I believe it was Jonathan Vaughters who said that crashing on a bike is like driving down the road at 40 miles per hour, rolling down the window, and jumping out wearing nothing but your underwear. Seems like an apt description. Well the folks at Scott are aiming to do something about the road rash that ensues when tender skin is protected only by a thin layer of lycra (and if you’ve ever crashed at a decent speed, you know just how thin that high-tech fabric can get).
So how do you make fabric that’s highly technical, lightweight, and protective? Carbon fiber and ceramics. Yup, you can now wear your bike! But it’ll look cool, trust me. And it will hopefully prevent that stinging, sleep preventing, bandage wasting road rash that every cyclist knows and fears.
These carbon-reinforced threads will protect your most road-rash vulnerable areas–especially your shoulders and hips with extra panels in the places where you’re most likely to land. With a weave of carbon yarn throughout, and little ceramic honeycombs on the outer layer, Scott’s new ITD ProTec Bikewear Technology looks to be something of a breakthrough.
Unfortunately, we’ll all have to wait until late 2015 for these jerseys and bib shorts to hit the market (hopefully there will be a proper line of women’s wear in addition to the men’s line announced). At $125 for the RC ProTec Jersey, and $145 for the bib shorts, these are actually somewhat affordable for the technology you’re getting. At first, I was thrilled to hear that Scott had a new product to test, but then I thought about doing a full review for you folks, and I’m not sure that’s actually too appealing. Here’s hoping they expand their line to arm and leg warmers as well, right?
Ready to be impressed? Scott has released a short ad for their new fabric. Get excited! It involved balloons:
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