+1 for Bill here. Repaired another brand suit for me, then the guy put me up for two days at the GNF where I got to see his handy work for myself. (Remember when Opie hit the deer? Bill did his repairs and added a chrome leather deer silhouette as a bonus...) I promptly ordered a suit, and couldn't be happier. (Also happy with the repairs to that suit, which held up admirably when the first-race-with-shiny-new-leathers gremlin bit me. ) All that aside - never met someone that involved with his business and that personal with the customers. Here's hoping OVO does great things as well, but I'll never get anything else than what I have. It has my name on the back anyway.
Don't get me wrong, BB is a top notch guy who I wouldn't hessitate to send anyone and everyone to. His Sh@t is TIGHT. But this thread was about OVO. lol!
I'm going to get beat up, aren't I? I know, just throwing that in there. The OVO stuff *looks* really nice from what I can see on the website. And that's a pretty unbeatable deal he's offering there to licensed racers!
Trust me, when I get my suit, I'll pick the thing apart and give you my straight opinion. If the stiching is off, I'll tell you. If the fit is off, I'll tell you. If it squeezes my junk, well, I'll tell you. . . . and show you my squeezed junk.
Personally, I think my ghetto booty would look a little fat and dumpy in any color other than the black, but I'm cerrtainly appreciative of the responses to my questions. I'd definitely like to hear something less modest and more proven than a manufacturer "trying" to make a safer product that goes on anybody's back, and think that would be something that sets a new company apart, similar to the British custom makers that have opted for full-suit CE approval. There aren't many of those types of choices stateside, but that does seem to be an industry-wide issue, and I cringe at the thought of Bill's spleen being fodder for the track.
license2ill. I know you're looking for a suit manufacturer that "sets itself apart", but the proof is in the pudding. If you fall doing 120 in a CE rated suit and it shreds to pieces and you fall doing 120 in a non-CE rated suit and it stays together, which one is better? CE ratings are left to the manufacturer. There is no board that CE rates products; they just set the rules. It's self governed. If some British company says their entire suit is CE rated who's going to dispute it? I can't think of anyone willing to pay $10k in testing to disprove a CE rating. CE rating is not the end all for protecting riders. Good suits protect riders. CE or not. CS
Yep, I'd like to see better there too for sure, but we don't even have anyone going far enough to seek that kind of evidence here. It shows more will to "try" than anecdotes and the typical promises. The Ride Magazine comparison tests certainly bear-out those results. It's pretty clear that the suits that are claiming CE-approval are also performing head and shoulders above the rest. It's a little more complicated than simply claiming the label, they are willing tosend examples to meet the certified requirements at least for the testing bodies' approval. I'm not so sure it's just a matter of producing one suit, I think there's a pretty clear difference in philosophy with those manufacturers and it shows. Dainese and Alpinestars for example, are side-stepping the label for a reason.
They won't let me post them here, but there are some scanned versions floating aorund on the net of some tests that Ride Magazine (UK) did last year on some one-piece leathers, and more recently some two-piece suits. It was very clear that there are performance differences between them and that the CE stuff is relevant as of the market now. I don't care if it's CE or anything else, and I'm not trying for any type of argument. I'd just like to see something better, especaily from something new. Seems like an oppurtunity for someone to break from the mold of guesses and name recognition to me.
email them to me. chavvon at ovoracing.com We can talk about specifics and not just abstract details. CS
I don't think anyone is saying that the only safe suit is a CE rated suit, nor that CE ratings are the be-all end-all for riders. But, to characterize OEMs who label their suits as such simply because nobody would dispute it is a little over-the-top, and to say that it's unpoliced, or that the ratings are left to the manufacturer, is false. CE _manufacturing standards_ are in fact only a guideline. However, it is illegal for a company (in the EU anyway) for a company to label gear as "CE Approved" unless it has undergone independant lab certification of same (this is entirely different from the manufacturing standards thing). The documentation for this certification is available to anyone who asks, from the lab that performed the tests. These tests are mandated as random-sample and random interval by the governing body that does police the certification processes and the labeling of items as "CE Approved." I know this all to be fact not because I'm a leathers guy, but because I am responsible for some audit remediation for one of my company's clients who perform CE lab testing in the UK. Now, it is important to note that here in the US, there is plenty of fake CE labelling going on, and it is entirely unpoliced...note the Bohn ripoffs of the Knox armor products. They claim to be manufactured to CE standards, but this is a meaningless statement. Anyway, having seen the Komodo stuff, and having heard all about Chavvon's reputation, I am certain that the Ovo stuff rocks the planet, and this 'custom suits for the rack price' sale has me digging for change in the couch...but let's not get too carried away with this other stuff.
I agree with you 100% drthunder. My point is that half of these CE labels are fake. People stick them on products and don't have a clue. I'm all about CE ratings, but it's a little unsettling when I receive a product with a CE label that breaks when my 2 year old plays with it. CS
I'll locate those articles for ya. I'd like to know exactly which CE labels are being faked, besides the old Bohn stuff. I have no doubt it's being done on a certain level or that certain aspects are not being followed-through on by a few, but the insinuation for those suits that are approved as a whole doesn't seem accurate or valid. The only discoveries of bad marked impact protectors that I am aware of are one company from Pakistan and another from China. I have no idea if any US-known brands of leather makers are using those products or not. There are certainly better products than others, but I've only seen a few present the actual data for the record. Dainese has published their armor data, I've gotten email reports from First Gear regarding Hiprotec, The T-pro stuff actually provides addtional certs in the form of Cambridge standard testing, and I've seen a sheet for Astrene from Astron2000. Other than that, we are in the dark about what makes better CE-approved protectors. Hell, we don't even know the size designations for most of the suit armor out there, and most appears to be the smaller Type-A protectors. The Alpinestars protectors in the SX-1 two-piece were found to be small, and out of size specs in the Ride Magazine comparo. Seems to me like most manufacturers just check a box on the list of options when it comes to the armor order, but there is more to a whole suit, and there are tangible differences in these other areas, and there are even standards that provide guidelines that show obvious differences in real testing data. We could be shown a hell of a lot more proper info from folks so interested in safety and letting us know about it enough to make a high-quality decision, regardless of how modest or well-meaning they may be. It would be nice if a new kid on the block really stepped up to the plate and provided something tangibly different.
OK who got the suit and what is the final say? Good OK Bad Any crash tested at Tally with it??? Tax return comming soon and its all ready burning a hole in my pocket. Got to spend it or atleast call dibs before there is a new living room set for the wife.
who knows......they are all pretty good but... I have crashed the sh$te out of a Barnacle Bill custom suit. It's had the patches ripped off, elbows and knees ground down - multiple high speed crashes - highsides, lowsides (yeah, I am working on this) and he has fixed it up everytime, cleaned it off and returned it as good as new. Probably the best customer service I have ever had from a racing vendor :up:
