Trading Standards order clothing off the shelves

Trading Standards officers ordered Buffalo to replace the armour in one of their jackets because it didn’t meet the CE standard it had claimed to.

Importer Bifax moved swiftly and all examples of the Boost textile jacket and Lynx trousers should now be back in the shops with replacement Knox armour which is CE approved. If you have bought either recently and they don’t have Knox armour in, return them to your dealer and the armour should be replaced.

The kit in question was ordered from the shelves in the early part of this week.

Tests had shown the clothes had armour pads which failed to meet the required standard.

Knox boss Geoff Travell tested a random selection of rivals’ armour as part of a routine survey.

The Europe-wide CE standard insists that to be approved, armour must absorb a certain amount of energy to save damage to the rider’s body. No more than 35kN of energy from an impact of 50 joules must be transmitted through it in laboratory tests.

Bifax told its dealers: ” We believe there is other product in the market place that is affected… ”

The issue came to a head at an emergency meeting of the Motorcycle Industry Association last week, when former member Bifax was invited, along with eight major clothing distributors, for talks.

” It is possible that other manufacturers are involved with the armour problem, ” said industry spokesman Craig Clinch after the meeting.

” It seems that some armour that is produced outside the EC, and apparently has CE approval, but we’re not sure if it does conform to the standard.

” But it’s not the MCIA’s job to be a policeman on the issue. Our members ask us to keep them informed about their responsibilities, and that’s what we do, ” said Clinch.

The MCIA’s advice to clothing firms is to have all armour independently tested, making sure it’s up to EC standard, and replace any which fails the test.

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