Leather suit and knee slider question

motorkas

motorkas

Member
I picked up a barely used Held Race Evo One suit in the off season as a back up suit and had the arms and the legs shortened by Lizzy to fit. LOVE the suit (it feels incredible and gives really good range of motion - even thinking of making it my primary suit this season). Only issue I'm having right now is that the metal inserts on the knees are touching down at lean (curiously enough - it's only the right side and not the left side that's touching down - left side doesn't have a scratch on the metal but the right side is acting as part of the slider). Was curious what you guys (and ladies) would do about it. Right now, I'm thinking of a couple of things:

1) let them grind down
2) putting the woodcraft rain sliders on as they'll be higher than the knees but still low enough that I'm not touching them down prematurely
3) finding a way to put velcro higher up and moving the sliders up a little higher

How would you handle this?

Not going to lie - do love the sparks though. . .:)



Close up on what's hitting. . .

 
adotjdot

adotjdot

Control Rider
ATP/3C
Hey Kas! Sweet looking suit! I was checking out the review on STG and I am very impressed. I may consider upgrading to something like this. I like the integrated armor. Couple of questions for you.

1) Did you ride with the suit before you had it altered? I am curious to see if you had the same issue before the alteration.
2) You said you are only having a problem on one side. Does the suit seem to fit unevenly at all? Is your body position any different when you turn left? Are you opening your hips in a different way?

Based on the pics it does look like the slider is sitting pretty low on your shin, but when you look at stock photos of the suit it looks like your knee and shin align at the same place as other people who are modeling it. I would try to figure out why it is only happening on that one side and try to correct the issue from there. I would not let them grind down as you can see in the pic that the metal insert is your main point of contact. You do not want to grind that down because your knee is the next thing beneath that. You are using part of the actual knee slider so I think something is just out of alignment. I also noticed that you are using Woodcraft sliders instead of the stock ones. Woodcraft are great sliders but maybe they are not lining up where they need to be in relation to how your knee touches down.

Do you happen to have any film footage from someone who was following you at the track while you were wearing the suit? Might help to identify why the slider is out of position.

And yes, sparks are cool!! ;-) I was watching the WSS race last week and watching the sparks coming off of Gino Rea's elbow was just sick!!
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
The uneven wear seems that you have a different body position when leaning one way versus the other. If you wanted to change your position, it looks like if you rotated your body more, possibly by getting your left cheek further right on right turns, this is going to force you to rotate your right leg forward, making the puck contact patch more centered, rather then the leading edge. You could also move your right foot further out on the peg, if you can, as this would have an effect of changing the angle your lower leg meets the ground, possibly touching the puck first. Changing body position is not easy and may make you less comfortable, but it seems that you could solve your problem with it. (I wouldn't change body positions myself)

The newer suits use these pieces of "slick" substance at the shoulders, knees and other places to keep the leather from grabbing during a slide reducing the possibility of tumbling the rider. They can also be used for ventilation. They also, unfortunately, focus impacts in the area to that piece and the underlying body part.

You could remove the piece entirely?
You could move your puck up and forward, but your leg position is going to limit the effect this has.
You could use thicker pucks or move the puck, as in the previous suggestion, and use a thicker puck?

If it's really metal, I wouldn't just wear it down. You might catch it on something and do some damage to your leg (thinking of Landshark) or it could come off on the track or it may turn into a sharp object that gets pushed into your suit and or leg. None of which sounds good.

I am sure there are other things you can do, but that's what I got off of the top of my head.
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
Just read AJ's post and made me think. How thick are the Held pucks? IF they are much thicker, then your issue may be as simple as that.

I can't find specs online for the thickness of the Held pucks, but they do look thicker.

I member my Teknic sliders were 2 to 2.5 times thicker than the woodcraft and I did scrap my knee leather a few times when I made the switch. I repositioned the slider an solved the issue, though I had more adjustment due to my velcro patch going further up my leg.
 
adotjdot

adotjdot

Control Rider
ATP/3C
I just took a look at my Taichi's and my velcro patch and puck sit way higher and more towards the from of the knee and shin. I can almost get the top of the puck lined up to my knee cap if I wanted to. I do not have metal inserts like the Held suit though. Maybe the Held is just designed like this.
 
Slow Steve

Slow Steve

I hate pushups.
Control Rider
The Velcro patches look low on the son compared to my A* suit. Maybe try the thicker puck and move it up as high/close to your knee as possible.
 
borislav

borislav

Control Rider
If you foot/shin while sitting on the EDGE of the foot peg are in L shape (not extended) try to extend it (make foot/shin as straight as possible)
With this you will gain easy 7-10 inches in height which can be the difference in scraping slider or other part!
Try this while sitting on the chair and you'll see how much height you gain.
I hope it is as simple as this!
 
motorkas

motorkas

Member
AJ and Kev (and to a lesser extent Vinny:D)

I think you guys are on to something with my body position of one side verses the other. The funny thing is that I just take it for granted that my right side is going to be better considering most of the tracks we ride are right hand focused but Jennings is the total opposite with much more lefts than rights and since this was the first time in months being on a bike and those were taken on the last day, I had way more practice on the left than right (I personally think I look a little crossed up in the sparks pic.

Here are another right hand shot (unfortunately they were with my other suit but you can still see body position) and one with a left hand turn with the Held suit on.





AJ - I never rode with the suit before I got it altered (no way I could get my gloves around it unless I shortened the sleeves). I absolutely love it besides what's mentioned above - it's noticably lighter than my Pilot suit and there's many more stretch panels to boot. It was only worn for three sessions by the previous owner so it's not even broken in and it already feels FANTASTIC!!!!! Funny thing is, since I already wear a back protector and chest protector, I took all the integrated armor out of it but its a super cool feature to the suit. I agree with you that the sliders may be the culprit (along with not opening up my hips fully) - I like the woodcraft sliders because they last for ever and since they have less material, they don't touch down early. Funny thing is, as Kev was saying, I have an extra set of Teknic sliders and I just put those on only on the right side to see if that will help and if not, I'll go straight to the woodcraft double thick sliders for that side.

Unfortunately the only footage there is of me is from a certain Yellow R6 and I wasn't wearing the suit (and it's HIGHLY UNFLATTERING TO ME:D)

KEV - you're comments about it turning into a piece of shrapnel is all I needed to stop the "grinding it down" solution in my mind. The Held pucks are definitely thick and shaped unusually but I hated the feel of them. . .

Vin - still coming for you:D

Steve - definitely going to be trying that!!!!!
 
motorkas

motorkas

Member
borislav said:
If you foot/shin while sitting on the EDGE of the foot peg are in L shape (not extended) try to extend it (make foot/shin as straight as possible)
With this you will gain easy 7-10 inches in height which can be the difference in scraping slider or other part!
Try this while sitting on the chair and you'll see how much height you gain.
I hope it is as simple as this!
Click to expand...

Thanks brother BO!!!!!!!!!!! (retired my ass:D)
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
I can see a noticeable difference in your body position between the 2 photos you have. That could be for many reasons though. Looking further ahead due to corner exit shape, one could be mid corner the other closer to exit... and so on. I think the most telling is the photo with Dave. It's very apparent that your puck is much lower and more centered on your shin than Daves or #78 in the background.
 
D-Zum

D-Zum

My 13 year old is faster than your President
I'm impressed we have photographic evidence Sanders dusts off his R6 and rides it once in a while. I know it was getting lonely.
 
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