less bulky package.. I'd buy the d3o and sell all my forcefield stuff.
 
Eugene said:
Those of you who use force field, do you wear the "shirt"? Could you wear one of them in a one piece and remove the one-piece armor/liner and just use it as the leather shell?
Click to expand...

Yes, I did this for years, before my current leathers. With my current leathers I have them inserted.

Espionage101 said:
If d3o can deliver the same results as Forcefield lvl2 in a less bulky package.. I'd buy the d3o and sell all my forcefield stuff.
Click to expand...

x2, although, the bulk of the forcefield stuff helps my leathers fit snug, I'm afraid my leathers might be too loose with less bulky armor:laughing
 
A couple of years ago, I tried on jackets containing early D3O armor, then slammed my elbow into a brick wall with pretty decent force. D3O, despite being very thin, seemed to absorb quite a bit of the impact. Better than some of its competition, worse than others. Granted, banging your elbow into a wall is really nothing like falling off a bike at speed. Those early pieces provided noticeably less coverage than much of the competition, something I learned the hard way during my "testing". For that reason, I chose to avoid all of the early D3O stuff.

D3O has revamped and expanded their product lines since I looked at them initially. Looks like the stuff I tried is probably equivalent to the current T5 Evo X stuff. T5 Evo Pro X has the same shape as Evo X, but is 14mm thick versus 10mm. Xergo has slightly different shapes, bigger in some cases smaller in others, and is 20mm thick. If I were going to buy D3O I would avoid Evo X and focus on Evo Pro X and Xergo.

That said, if I were going to buy replacement armor I'd probably take a long, hard look at Forcefield. If I needed something less bulky, I'd look at SAS-Tec, especially their "Prestige" products. They're another molecular armor, like D30, but their shapes seem to have better coverage than D3O.
 
matty said:
x2, although, the bulk of the forcefield stuff helps my leathers fit snug, I'm afraid my leathers might be too loose with less bulky armor:laughing
Click to expand...

Just do what I did and get fat. Problem solved. (oversolved?)
 
Been riding with D3O in my Klim gear for a few years now. Yes, it's a bit stiff when it's cold but your body heat changes that pretty quickly. As to crash worthiness, who knows. I haven't crashed in it and I wouldn't have the information to speculate on it's performance to make a comment. I crashed in it and didn't get hurt means nothing.
 
I had a lowside in my Klim Badlands Pro suit which uses D3O. I'm happy with the result. Some scuffs on the suit. Enough to tear a little kevlar stitching. Lowside was fast bike just went away so I think I smacked the ground pretty good. Just a little bruising on my hip.

Come to think of it I wore that suit on the '15 LAB2V where I crashed A LOT. Pretty happy with it then too. At the end of that ride I couldn't tell the mass of distributed bruises from the totally knotted muscles. Didn't break anything or get any rash!
 
I've put the thicker D3o pads in my race suit. Crashed with them probably 3-4 times on the mini bike 20-40mph range. Worked well! Would purchase again.
 
After many years on racetracks with much bulkier(helimot, knox, etc) protection, I've been eyeballing the D3O in my new Klim stuff with suspicion and just plain old hope. What I'm reading above makes me feel a little better...
 
Yes, I bounced off the pavement nicely.
 
Have a furygan two-piece with D3O, crashed twice in it (both at very low speeds on a technical track, around 15mph) and it performed nicely. The jacket and pants held up well too.
 
is this anything like sas-tec armor?

it does stiffen up in the cold so if you ride near freezing temps that is a factor to consider.
 
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