XSportsProtective is all about safety. We sell the gear that keeps you safe on your mountain bike or BMX bike (and on your skateboard, longboard, derby skates, skis or snowboard). But just as important as keeping safe on the bike is what you do when you get off the bike. Biking is a repetitive motion in a limited range of motion–the perfect recipe to limit flexibility. Stretching after a ride or session will improve your muscular flexibility and make you more comfortable on your next ride.

1. Hamstring stretch Your hamstring muscles are located on the back of the thigh. You don’t fully extend the hamstring while cycling, so it’s important to stretch them after you ride. From a standing position, with your feet slightly less than shoulder-length apart, just bend over and let your arms hang down. As you become more flexible, you’ll find that you can touch the ground with your hands. Remember to take slow, deep breaths as you stretch–don’t hold your breath.

2. Quad stretch The quadriceps run along the top of your thigh. It’s actually a group of four muscles and cyclists typically have overdeveloped quads due to the nature of the pedaling motion. The easiest quad stretch is done while standing. Bend one knee all the way and grab your foot (it’s easiest by the ankle) with the arm on the  same side (i.e., right leg, right arm). Keep your thighs parallel and your knees together. Don’t bend forward or tilt your leg out to the side. This should be a slow stretch–hold for 20-30 seconds and repeat with the other leg.

3. Calf stretch This stretch is easiest is you do it against a wall, fence, tree, etc.  Stand with your feet facing forward. Step forward with the right leg and put your right foot flat on the ground, keeping the toes pointed forward. Keep the left foot flat on the group. Lean forward (don’t bend) until you feel a stretch in your calf. Hold this for 15-20 seconds. Repeat with the other leg.

4. lliotibial Band The IT is a band of tissue that runs along the outside of your hip, thigh and knee. Stand near a wall or fence for support and cross your left leg over your right at the ankle. Extend your left arm overhead and reach toward your right side. You’ll feel a stretch along your left hip. Hold for 20-30 seconds and repeat with the other side.

5. Glute stretch Your glutes (okay, your rear end) does a lot of work while you’re riding. Stretching it usually involves sitting or standing crossing one ankle over the opposite knee. This opens up both the glute and the external hip complex. Stand with your feet hip distance apart and cross your right foot over your left knee. Squat/sink your hips and hold the position for 20-30 seconds. If you find the squat difficult, slowly bend down toward the floor and let your arms dangle. Repeat with the other leg crossed.

6. Neck stretch You may not think about your neck needing to be stretched after you ride, but the standard biking position keeps your neck in a slightly downward position for an extended period. To stretch it afterward,bend your head forward and slightly to the right. With your right hand, gently pull your head downward until you feel a nice, easy stretch along the back left side of your neck. Hold for 20-30 seconds and repeat with the opposite side.

The weather is warm and school is out. Parents and children alike are dusting off their inline skates and rollerblades and getting ready for another summer of skating. Before you head out to the street or the park to skate, make sure to review these five essential tips for safe skating.

1) A properly certified and fitted inline skate helmet is the most essential piece of protective gear for rollerblading. Even a weekend, recreational rollerblader can approach speeds of 25 mph. Consider what might happen to your head if you crashed at that speed. Head injuries are nothing to fool around with–you need an inline skate helmet.

2) Wrist injuries are the most common inline skating injury.
Nearly half of all inline skating injuries are to the wrists. However, a study from the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that wearing inline skate wrist guards can reduce the incidence of inline skating wrist injuries by 87%. You might want to shop for rollerblading wrist guards too.

3) Knee and elbow injuries make up a combined 23% of all inline skating injuries. You can prevent most of these with comfortable, lightweight inline skate elbow pads or inline skate knee pads.

4) The older you get, the more it hurts to fall. Okay, maybe this one is kind of obvious, but do you know how easy it is to alleviate the pain of taking a tumble simply by wearing a pair of lightweight padded shorts? Inline skate padded shorts can keep your rear, hips, and thighs from getting hurt while you ride (and when you fall). Plus they’re lightweight and low-profile enough that you can wear them under your regular shorts and no one will be the wiser.

5) Know how to stop. This may sound obvious, but sometimes new skaters are so focused on getting rolling without falling that they neglect to practice stopping. The time to perfect the stopping motion (bend-scissors-heel brake) is NOT when you’re flying down the parkway and are about to collide with someone/something.

Comparing mountain bike padded shorts

There are scores of padded shorts on the market that you could wear for mountain biking or BMX. It can be difficult to decide which is the best for you. Do you want them to hit mid-thigh or above the knees? (Or do you want pants length?) Hip pads, thigh pads, tailbone padding? Liner or not? We’ve taken an even dozen of the top padded mountain bike shorts and lined up them up side-by-side to make it easier for you to choose. For a more detailed discussion of each pair of shorts and how it compares to others in the same class, check out our full Mountain Bike Padded Shorts Comparison on the XSportsProtective website.

	Pad Placement	Tailbone Protection	Liner	Price
Crash Pads 1300 Bicycle Padded Shorts	Hips, outer thighs/quads	No	Yes	$81+
Crash Pads 1200 Bicycle Pants	Hips, quads, shins, calves	No	Yes	$81+
Crash Pads 2500 Padded Shorts	Hips, quads, buttocks	Yes	No	$61-80
Dainese Norosex Padded Shorts	Hips, outer thighs	Yes (removable)	No	$61-80
Dainese Performance Shorts	Outer thighs	Yes	Yes	$81+
Fox Launch Padded Shorts	Hips, outer thighs, quads	Yes	Yes	$61-80
Fox Titan Race Padded Shorts	Hips, outer thighs	Yes	Yes	$40-60
Grindz Denim Padded Pants	Hips, knees	Yes	No	$61-80
POC VPD 2.0 Padded Bicycle Shorts	Hips, outer thighs	Yes (removable)	Yes	$40-60
SixSixOne SubGear Padded Shorts	Hips, outer thighs	Yes	No	$40-60
Troy Lee Designs 4600 Padded Shorts	Hips, outer thighs	Yes	No	$40-60
Vigilante Light Padded Shorts	Hips, upper quads, glutes	Yes	No	$61-80

Downhill mountain bikers, dirt jumpers, BMX racers, and other riders looking for upper body and neck protection face a persistent question: What’s the best pairing of neck brace and body armor? We get plenty of questions on this topic, so we decided the best way to help our customers make an informed purchase was to test them ourselves. There are dozens of choices in body armor on the market as well as a growing number of neck braces. The number of potential combinations is huge.  We decided to start with a Leatt Neck Brace, which has become the gold standard of neck braces, and nine of our most popular pieces of body armor. We then had one of our staff members (who is a sometime mountain biker) try on the Leatt DBX with the following pieces of cycling body armor:

• EVS Comp Suit
• SixSixOne Core Saver
• Troy Lee 7850 Body Armor
• Dainese Performance Jacket
• Fox Titan Jacket
• SixSixOne Comp Pressure Suit
• SixSixOne EVO Pressure Suit
• POC Spine VPD Tee
• POC VPD 2.0 Jacket

We took front, side, and back photos of each pairing and some commentary on how each neck brace-body armor pairing felt and whether the body armor had features designed to work with neck brace.  The obvious question is: What’s the best body armor with a Leatt neck brace? It’s difficult to give one absolute answer. After all, every body is different–wider shoulders here, shorter torso there. Any of the combinations would work in a pinch. Our model found he had the most comfortable fit when he paired the Leatt neck brace with the TLD 7850, the Dainese Performance jacket, and the SixSixOne EVO Pressure Suit. Each of those pieces of body armor are quite different, for example, the TLD and SixSixOne EVO are soft-shell armor while the Dainese is hard-shell. We recommend you check out the full listing of photos and notes on each body armor-neck brace pairing.

Keep in Mind When Pairing Neck Braces and Body Armor

• Some of the best neck brace-body armor pairings were with body armor that wasn’t necessarily “designed” for neck brace integration
• Examine your gear. You may not realize until you look that there’s a slot in the back or front of your body armor or that some of the back spines remove to accommodate the neck brace.
• Experiment to find the right configuration for you.
• Check out the photos and notes from our neck brace-body armor compatibility test.
• Get the best deal and best customer service at XSportsProtective.

Bell Sports has recently recalled the Bell Full Throttle BMX helmet. This was a full-face kids BMX helmet that was sold exclusively through ToysRUs. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has more information about the recall. Product recalls like this offer parents a conundrum. Bell is a great brand. If you’re new to a sport or the child in your life is getting into a sport with which you’re unfamiliar, it makes sense to go with a well-known brand from a store you know. And if you’re looking for a BMX helmet for a child, it makes sense to buy one at a toy store.

But did you know that a number of helmets that aren’t listed as “Kids’ BMX Helmet” or “Youth Helmet” will likely fit your child? Some manufacturers make helmets that are sized small enough to fit a small child’s head even if it doesn’t say “Kids” or “Youth ” in the product title. XSportsProtective has created an entire Kids’ BMX Gear page, including information on Kids’ BMX Helmets.

If you’re looking for a replacement full-face BMX helmet for your child, we have several suggestions. For instance:

• Giro Remedy fullface helmet Size small fits heads 51-55 cm
• Bell Drop fullface helmet Size small fits heads 51-55 cm
• Bell Sanction fullface helmet Size small fits heads 52-55 cm
• Fly Kinetic Flash helmet for juniors/youth size youth small fits heads 47-48 cm

How to Measure Your Kid’s Head for a Helmet

You know that your child needs a helmet for biking, skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding (the list goes on and on). The question is: How do you find the right size helmet? Proper helmet fit is critical to protecting your child. No matter how well-designed the helmet is, if it doesn’t fit right, it won’t protect the way it should. It may even come off during a crash or collision. Children’s helmets are not sized according to age. There is just too much variation in the size and shape of little kids for age to be a reliable measure of head size. One eight-year-old could fit an adult “Medium” while another child the same age would need a child’s extra small. Always size a child’s helmet by measuring the head circumference, not by the age of the child.

Measuring your child’s head (or anyone else’s head) for a helmet is pretty simple. Simply take a tape measure and wrap it around his or her head, about an inch above the eyebrows, keeping the tape measure level all the way around. Use the centimeter side of the measuring tape to get a more accurate measurement. If you don’t have a measuring tape, take a piece of string and wrap it around your child’s head, about an inch above the eyebrows. Mark or cut the string so you get an accurate measurement. Then lay the string down next to a ruler to see how long it is (in centimeters).

The right-sized helmet should fit snugly, but not so tight that feels constrictive. It should sit level on your head about one or two finger-widths above your eyebrow. If it’s perched on top of your child’s head or if it’s so snug that it leaves a line on his/her forehead, then the helmet is too tight.

You can customize the fit and sizing of a helmet either through fit pads or a dial-in adjustment on the back of the helmet. (For instance, Giro helmets feature a number of dial-in fit systems, which you can learn more about on the XSportsProtective website. If your helmet uses fit pads, it will probably include them in three varying thicknesses–very thin, medium, and very thick. The pads easily Velcro in and out of the interior of the helmet.

 

A Properly Fitted Child’s Helmet

You’ll know that your child’s helmet fits properly when it:

• Fits snugly but comfortably
• Does not wobble or slide around
• Rests level on the wearer’s head, not perched on top of the head, tilted back, or resting on the eyebrows
• Feels secure

Whether you’re looking for a kid’s skateboard helmet, kid’s BMX helmet, kid’s ski or snowboard helmet, or other sport-specific helmet, the same measurement principles remain.

We’re moving back into bike season. Whether you’re into mountain biking, BMX, or road biking, you know you need a good bike helmet before you get on two wheels. But if you happen to have a really big brain (and thus a big noggin), it can be difficult to find a bike helmet that fits well. Not every bike shop carries extra large bike helmets, and it’s difficult to know which makes and models do come in extra large helmet sizes. Below, we’ve compiled a list of big (above 63 cm) and kind of bi (61-63 cm).

Extra Large Bicycle Helmets (above 63 cm)

• Bell XLV Bike Helmet, universal XL fits 58-65 cm
  
• Bern Brentwood (Zipmold), XXL fits up to 63.5 cm
  
• Giro Hex, size XL fits up to 65 cm
  
• Giro Venti Extra Large Bike Helmet, universal XL fits 58-65 cm
  
• Louis Garneau Carve, XL fits up to 65 cm
  
• Louis Garneau Arcterus, XLarge fits up to 65 cm

Kind of Big Bicycle Helmets (between 61-63 cm)

• Bell Array, L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Bell Variant, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Bell Influx, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Bell Lumen, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Fox Flux Women’s, L/XL fits up to 63 cm
  
• Fox Flux, L/XL fits up to 63 cm
  
• Fox Transition, L/XL fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Xar Bike Helmet, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Atmos, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Athlon, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• , size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Section, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Sequence, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Phase, fits up to 63 cm
  
• Giro Feature, size L fits up to 63 cm
  
• Kali Protectives Chakra, size M/L fits up to 62 cm
  
• Kali Protectives Avita, size M/L fits upt to 62 cm
  
• Kali Protectives Amara, size ML fits 58-62 cm
  
• Kali Protectives Chakra Plus, size M/L fits up to 62 cm
  
• POC Receptor Flow, size XL/XXL fits up to 62 cm
  
• POC Trabac Race, XXL fits up to 62 cm

One of the reasons POC makes some of the best protective gear around (besides their awesome design aesthetic) is their use of VPD (Visco-elastic Polymer Dough), an advanced composite material that is remarkably flexible and pliable but stiffens instantly upon impact. VPD is highly dampening and can absorb an extreme amount of the energy from an impact. But here’s the thing about VPD that you need to remember: It gets softer and more pliable as it warms up. POC recommends that you do not store it in cold conditions or wear it outside of your ski/snowboard clothes.

Here’s what can happen if you don’t store it properly:

Yep, it can break. One of our customers wore his POC spine protector on the slopes. When he was ready for a break, he left the VPD spine protector outside on the porch. He did not lay it flat, and the warm VPD bent slightly (because it was still soft and pliable). Later, he went back outside for another run at the slopes. He picked up the spine protector, saw that it was slightly curved, and tried to straighten it before he had warmed it up. It snapped in half.

Please, if you have POC gear with VPD, make sure you read the manufacturer’s recommendations. Don’t store it in cold conditions. If you must do so, be sure to let it warm up/soften up a bit before you put it back on or try to bend it. If you want a little more information about POC VPD, check out our Advanced Protective Materials page. XSportsProtective also carries a wide range of POC gear, with and without VPD.

Roller derby padded shorts are a vital piece of protective gear. You’re going fall–everybody does. It only takes a couple of hard falls to make you realize that padded derby shorts are not a luxury item. With the number of padded shorts on the market, it can be difficult to choose the right pair for you. When you’re choosing padded roller derby shorts, you’ll want to look at padding, length, and fit.

Padding
Most derby padded shorts use EVA foam pads that can range in thickness from a quarter to half an inch. Thicker pads will obviously provide more cushioning, but will also be a little bit bulkier. The bigger question is where the pads are placed. Each brand of padded shorts is a little different. Some shorts have narrow, oblong-shaped pads. Others have more square-shaped pads. All padded shorts are intended to allow both range of movement and impact protection. Where should the pads be placed on your roller derby shorts? Simply put: you want padding where you’re most likely to fall. Do you consistently land on your hips? Do you like baseball slides? Superman slides? Think about what part of your body typically bears the brunt of the impact when you fall. That’s the area where you want the most padding.

Length
More and more manufacturers are designing padded shorts specifically for roller derby. One of the features of derby-specific padded shorts is a higher cut so that the shorts are not visible under your skirt. However, if you want the extra couple inches of coverage or simply feel more comfortable or confident in padded shorts that hit mid-thigh, then get them. Most of the shorts shown on the XSportsProtective roller derby padded shorts page are derby specific. If you’re interested in padded shorts that might hit a bit lower on your thigh, check out our skateboard padded shorts page too.

Fit
Your padded derby shorts should fit snugly (but not so snugly that it limits your range of motion). If you’re female, keep in mind that most standard skate/skateboard padded shorts are designed for guys. In other words, they’re cut for a very narrow frame and often hit higher on the waist than most women care for. Be sure to see if a brand you like has a women’s cut that offers a bit more room in the hips and thighs. Derby-specific padded shorts are also cut with a female profile in mind.

It’s Roller Derby freshie season! If you’re getting started in derby (or just thinking about trying it), you’ll need the right protective gear to keep you safe. Below we’ve listed the essential roller derby protective gear that you’ll need, in order of priority.

• Roller Derby Helmet: This is not an area where you want to cut corners. The consequences of a serious head injury make a helmet your first priority. Derby players vary on what kind of helmet is best for the sport–some like skate helmets, some like bike-safety-certified helmets w/ skate helmet styling, and some even like hockey helmets. Some of the more popular helmets we sell for roller derby include the Triple Eight Brainsaver and the ProTec Classic Skate helmet. For detailed information on choosing a roller derby helmet, check out our Roller Derby Learning Center.




• Roller Derby Knee Pads and Elbow Pads A number of companies are making derby-specific knee pads, such as 187 Pro Derby knee pads and Deadbolt Blocker and Deadbolt Jammerknee pads. However, a good pair of vert, skateboard-style knee pads and elbow pads can also work well as roller derby protection.




• Roller Derby Wrist Guards Roller derby injury statistics show that wrist injuries are the most common derby injury. When you fall, your natural reaction is to reach out to break your fall. This places a huge amount of force on your wrists and can cause lots of injuries. Roller derby wrist guards come in varying lengths, of which have splints underneath the leather or nylon webbing that absorb the force of impact and reduce the chance of a wrist injury. Some of the most popular derby wrist guards are Triple Eight Wristsavers for Roller Derby and Triple Eight Hired Hands Protective Gloves.

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• Roller Derby Padded Shorts Roller derby padded shorts help protect your rear, tailbone, hips, and thighs from impact and abrasions. Padded skate shorts are very popular with our customers, as they make falling much less painful and reduce soreness. And it’s easy to find a roller derby-specific pair of padded shorts, like Crash Pads 2700s or Triple Eight Roller Derby Bumsavers, which are short enough to neatly and covertly hide under your skirt.




• Roller Derby Mouth Guard Broken teeth aren’t so cute, and who wants to spend all that time at the dentist getting them fixed? Plus, mouth guards also help to prevent concussions. One tip: A mouth guard is required protective gear. Some derby players say they were a colored mouth guard so the refs can clearly see that they’re wearing one.