body armor

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I'm brand new to this forum, and relatively new to mountain biking. Almost daily I go riding in my home woods, which have everything from easy fire roads to gnarly single tracks. I am working on mapping the unmapped narrow trails, and am getting close to having half of them drawn out on my topo map. Doing this often brings me to trails that are above my ability level. I am always falling, trying to get up or down the rocky, rooty, twisty, narrow hills.

So, I'm considering buying some leg armor. It's damage to the legs that worries me, because when I fall I mostly drive the chain ring or pedals into my calf. So far that's the only part of me that I've hurt repeatedly.

What do people wear? It's the BACK and SIDES of my calves that I'm worried about. Any suggestions would be great.

since this is mostly a road forum, you might want to check out http://forums.mtbr.com/ i'm sure they would have some pretty good advice for you over there

Oh, sorry, I saw the mountain bike section and so thought ....

Well, I'll go over there now. Thanks for the info.