choosing roll cages

[oasis]

That's a lot to chew on. I can now see Humble's pic now that I am home -- my work computer disallows picture hosting sites including the one I use.

First, about Humble's pic ... the cage I saw once was not quite as robust as Humble's but I thought it might give more real protection than the loop that goes around the seat backs and extends back with four points of connection to the chassis. It had a single sidebar running diagonally rather than the X on both sides. It also did not have the X behind the driver and passenger.

The side X's might be a bit much for an old fart like me who has had both knees scoped and gets regular cortizone shots throughout the year.

As for padding, I definitely assumed I would get padding. Whatever proper padding is, that would be fine.

BTW, I understand being safe would mean I would keep the bug parked and I would drive my Eos all of the time. I never felt totally unsafe in my 1302, but I wasn't foolish in thinking I was safe. I actually thought the improvements I made with its engine, brakes, suspension, etc. made me have more fun but also more safe. I was thinking a rollcage would take it further -- especially if I took my next project further than the 1302.

The cage I saw seem to run just inside the roofline quite neatly, and didn't seem to intrude in the footwell area even though it bolted there as well. (I assume bolted; it could have been welded. I wasn't checking on details at the time.)

Attaching the cage to the suspension sounds very good but it also sounds very involved. The set-up my 1302 had seemed to have excellent tortional stiffness to me, so I'm not sure I need that for my application.

I guess I need to check some sites specifically. The link above showed a couple. I'm not familiar with Heigo but I will search that.

Will proper padding and the cage I described be worthwhile, or just a nice looking trouble waiting to happen in a smaller accident with my head dangling around without a helmet? How do I know what proper padding is? The only padding I ever really saw was for a Thing (Type 181), and evena novice like me could tell it was pretty stinking minimal.

Thanks, everyone.