Now that I’ve got this blog, I want to explore the forever-asked, forever-unanswered questions that have lingered in this sport. There are many questions, but virtually no real answers on these topics.

Number One: Can Chest Protectors Actually Prevent Shoulder Injuries?

It’s absolutely ridiculous that this question rolls on—forever unanswered—through literally decades of collarbone breaks, shoulder dislocations, and shoulder separations. A shoulder injury is practically a guarantee if you ride a dirt bike enough. Yet, no one actually knows for sure if you can wear protective equipment that actually prevents this.

Actually, many fans DO think there is protective gear that can prevent shoulder injuries. The industry—i.e., the pro pits—does not seem to agree with this. With Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin, and Dean Wilson all getting jacked up, the standard chorus returned: how can teams be so stupid as let their million-dollar title contenders ride without shoulder protection?

I don’t think teams could possibly be that dumb. I’ve followed this sport for 30 years, yet I have still never heard of one person definitively say they know of a product that really prevents shoulder injuries. Note that virtually all chest protectors are actually called “roost deflectors,” and the few that actually do claim to provide impact protection never go so far as to specify what type of protection they provide. No product lists “designed to prevent shoulder separations” as an actual bullet point.

Sure, we have hunches, we have debates, we have theories. We have no proof. Isn’t that insane?

I don’t think riders and teams are so dumb as to leave shoulder protection on the shelf just because they want to look cool. There can only be two reasons.

A) No product really works.

Or...

B) The products that would work are too restrictive and make the riders go slower.

Either A or B is an acceptable answer. At the elite level, speed trumps safety, sorry. If Tomac figures out he can gain one-tenth per lap by ditching bulky shoulder protection, he’s going to dump the shoulder protection. One tenth per lap is everything in this game—it’s literally worth millions in a contract. Can a shoulder injury ruin a championship? Yes. But so can going slow. Even if shoulder protection that can prevent injury does exist, pro riders will not use it if it makes them feel slower—or actually ride slower.

Football players hit the ground shoulders first thousands of times, yet shoulder injuries are shockingly rare. Running backs should break collarbones on every single play. They do not. So why can’t riders just wear football-style shoulder pads?

I’d have to think such pads would make it harder to ride. Or maybe the speeds reached on a motorcycle render football-level padding useless. If that's the case, though, isn't it strange that the sport with the slower speeds uses more protection?

Another debate: many feel Musquin’s shoulder injury—and many others—come from smashing an arm or elbow into the ground and pushing the shoulder out of the socket. You don’t even need to land on your shoulder to hurt your shoulder, which renders shoulder pads useless.

Bottom line, we only have hunches and theories. We have no definitive answers or proof. So, I’m going to try to get to the bottom of this. I’m going to start asking at the races, and I’m going to report my answers right here, on this blog, over the coming weeks. It’s a simple question without a simple answer.

I’m gonna try to figure it out. If anyone from the industry with some real background in this subject wants to hit me up, do it: jasonw@racerxonline.com.