"It popped & snapped my neck" BMayzee talks about the potential dangers of wearing a neck brace 

Dude seems like a doctor I’ll take his advice

Landon Currier's career ending injury had nothing to do with his spine. He bailed off his bike and landed feet first, which shattered both his ankles and achilles. Landon had a neck brace, but it had nothing to do with that.

What year was Brandon's crash? Neck braces in general have changed a lot since Leatts first started showing up in 2007 or whatever it was. I just replaced my OG Leatt and its crazy how much lower the new braces sit. Guess they found having them sit up so high wasn't necessary. Maybe Brandon's crash would've had a better outcome today with a modern Atlas. Hopefully it would. Some riders swear by neck braces, and some guys will never touch em again. You could ask Logan Karnow about why you couldn't pay him to ride without one again. Personally, I wear my neck brace for a similar reason that you wear knee braces: If I have to choose between breaking a C vertebrae or a T vertebrae, I'd take one of the T's every time. Thing is, the only thing all of us riders have is anecdotal evidence. I know you guys didnt bring this up in the video but this gets talked about in the comments every time, is that neck braces limit your ability to move on the bike. Considering the fact that Villopoto smoked the best SX riders in the world for four years straight wearing the Alpinestars and Atlas braces, I'd say you can ride a bike with a neck brace on just fine.

My neck brace prevented me from breaking my neck so I think it’s luck of the draw personally 🤷🏻‍♂️ Wear one, don’t wear one…….you crash bad enough, you’re gonna get injured, killed regardless of what you’re wearing. Seen boys crash bad in T-shirt/ shorts, trainers with no helmet and walk away completely unscathed and have seen boys decked out top to bottom in all the latest greatest gear and braces etc getting pulled off the track only to die later from complications. If it’s your time it’s your time.

Scientific studies need to be done to say one way or another. The argument can go either way, youll fine tons of people with stories about how their braves saved their life. It's all just anecdotal evidence at this point for both sides.

I've walked away from a couple nasty end over end crashes wearing my Leatt braces. One with an AC separation. One with a pretty serious concussion and severe damage to the brace. Both with serious damage to the helmets. Pretty convinced the braces helped. Several other less sever crashes that I think it helped as well. I'm 6'-2" with a long neck, thick chest, and broad shoulders. I don't notice any normal motion limitations when I'm wearing it. Maybe that's the key. I think the reason we don't see a lot of pros wearing them are for the same reasons we don't see them wearing a more substantial chest protector. At their level anything that restricts any kind of motion or blocks airflow to the body is a hindrance. Also, they are going so fast that the impacts they experience are above what conventional level protection can help with anyway. This very fact could put them in the 1% category of cases that would be worse.

Flexibility decreases risk of injury. A brace creates stiffness and restricts movement. Seems counterproductive unless you can gaurentee the direction of deflection and create something that ultimately protects from that specific impact direction.

Hey, Disclaimer - I listen to this neck brace discussion alot - and I ride some with and some without. and as an engineer I understand how they are build and designed, and what people do not understand is that they are not made to safe you from everything because as with anything else in life it is not black and white. You give some and you loose some. But to sit and and accept stuff like "seems like alot of people are breaking their neck since the brace" and in episode 200 state that you are a data nerd - when this has nothing to do with data it is all feelings, exposure and belief... To consider this as facts without considering how much faster bikes are going since 2005, to not consider how easy accesable information over the internet has become is very misleading. and this is why you can not view this as black and white... I do not care if you wear a brace or not - but do not misinform people...

It is possible to exceed the capabilities of the neck brace and break your neck. Similar to getting a concussion while wearing a helmet. It does not mean wearing a helmet is unsafe. It just means you exceeded its protection capabilities.

gut instinct/feeling, and my engineering perspective definitely have always told me that neck braces can put undue stress on a system that is naturally designed to flex fairly drastically

The thing is is that these professionals honestly don’t get paid to wear these neck braces and that’s why they don’t wear them. It also restricts movement and that’s something many pros cannot get around .

It's about energy.... has to dissipate somewhere

I ask myself every ride if the Leatt is a good call or not...I hear your points loud and clear, but at the same time I've walked away from 3 of my BIGGEST wipe outs (60ft triple) and was convinced it was my leatt that saved me... but I guess the problem here is confirmation bias. Anyone know why Chad Reed stopped wearing one?

Let's look on the surface of how a neckbrace is designed to prevent a broken neck: 1. Contact with the helmet to the brace which transfers the load to the shoulders instead of the neck in case of a pogostick like what Herlings did last year. This is designed to prevent some kind of compression fracture. 2. Prevent head from bending too far forward or too far backwards in case of scorpion. 3. prevent head from bending too far to the side, similar to case #1 but instead of pogostick, you land with your body turned and hit diagonally with your shoulder first. All of these *should* be able to be simulated with computer similations to evaluate the various force tranfers. The thing I hear most about neckbraces by people like Ryan hughes is that they limit mobility so much that they result in the accident to begin with, not that they necessarily don't add a small layer of protection, but that they increase the likelihood of accident occurring.

He'll yeah man, just like wearing knee braces will break your femur.

I remember an article by a doctor who said that no study had been done to show that there were injuries occurring that a neck brace would prevent. He also highlighted one injury they would cause or exacerbate - coming down straight on to the top of your head. The brace prevents the head rolling out the way, and an impact to the top of the head with a straight neck can be really bad - something to do with squashing the spine into the brain stem.

Bottom line. Moto is dangerous. The new ama rule against amateurs using gopros is stupid too

It kind of makes sense when you think about it, if you tense up before a car crash your likely to break bones, however if you’re relaxed it is less likely to break bone. I had a motorcycle crash last year and the main reason didn’t break bones is I didn’t panic I slowed myself down the best I could and I didn’t tense up before impact

Tbh as I get older I think about the risk to reward more and more, when you’re young literally feel invincible I never thought about something serious like a broken neck either. Reality is the guys you idolize who absolutely rip on a dirtbike only do it because they are paid very well it is their JOB. why do you think they all quit mid 30s and never go back, because it’s to brutal.

It's why I always wore one of the soft donuts that floats freely on your collar bone. It provides support and keeps your neck from going too far but doesn't provide a hard pivot point just like he's saying. It saved my neck when I OJ'ed a supercross triple and supermanned from the next double all the way into the bowl turn. I left a 6" deep hole in the berm from my head and would have probably broken my neck if it wasn't for that neck roll. I wear that every time but won't wear the newer style neck braces.

these people should be more careful giving their opinion through a speaker on the internet. Based on these opinions, people can make decisions that they will then have to spend the rest of their lives with. If you have to choose between personal opinions or studies based on numbers, I will always choose the numbers, and these say that you have to wear a neck brace.

Holy fuck, I just started riding and I thought the neck brace was a life saver This is nuts ! I completely feel it

Knee braces are also hard to justify as I blew out my Femur into 4 bits and broke my pelvis as knee brace passes the load to the Femur. The collar bone is the same with neck brace as Iv'e done mine 3 times.

I don’t think there’s any correlation between the number of people injured and the appearance of neck braces. The injury’s you suffer are a result of circumstance and luck. My leatt neck brace saved my life and prevented any serious injury after a massive crash so I’d say they’re the best invention ever.

Ryan hughes watching this yelling at his screen lol you should interview him sometime

The first time I saw a neck brace I just thought that is a tension focus point, why should that help anything. What we'd need is like actual medieval plate armour, where the motion limitation happens distributed of your neck. Those braces are weird.

I totally get how dangerous they can be but I had one save my life when I first started racing. I’ve also known a couple locals die from breaking their necks while not wearing them. 🤷🏻 there’s an argument for both sides. Just enjoy your time on the bike and be careful

I was at the track in 2011 when my friend broke his back and it was caused by the tip of the back arm of the neck brace... he is now paralyzed from the middle of his back down to this day

Never worn a neck brace I did wear a body protector to protect my transplanted kidney. The doctor did tell me that it saved me having a punctured lung which I am great full for

Action Sports did have a lot of data to work with. Over a nearly 10-year time span, they had more than 8,000 assessable patients (enough data to ask questions about them). Of those injured patients, 3,803 wore a brace and 4,726 did not; close to an even split. Injuries, however, were not close to an even split. Injury to the cervical spine and the underlying spinal cord is the injury complex against which a neck brace is designed to protect. If the device is effective, wearers should have fewer - but not zero - injuries. That is exactly what they found: 239 cervical spine injuries in those not wearing a brace and only 26 in those who did wear a brace.

Listen to what Rino says about it. He makes good sense.

Wearing a Alpinestar neck brace landed head first broke my collar bone, 5 vertebrae 3 in my back two in my neck. I was lucky I lost feeling in my feat but I got my feeling back after a 12 hr surgery. Would never wear one again if I start racing again

See this is where its tricky, i dont disagree with him here, but i was wearing a cheap evs plastic one in a crash and was told it saved me from breaking my neck, it was a sideways impact as well

I just had a pretty good get off over the bars and broke my shoulder( coracoid process). The first thing I noticed during the crash was how my neck brace was stabilizing my helmet from over rotating left to right. But I also wonder if the neck brace broke the bone during impact.

Same argument can go towards seat belts. Look how Jessy Nelson got paralyzed..no brace could have protected against that. There’s way too many variables. Ultimately it’s all about risk mitigation. We do what we can to prevent the worst possible circumstance. RV2 wore a neck brace for the majority of his career.

I both do and don't want a neck brace

Anyone seen the video of Jason Anderson being landed on after he finishes a races? He says his brace saved him from further injury. Anything can happen when we ride. Safety gear is just a way to possibly lessen bodily harm. Just my opinion.

After snapping my leg in half at the shin, I'm taking no chances. Getting an Atlas neck brace that doesn't have the issues spoken about...

Ryno actually talks about braces in moto all the time and there's some scary side effects. Plus they restrict natural movement.

Bro... femur are no joke. I shattered mine (right at the top of my knee braces) and it was terrible and took a year to feel normal still feel it some days

I just watched a thing about knee braces and if the brace is not bolted to your boot and the stops are not set you are basically not wearing one.

Im currently recovering from a broken t1 that I kinda blame my leatt for, but at the same time I think it might have saved me. 🤷‍♂️

Ryan Hughes explains why neck braces are not great

>i broke my collar bone 4 times wearing those. Well thats the point. My understanding (i could be wrong) is that the neck brace is designed to break your collar bone INSTEAD of your neck.

A neck brace without the armor that goes with it doesn't make sense to me. So all or none. I ride with all.

Studies have been done and they work. Why are you even discussing it? The risk of breaking your neck will always be there even while wearing a brace. It's funny how people blame a neckbrace for breaking their necks and people who break their necks without wearing a brace are too ashamed to admit or talk about the possibility of the brace saving them from a broken neck. You should be very thankful for still being able to move your arms my friend. Maybe, just maybe, it was the brace that saved you from being a quadriplegic. People who wear helmets still get concussed, people with chest protectors still break ribs, but their injuries are reduced.

This is very interesting to hear. I have worn one for the last 5 years vigilantly, i ride in glamis, no track, and i ate shit jumping the top of oldsmobile hill, face first into the sand, crushed my helmet and the front of the helmet, and i was sore af, but my neck was ok, and i have always given credit to the neckbrace for not breaking my neck that day, but i could be wrong, but I think it saved me then

fastest kid on 2 wheels for real

Could the argument be made that in the pre neck brace days bikes weren't as fast and suspension wasn't as good? This led to people taking less risk? But now people strap on a leat and send it!

More people are saved wearing them.

As someone who doesn’t ride motorcross but plays football, the ACL/Tib and Fib thing is kind of interesting. You can just get surgery on your ACL and be fine, I would assume that’s actually an easier route to go. But maybe that’s just because ACL injuries in my sport are different? Super interesting to me

It's not as simple as neck braces plus increased neck injuries means neck braces cause neck injuries. You have to look at all the cases and determine if they were wearing a neck brace and if the neck brace contributed to the accident. A deeper analysis of all the falls that don't have a neck injury and what the rider was wearing would give a true picture of their effectiveness but that's nearly impossible to conduct. AFAIK the only study on this using actual injury cases showed the braces reduced the likelihood of neck injuries. His accident is terrible but hardly the norm for injuries with neck braces. No safety device is without risk like you mention leg braces but even a helmet can break bones to save your brain. Everything is a trade off.

I crashed in July 2020 fractured C6-T1 in my neck with no neckbrace and broke my femur into 4 pieces and can’t help but wonder if I should go with a neckbrace or not cause of this debate... could things have ended up differently had I been wearing one? The world may never know but I’m excited to get back to riding

The end 😂

We need sceince and a study into this, seems like its just one oppinion to the next. I always have and currently do wear one. I had a huge off in 2009 and the leatt neck brace saved my back and neck 100%, My legs came over my head and i scorpioned into a tree stump, injures where lacerated liver and cracked a few of the tab like bone part that sticks out the vertebrae, this bit I only found out a few weeks after when I still had pain in the area. The energy from the impact went to that spot in my back but i felt it would have been even worse without the neck brace giving me that extra support and strength to that area without it potential damaging higher up the vertebrae especially as I was head first with legs over my head

Does this guy have stats on that? Jeeez

neck braces didnt exist when i got my cr80 back in 1988. i ate shit so many times and smacked my melon on the ground and i turned out just fine.

First time I seen a neck brace, Jimmy Weinert was wearing one, late 70's, also had a sand paddle tire on.

Yep I Broke my femur on one crash from the knee braces And then right when I healed my tib and Fib and I never put them on again

Snapped my my collar bone wearing one and never looked back. Guys that are scared to death of getting hurt think that the only reason they haven’t broken their neck is because they wear a brace and they will argue with a brick wall about how good they work and why you should wear one lol. If you are that clown you need to get out of first gear or just sell your bike and take your “i have to work on Monday that’s why I wear it” bullshit with you. Pretty much all of us have to be at work on Monday and some of us know better than to wear “protective gear” that restricts movement on the bike so we don’t get hurt because of not being able to move a certain way because of a brace.

I think they need to improve the design- disperse the forces more evenly and limited to a point (less pressure then would hurt your neck.) Does a HANS device work better? It's a different system all together though because it works with the seat, helmet and device- all as one unit.

not all the braces are designed with the same theory. as a tall guy (6'4)id wear one but the shorter you are the more problematic they become and 98% of the time I think they help but I think they make the other 2% much worse. ex chase Sexton's crash was super close to being catastrophic and the brace would of been the contributing factor but luckily he hit the ground before he rotated anymore

I don’t know man. After watching this and Ryno talk about it. I find it kind of challenging to agree with. I think that ,yes, there is a lot of reasons for the faster riders of the sport not to wear them, but I also want to make the argument that at the local track for wearing them, based off everyone’s skill level it’s almost always better to have one (at least accessible).

sure is an interesting subject, I suppose the leatt etc r&d tests were done carefully and with good intentions but seemingly not applicable

It's not the equivalent to a Hans device a Hans device allows your head and neck to move just not passed an angle which could lead to a fracture or breakage The tethers on a Hans device are custom to the sport and driver I'm certain something will come to two-wheeled motorsport eventually

What if you didn’t have the neck brace on... you might not be walking if it was stoping that much force from moving .... something will eventually give

Wonder what Canard would say about his? Or Morias.

I never worn a neck brace & I never broke my neck.

I don't know who this guest is...

I honestly wonder if modern neckbraces are too "thought through" because when neck braces first started there was a few companies making cheap simple ones, and they seemed to actually do the job, wheras the extremely fancy ones seem to cause issues

I have crashed many times and every time if it’s to strong for my neck brace and doesn’t keep pushing it just breaks anywhere my collarbone neck etc

Ok. Iv raced for over 30 years. And have broken a lot of shit. And have fallen on my head a lot! Like been in ICU for 2 days sort of stuff. And have never worn a brace either. 9 months ago I had what seemed like a nothing crash. Over the bars on my head. After laying on the track for 45 mins waiting for the chopper to pull me out. I completely destroyed C 6-7 and t1 and did my shoulder. Bone fragments in my spinal canal the whole deal. Surgery that went through the front and back of my neck that took over 6 hrs. That resulted in pins and a cage. 3 months off. And I was back on the bike. I now wear a brace. Simply because my neck won’t physically move side to side or front to back that far. Or do I want it to. Would of the out come been different of had one on?🤷🏼 I’d much rather blow out collar bones if I had the choice. Like your interview with gally said. No matter how expensive the gear is you have on. Its going to happen. Some people are just lucky enough not to.

I'm usually a fan, but the amount of ignorance being displayed on this video is incredible. The use of "Bro Logic" as a legitimate argument against neck braces is ridiculous. Before any of these companies introduce a safety product there is considerable scientific research done. Riding a dirt bike is inherently dangerous and no safety device can eliminate injury completely. I'm sure a couple of "Bros" like you think chest/back protectors are unnecessary too.

Bro this guy looks like spencer Pratt from the hills

Brandon continually citing James and Ricky is so irrelevant lol. Brandon also makes a lot of claims in regards to more injuries related to the braces but does not cite any specific study or data set. Brandon, go back to wearing your tin foil hat bro

Hanz devices are a nascar thing.

I compressed my t 6 t7 prity good no disks between them now and it broke on the uther side of my neck base definitely feel it didn't help And then there the fact that maby without it woodent go over bars in 1st place ryno torked on that

Stewart had a bad one they used to highlight the reason too use them.

I broke my tib and fib without knee braces. I think knee braces or not, a bad leg injury and you'll be out for a year

Snapped both my collar bones wearing one. Soon scrapped it and was racing faster without one due to the restrictions on movement.

Shit man iv been pondering wether to get a neck brace for a while now. I’m not exactly the smallest of guys and thought it would be worth getting.. everywhere I look it seems to cause more damage than it stops.

Do y’all know What kind of neck brace he was wearing

Neck braces IS ALL THE PLACEBO EFFECT.

thats insane i would rather deal with a blown acl any day over a snapped femur lol

I broke my tib fib cause of a knee brace. I think it would been worse had I not been wearing them

Let the body do what it’s designed to do.

Ya you don’t want to blow out your knee I did but really bad I had my hole knee reconstructed

Alright so ive been running the leatt chest/neck and ive definitely tested it out quite a few times and had big endo. I pretty much always wore it but now i don’t think i will be, because of where the back part of the brace rests on your spine i have issues now. So a repetitive force to the area would be bad. Now say i wasn’t wearing it could have been much worse. So one way or another depends on the crash i suppose

this b mayzee guy has had a few too many head injuries, it's hard to listen to him and take him seriously when he says "and uhhh- uhhh" buddy's talking at half speed.

Probably why he broke his neck.

Does anyone know of a neck brace that allows me to have a lil more movement

I fractured C7 wearing an atlas neck brace over a small jump. Thank god I made a full recovery, but I'am skeptical about them (now).

Broke my neck in September wearing an Atlas neck brace 😐

All these big players arnt wearing them so it's hard to know. There's more people ridding so there's gonna be more crashes, and who knows if they where wearing them

Why can’t I watch the last video?

You can still do ACL's with knee braces on

I have always felt this way about next braces.. Isolation of movement is never a good thing, Also makes u more acceptable to being Knocked out I believe.

Where did the j law video go man

2:20 Landon shattered his ankles, and I promise wearing a neck brace had no hand in his injury. Not sure if this was a lapse in memory or if Brandon just didn't know what happened. EDIT: He could also be referring to another injury I am unaware of.

Jimmy botton bro!! He got messed up landing on his head