EVS Evolution Neck Brack
It's not a Leatt, but it's similar
By Harry 'Moto', January 31, 2009
My EVS cost much less than a Leatt. I got it because I want to protect my neck, but didn't have the cubic bucks for the Leatt. I've heard pro's and con's about each, but I've just got the EVS. Here's what I found out so far...
SHELL
The shell is made out of some kind of plastic, possibly reinforced internally. It's stiff but flexible. The padding is the high density stuff you would expect, nicely done. The collar affixes to the shell via velcro patches. The cover on the collar is nice looking, comfy, and unzips in the back so you can wash it, or I suppose replace it. The collar is similar to a regular racing collar like Davi Millsaps has been using for years. The black attachments are for the included straps, but I don't find them useful as I wear the EVS under my armor.
Fit it UP!
Notice in the front veiw that the sides of this thing cover your collarbones. I don't think you will break your collarbone much wearing this thing! Nice design. The brace that runs down your back is strong but flexible. As you add stress to it, it deflects a bit, so the end never pokes into your back.
Add Armor.
You can see that the armor goes over the EVS and secures it in place. The severe forces it's designed to protect you from will keep it in position anyways, and the armor just keeps it down there out of your way. I forget I'm wearing it while riding now.
Top it off with a Helmet...
It can be seen that it just misses your helmet. As you ride, you don't make contact anywhere. One of the things I found interesting in my research on these things is that most crippling neck injuries are caused by compression, like if you were dropped straight down on your head. The EVS addresses this issue, in that your helmet can only go straight down an inch or so before you start contacting and picking up support from the brace.
How it Works:
Straight back: The helmet is stopped from sliding down towards your neck by the collar, your helmet engages the back of the shell, and the helmet and shell work together with the long thing that goes down your back to keep your head from tilting back to the point of breaking your neck. In the pictue my head isn't nearly as far back as it will go if I'm not wearing all this stuff, but I can't go any further because the neck brace has engaged it. With huge force it would go back further as the brace flexed, but it would take a heck of a hit to go so far as to do you serious damage.
Forward motion is controlled buy the collar, just like a neck roll. There isn't anything hard pointed at your collarbone, the collar is on your chest right where the collarbones attach. This isn't limiting movement very aggressively, but as a guy pointed out on the forums... "Lean your head forward until your chin touches your chest. Good? Ok, and you're alright? Good. Now lean your head BACKwards until the back of your head touches your back... So which movement should you try to control?" LOL!
No, I'm not looking at a cute puppy going 'Awwww...'. This is as far as I can go tilting left and right. Again the helmet engages the collar and brace and supports your head from going too far. This support isn't as powerful as the straight back support, but it's still pretty good. Remember those long braces over your shoulders that cover your collarbones? They keep your collarbone and helmet separated and provide support for the brace so it can support your helmet. Nice.
Looking out!
By request (I never thought of adding this!) here is how it works when you look left and right. In the pix wearing the EVS I'm turning my head as far as I can, and you can feel the helmet hit the brace in the last few degrees of movement. I'm trying to exactly face the same way in all the pix, but for some reason I turned towards the camera a little in the 'without' picture looking right. The limitation is very, very small. If you can turn your head a whole lot farther than I can, you may feel limited. I don't. the other issue is that I'm wearing that Bell helmet, and as you see below I had to cut down the padding to fit the extra deep helmet, but didn't cut down the frame. If your helmet clears the foam padding without mods (as I think most do) then you will have additional clearance for turning your head as well.
Bell Helmets (and maybe others)
When I got my Bell Moto 7 (or whatever they are up to now...) the first thing I noticed was that it wouldn't fit in my helmet shelf in my racebike trailer cabinets. I'd set the shelf up with another helmet and left just a little extra space, but with the Bell I had to add an inch of height, and the helmet still just barely fits. It covers you lower down that most helmets. That's fine, except that when I first got the EVS brace, my helmet sat on the bloody thing. Not very comfortable. In the picture, the red things are the collar material that I cut away with a razor knife so that the collar clears my helmet. After trimming I put the collar thing back in the cover, and it looks fine and clears my helmet. Just so you know, if you have a Bell (or another helmet that's unusually tall) you'll have to trim the collar. It's not hard, it's just really stiff foam. The razor knife make it easy enough, just don't slip and cut the heck out of yourself.
Conclusion:
There isn't anything about this thing that I don't like. It seems like it will help you not break your neck up to the point that the crash is so bad it won't matter, doesn't get in my way, and didn't cost me a bloody fortune. Further, the chances of breaking your collarbone (happens all too often) are dramatically reduced. If you are thinking about a fancy helmet, you can get a regular helmet AND the EVS evolution for less money and you'll have a whole lot more protection. Nothing is perfect when you ride MX, there's always a way to get hurt, but this thing provides incredible bang for the buck. It's one of my favorite pieces of kit!