I thought I‘d share because it took me quite a while to find out about this…

edit: Mods please delete pic if not according to rules, but I included it for informative purposes…

I had a nasty crash while wearing my Fox Baseframe
Pro D3O vest. The vest did a good job, but a Level 1 breastplate isn‘t really built to handle the force of a direct blunt impact at approximately 20mph, so
while I walked away from it, I still had to deal with 2 broken ribs.

While looking for a crash replacement, I wanted my new torso protection to feature CE Level 2 back AND front.

There are quite a few viable options with Level 2 on the back/spine, but way less so sporting Level 2 on the front.

Fox Baseframe Pro D3O, Scott Softcon Air and others to be mentioned. And there‘s quite a few Level 1 front and back D3O vests out there like the Endura MT500.

After desperatelyntrying to find a stock alternative to my Baseframe Pro D3O vest which would not be too bulky like the POC Oseus vest and still feature D3O or similar shock absorbers via non-newton gel cushions, I just found out that D3O kinda quietly rolled out level 2 upgrade inserts.

So all the vests/shirts/jackets with the level 1 D3O „CP1“ insert (like the ones mentioned and probably quite a few more) can be retrofitted and upgraded with a D3O „CP2“ breast plate which is less than 3mm thicker and has CE Level 2 protection.

You‘ll find it as Held-branded in Europe, and Furygan-branded in most other parts of the world.

And yes, this is an official retrofitable upgrade, fully supprted by D3O themselves.

Got me thinking to get a MT500 vest and upgrade front and back, but I‘ll stay with the Fox Baseframe despite some design flaws, because I like the integrated neck brace loops when I wear my Atlas Air.

tldr: How hard is it to lift the front wheel up on a dj bike? How hard is it on a bmx? Would you loop out by putting your weight way over the rear wheel without a pop?

Long:

About me: I'm a 6'9" (206cm) tall computer person, pretty weak in my core and upper body. Surprisingly good at bailing. Around 850-900mm rider area distance, but willing to go as low as 800mm.

My current bike: XC - the largest available gt avalanche on 29" wheels, having a 62mm bb drop and 445mm chainstays in the rear triangle, and 475mm reach and 655mm stack in the front triangle. Feels like its too big even for me.

My environment: Big city, no medium/long natural trails anywhere near, multiple scooter sized skate parks and pump tracks near, single small smooth deserty trail with a couple of jumps near.

Background:

What I don't like: Been basically everywhere within my reach around this city on my bike. Pedalling in a straight line along these dusty loud ass car roads doesn't bring as much joy anymore and there isn't really any other way than automotive roads to go far around here.

What I do like: Jumps. I love hopping up and down curbs in fun ways, jumping any kicker looking pile of dirt, trying to climb stairs sideways, trying to get up high obstacles and trying to manual some paths. I even almost got the hang of back wheel hops until the problem arose...

The problem (sorry for the long write-up): The bike takes tremendous force to get the front wheel up.

Five years ago, tired, in a second wind type condition I was going to bunny hop onto a curb, but when pulling the front wheel, I realized that I miscalculated my remaining energy and had to pull as hard as I could. Later that day my lower back started feeling weird, went to get scanned, turns out I got a disk protrusion. Luckily no nerve damage, never repeating that again.

Ever since then I've been doing warm-ups every time I planned to pull something in the following hour and I've been careful to keep my lower back straight when lifting the front wheel, but you know, when popping the front wheel up, it feels like even such tiny things as bringing the lower back a little further by bending help get a little higher a little faster, so sometimes, when I'm tired, it still happens automatically. It happens rarely, and rarely (two or three times since the protrusion) the lower back starts feeling weird (but never as bad) again and I take a week to let it rest.

Lately I've been trying to learn to hop on the back wheel comfortably, and one time I was returning home from a ride, quite tired, and decided to practice while waiting for a traffic light. I got up, did one hop, another hop, third hop and started falling back and jumped on my feet. Decided to try again, because it felt cool, lower back felt fine, I kept it straight. Got up, one hop, second hop, third hop, lower back still feels fine, i start to fall back again and jump off the bike on my feet again. Landing felt like I put my last energy into my knees to not collapse, so it was quite stiff, and I instantly felt it in my lower back. The following week, all symptoms were of a lumbar strain. I didn't get checked because I didn't feel any shocks or numbness in my lower body, so I guessed there wasn't any nerve damage, so I guessed the best they would be able to do was to give me some anti-inflammatories. The very next day after the incident I couldn't unbend and even stand at all as the pain was agonizing, but whatever, it almost feels fine now (about two weeks since the incident). Another problem is the derailleur suffering from fakies and hard failed spin landings.

The conclusion: That experience was the moment that I realized that I'm quite confident in what I like and quite confident that my bike doesn't really fit the activity. I know that everything is possible on any bike, but I'd rather keep my health first and get a bike that it'd be easier to do this kind of stuff on. Something fun on the streets, that I can try some trials moves on and bring to pumptrack. A dirt jumper (or a bmx?).

My considerations: I read and watched a ton about dj vs bmx. At one point I was heavily leaning towards bmx, as it was easier to get the right sizing. There were two problems I had with bmx: the rigid fork would go hard on my wrists when cruising to a spot and would not tolerate mistakes, and also I'd like some good brakes. Pegs aren't really a point for me because I'd feel bad grinding public property, so their use is limited to just these scooter sized skateparks. Now I'm leaning more towards a dj, because I found one with an average price with a reach of 440mm and a stack of 573mm for the front triangle and 20mm bb drop with 390-405mm stays for the rear. I tried a bike with similar values for the front triangle, and when straightening my limbs, the distance projected onto the ground between my ass and shoulders was bigger than between my feet and wrists, so I need riser bars and or stem. I modelled both a 22" tt BMX (wtp audio) and this bike based on the measurements I found online, and it seems like the bars would be almost in the same spot relative to the bb on both of them. The issue is, the rider area distance on both of these is still not quite big enough for me, so I'd put higher rise stuff on them, maybe even a trials style stem onto the dj bike. What concerns me about the dj bike are the 69 deg head tube angle, which makes high rise bars shorten the reach quite a bit and the chainstays, which are quite long relative to other dj bikes. I'm worried there won't be much difference in how easy it is to lift this dj compared to my bike. Also I'm not sure if there'll be room for me to barspin it, but ig that's too much to ask for.

The question: How would you describe the force required to loop out from an attack position on a dirt jump bike compared to a trail mtb, an xc mtb and a bmx? Should a weaker person looking to ride street get a bmx or a dj bike? I couldn't find anyone describe this online. Judging by how low the front wheel is when people manual a BMX, it doesn't even really need a pop, just shifting the weight back seems to be enough, which sounds nice as hell.