Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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18 UCW DECEMBER 24-30, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM December 18 EMPLOYEE CHRISTMAS PARTY Gift Exchange ($20 Value) 4624 BRAGG BLVD. DECEMBER 31 • NEW Y EAR'S EV E PART Y at Legends Pub. Call 867-2364 for information. JANUARY 25 • 2015 CHARIT Y RIDE at For t Bragg Harley- Dav idson. Registration at 10 a.m. $35 per person includes lunch and a T-shir t . R iding to R ichard Pet t y Museum and Pet t y 's Garage. Benef it s the R ichard Pet t y Museum. Rain date Feb. 1, 2015. Call 910-850-3298 for more information. FEBRUARY 1 • NAM K NIGHTS OF AMERIC A MC SUPER BOWL AND CHILI COOK OFF at Nam K night s of America MC "Tarheel Chapter" 327 Grogg St ., Spring Lake. Call 910-514-8614 or v isit ht t p://w w w.t arheelnk .org for information. FEBRUARY 7 • AFMC NC3 ANNIV ER SARY PART Y AT the AFMC NC3 Club House, 2663 Everit te St ., Fayet tev ille. Free food, pool, music and enter t ainment . Call 910-897-8861 for information. PATRIOT GUARD RIDER S The Patriot Guard R iders is a diverse group of patriot s from ever y st ate that come together to honor fallen soldiers at f uneral ser v ices across the countr y. Visit w w w.patriotguard.org for more information about the group. If you didn't get what you want for Christmas, you may want to check out some new body armor. For a long time, the best body protection for a motorcyclist was leather. Over time, synthetic rid- ing gear made its way into every- day riding. As a general rule, synthetic jackets are good for speeds less than 100 mph. W hen I bought my first motor- cycle, I purchased a nice Joe Rocket motorcycle jacket before I lef t the store. The jacket had padded back, shoulder and elbow pads. Within a few weeks, I bought an extra jacket in case I had a friend that wanted to ride with me. To this day, I always insist that my passenger and myself wear as much protective gear as pos- sible, even on short rides. Today, I have seven different motorcycle jackets and three different sets of motorcycle pants. I have different gear for different weather conditions. As I was preparing to get ready for my motorcycle trip to the Arctic Circle this spring, I decided that I needed a new set of protective gear. My friend Rick had bought some KLIM riding gear and was swearing by it. My wife decided to buy me the jacket for my birthday present. The jacket is heav y (6.5lbs). This particular jacket retails around $900, is made of GORTEX and has plent y of air vents. As I researched the jacket I found that the body armor is made of D30™ technolog y. D30 is a revolutionary material that provides the best protective pad- ding on the market. Invented by avid snowboarder and engineer-turned- entrepreneur Richard Palmer, D30 belongs to a family of oddball materials known as non-New tonian f luids. Non-New tonian materials include many salt solutions and molten polymers. Palmer learned how to thicken the non-Newtonian fluids, which con- versely makes the material become solid on impact. D30 contains a molecu- lar bond that is sensitive to the speed at which the material moves. The net result is that you end up with a soft material with very high-energy absorp- tive properties. In it s raw st ate, t he material look s like a lump of orange Silly Put t y. This characterist ic prov ides protec t ion, as well as material f lexibilit y. The material is molded as back plat s, shoulder, elbow, chest, hips and k nee shapes. The pads are inser ted into pocket s in t he jacket and pant s. The orange "put t y " is composed of f reely mov ing molecules. However, upon impact t he molecules bind toget her t urning t he sof t put t y into a solid block . Motorcycle pads have traditionally been made of a foam composite. This is good and certainly bet ter than no pads but the energ y displacement is not the same as the D30. D30 spreads the displaced energ y throughout the pad and protects you. W hile researching this article I found many videos on YouTube where subjects placed D30 over their fingers and slammed their fingers with a hammer. One guy put on a D30 protected motorcycle jacket and let his friend beat him with a ball bat. If you already have a jacket or pants, be sure to inspect the pads and stitching for any breakdown in the materials. If you decide that new gear is in order, do your homework and purchase your protective gear by con- struction and not looks. Riding gear is like insurance. You hope you will never need it but if you do, you want the best coverage you can get. If there is a topic that you would like to discuss you can contact me at motor- cycle4fun@aol.com. RIDE SAFE! Understanding D30 Body Armor by JIM JONES In its raw state, D30 looks like a lump of orange Silly Putty. JIM JONES, Motorcycle Enthusiast, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. Be sure to see what we have in store for you! News, views, arts & entertainment. Coming Every Week.... Exciting features on timely topics that matter to you! www.upandcomingweekly.com 484-6200