I have had experience of the Leatt products and found them to be of an extremely high quality and also durable. I wore one whilst doing motocross (which was the origional intention of the Leatt), where neck injuries are common and found that after a couple of outings wearing it became second nature and if anything I strangely went a little faster as i definately felt safer.
As to whether the Leatt products have any effect on Karting injuries I am unsure. Although they undoubtedly stop the helmet moving as they claim is that really a problem in Karting? One must also contemplate that the energy from the shunt must got somewhere, and if the top of the neck/helmet etc is immobilised then where will the energy effect or be absorbed. As an interesting anecdote on safety equipment, in my first 3 months of MX i had an racing incident, and the resulting injury tore every ligament in my knee and also snapped my pcl. After the accident everyone said that had i been wearing knee braces then this would not have happened. After that i duly handed over £700 (saved during 6 month rehab) donned my new braces and continued racing. 3 years later i had an almost identical accident but as i was wearing my braces my knees were left unharmed. BUT, the energy from the twisting action on my leg had to go somewhere, and as my knees where locked in braces the resultant force travelled down my leg and snapped my leg clean in half. There is no doubt that the braces stopped my knees being injured, but is the resultant injury, 3 plates and 12 screws later any better?
Is whiplash in karting such an issue that wearing a neck brace is neccersary and are we sure what the resultant effects of wearing one are. As it says at the entrance to all of our tracks motorsport can be dangerous and sometimes I feel we need to accept that.
As an aside to itpro, both the motocross arm of the ACU and also their American counterpart thoroughly endorse the Leatt and other neck braces. It is now the minority in those fields for competitors not to wear one.
Did I mention i used to do Motocross??? :-)
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