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When it comes to mountain bike safety there are many precautions you can take as well as many products you can buy to help keep you from getting hurt. Of course a helmet is the number one piece of safety equipment you need to use but there are still other items designed to keep the injuries to a minimum such as gloves and mountain bike appropriate shoes. |
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There are many manufacturers that make knee and elbow pads and they usually offer various models as well. Some will be geared towards hardcore riding and have things like plastic shin guards and plastic elbow cups offering greater protection. Then you will find your lighter pads that don't offer the same level of protection yet are more comfortable and can be used all day long, even when riding uphill.
Dakine who is known for things like their clothing and truck tailgate protectors also make a variety of knee and elbow pads geared towards all day use rather than pure downhill protection. One of the models is called the Slayer and they come in both a knee and elbow pad. These pads are lightweight and fairly breathable so you can wear them all day long without too much discomfort. The foam used to protect your knees and elbows is also CE (Conformite Europeenne) certified which is a European certification meaning the meet the standards for protection for what they are designed for.
Both the knee and elbow pads use foam rather than hard plastic to protect you in a fall which makes the pads more comfortable and lighter but less likely to really protect you as well in a serious crash. They are designed more for abrasion protection and softening blows rather than all out keep you safe coverage that more heavy duty pads provide. They also use a slide on design rather than Velcro or straps to hold them into place. There is silicon elastic used to keep them in place while riding. Plus they are made with an open back design to help keep you cool.
We have used these pads in various situations and they are pretty comfortable and you can leave them on all day without feeling like you want to rip them off the first chance you get. On hotter days you will notice them a bit, especially when you stop moving. When you take them off they will most likely be sweaty underneath. And since they cover quite a bit of area below your knee and elbow it makes things a little bit warmer. But at the same time that offers you some protection against abrasions in addition to where the foam padding is located. Fortunately we only got to test them with minor crashes and they held up fine but if you were unfortunate to eat it on a rock garden at high speeds we don't think they would quite do the job but would definitely be better than nothing.
For the most part the elbow pads stayed in place and it's important to get the right size so if you can buy them in your local store rather than online, that would be your best bet. As for the knee pads they would tend to slip down a little especially when pedaling so you might find yourself pulling them up once in a while during your ride. If you were using them strictly downhill then they would probably stay in place better.
Style wise they look pretty good and you can get the knee pads in black and grey or black and blue while the elbow pads only come in black and grey. One thing you might have a problem with is telling the knee and elbow pads apart since they look very similar. That alone might be a good reason to get the black and blue knee pads!
Overall you really can't go wrong with the Dakine Slayer pads for all mountain protection since you can keep them on all day long without too much suffering and they will keep you protected much better than if you had no pads on at all. If you tend to ride when it's 90 degrees then that might be another story but you won't find anything that is perfectly comfortable at that temperature.
