Knee pads? Recommendations?

Bicycling
1

I had my freehub skip on engagement yesterday and put my knee into my bar pretty hard. This isn’t the first time it’s happened so I’m going to replace the freehub just to be safe but I’ve decided my post operation knees just need to be protected.

I have an older set of knee/shin pads that I wear on rougher trails or when I’m riding with flats and they are fine to ride in all day but the protection isn’t that great. Anyone regularly ride with knee pads even on more XC type rides? What are you using? Have any recommendations?

2

After a couple of… ahem… “incidents” I picked up some 661 Rhythm knee/shin pads. They’re nice and light, stay in place and have saved me from some pain a bunch of times. I like that they can be worn under pants too.

I’m also curious about the G-Form and other similar non-Newtonian based pads that firm up under impact.

3

I had some gforms and just playued around with them, but they were too small and ultimately i returned them.

However, they did look like they’d save some pain for sure. Very interesting material.

4

I think I’ve narrowed my choices down to:

  • Fox Launch Pro
  • SixSixOne Evo
  • iXS Carve
5

I like the fox launch. I have had mine for a few seasons, but I only wear them during enduro races or intense group rides. They seem like they will last a good while, and haven’t torn after a spill.
They are plenty tough, comfortable when pedaling, and stay in place pretty well. It’s nice when crashing to be confident that your knee pads aren’t going to slide down your leg when you are grinding along the dirt.
My only complaint is that they are pretty hot on the legs when riding in warm weather, but I think you will find that with any pads.