*Rapha protector knee pad
Rapha’s move to add a set of knee pads to its blossoming MTB range is quite a departure for a brand that is best known for its road wear. Despite being the brand’s first try at any protection, they have managed to develop one of the best mountain bike knee pads on the market.
The Trail knee pads use a sleeve design to hold the pads in place and house an ‘active polymer’ insert from Rheon Labs. This insert has non-Newtonian properties which means it’s flexible when pedaling but stiffens upon impact.
The amalgamation of the comfortable and secure sleeve with flexible knee protection makes the Rapha Trail knee pads fit and forget even on long trail days. After many intense testing sessions, we never needed to hike them up after a big climb and a good flow of air through the insert helps keep them comfortable on the hottest of days. The pads are very slimline so there are no problems fitting them under the tightest race pants, yet the thin Rheon Labs insert has offered plenty of protection when we have needed it.
These pads have become tester Graham Cottingham’s go-to knee pad. He stated in his review, “I found the Rapha Trail knee pads to be some of the best fitting pads I have used, there’s no bunching behind the knee, and the pads endured in position with no need to re-adjust, even after big days of climbing and descending.”
*Sweet Protection Knee Pad
At the heart of the Sweet Protection Knee Pad lies a cup made of SAS-TEC SCL 2 viscoelastic foam – aka memory foam – that offers impressive levels of shock impact and absorption. This cup is removable so you can easily wash the fabric sleeve, and we found the lack of additional padding to the sides acceptable in light of the comfort it gains you. They’re almost unrivaled for that among the best mountain bike knee pads, in fact.
The SAS-TEC pad become warm as you ride, too, which only makes it more malleable and better when pedaling. Jim Bland was our crash test dummy for the Sweet Protection Knee Pad review and having taken a number of falls in them while testing, said he was impressed with the results. While these are one of our favorite pads for nearly any type of riding, the cheaper knee guard versions are worth looking at for comfortable pedaling too.
After testing, Jim Bland, summed up the pads as “great protection for gravity riders that doesn’t come at the expense of comfort.” Find out why these Sweet Protection Knee Pad have become one of our go-to choice in our full five-star review.
*IXS Carve Race Knee Pads
The IXS Carve Race Knee Pads feature a 3D-molded piece of ‘Xmatter’ flexible material at its core, wrapping around the knee and extending down the shin. There is an outer hard shell layer and additional padding is located on outer-knee and above-kneecap locations. An abrasion-resistant sleeve holds everything together and features silicone grippers to keep the pad from slipping.
In testing, Guy Kesteven found that “by combining a thin shell with hi-tech shock-absorbing, the Carve Race pads give a lot of protection in a relatively lightweight, low bulk, mobile and all-day-comfortable format. Carve Race pads offer a large amount of protection and combine that with a relatively lightweight package that stays comfortable all day.”
We formed a view during testing they do get sweaty quickly on hotter days, but that’s true with almost any knee pad that offers similar levels of protection.
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