My Teknic suit failed me

I went for a highside outside of a turn at Pacific Raceways last week. I landed on my knees and went flipping for a while. I would have escaped with some bumps and bruises, but unfortunately, my Teknic Lightning suit failed me. The impact on the knees tore the seams apart which gave me some pretty bad road rash. Considering the amount of marketing Teknic does on their 'Teknic Advanced Seam Construction, I am shocked that this happened. I e-mailed Teknic six days ago with the following pictures to show them as well, but haven't heard anything back yet. Other than the road rash, some swelling, and whiplash, I'm fine. I got some x-rays of my knees and they are fine. The bike did some flipping of its own and the frame cracked from the impacts.

 

Ouch. Hope you heal up quick.

 

Did the impact literally tear the seams apart or did they rub on the ground?

 

Sorry to hear about your get off. Heal up quick. Some times, the reasons for suit failure is not because of the suit at all, but because it was a poor fitting suit. It looks like the knee blew out on the side of the suit. Did the suit fit properly?

 

Pretty sure it tore on impact as I was tumbling and flipping until I came to a stop.

The suit fit great and was really snug on me. The armor pads were right on my knees whether I had my knee out or was standing up.

 

ow, that looks painful. hope you heal up quick. that thermos thing in the last photo, i had one of those after my knee surgery. best invention ever!

 

OW!!! Heal up fast man. Very very sorry to hear about cracks in the frame but they're better than cracks in your frame...

 

I have a Teknic Violator suit that I got back in 2000. I crashed that suit several times and it never came apart. It also was thick than my new Alpinestars.

From the look of your knees, aside from the swelling and scrapes, you came out of it OK. I think the suit otherwise did a pretty good job. Hope you heel up fast!!

 

Sorry about your crash.

Alot of times, even a good fitting suit will leave a "razzberry" of abrashion damage at the point of first contact. Because pavement and leather have very high coiefficents of friction, as you make contact with the ground and your weight comes down on it, the suit stops but your body continues to move. Since your skin has a much lower CoF on the inside of the suit, it gives first. All that kenetic energy has to go somewhere and it becomes heat and tearing.

But you are right, I don't think the suits seams should have failed like that.

Hope you heal up soon, and have a Doc look at that swollen knee.

 

I'll tell you what, i had the same suit and had a get off in the kink at Barber. Tumbled a pretty good distance and when it stopped i took inventory and everything was o.k. but i felt this draft coming throught the back door. It busted the seams on both shoulders, both knees (not quite as bad as yours) and the entire ass area was blown completely out. The suit did it's job, i walked away with minimal road rash and no broken bones. That's really all you could ask for.....still cheaper than the e.r.


Now.....if you bought the suit from a dealer through Parts Unlimited you MAY be able to send them back. I sent mine back to teknic and they re-stiched all the seams free of charge. I only paid shipping. I will only use them as a back up suit but other than the scuffs, they appear to be as good as new.

 

Pretty sure PU doesn't carry Teknic anymore. Tucker Rocky does, though.

 

Tucker Rocky dropped them too.

 

Hope you heal up ok.

Even the best manufacturers low end stuff is junk. I don't know Teknics range of suits any more. Where does the Lightning fit in?

 

This was last summer.....they both dropped them, huh? Hmmmmmm

 

I fell in my Teknic suit in T8 at Jennings - simple front end tuck on a totally shagged front tire. Every stitch that touched the asphalt broke and tore open.

When we had our TrackSkinz suits made (shameless plug coming up...) we opted for full Kevlar stitching throughout, double and triple row stitching. It costs extra but it's worth it.

Cowhide is fairly universal - the construction is the thing.

 

Yeah I'm not particularly fond of the lower end of most leather mfgs. The Lightning suit is on the lower end of the spectrum of their line up. From the looks of it you came out pretty decent for that type of crash, once you heal get yourself into some RS-Taichi or Barnacle Bill suits haha.

 

How old was the suit??

 

pretty much brand new... bought it last september and this was the 4th time I've used it on the track.

 

ouch, your left knee is frickin huge!!

 

Well, then that really sucks

I wrecked 4 times in my Joe Rocket "Highside" suit, never blew out a seem.

A friends Teknic suit did the same thing, blew the knee out with a simple lowside

I can understand a suit coming apart at the seams, when its a couple of seasons old, not a fairly new suit:down: