Knee protection

[sv650sfan]

Hi all,

Got a question - I've been thinking about buying some sort of knee protection for my riding. Something that I could wear under the pants would be preferable.

Any suggestions/comments whether wearing knee guards is worth it? Or just riding pants with kevlar at the knee is the norm?

So far I've been looking at

http://www.alpinestars.com/Reflex_Knee_Guard/pd/np/170/p/650235.html

http://www.alpinestars.com/Bionic_SX_Knee_Guard/pd/np/170/p/650637.html

I am going to try to attach two photos, let's see how that goes.

[MiniMatt]

My personal take is yep, wear it, the more the merrier, it's very unlikely to hurt you and it stands a good chance of helping some. Impact injuries are down to luck as much as anything else but every little helps. I'm fairly certain that one of the big motorcycle accident studies (either Hurt et al or COST 327) noted that after head injuries, leg injuries were most likely to be (a) inflicted and (b) cause serious injury. Oddly, chest injuries weren't so common (presumably because nature defends vital organs with a ribcage and your legs flail about a bit).

One thing I would mention is to steer clear of motocross style protectors. These look very substantial but are geared for what they are designed for (and do very well) - protecting against high velocity low energy impacts such as thrown up stones. The goal of road armour should be to reduce impact energy - the important part of a helmet is not really the shell, it's the foam inside designed to reduce energy as your head flys toward the inner side of the shell, similarly with armour - a solid steel shinguard will protect you against the car bumper but you'll just break your leg on the shinguard instead of the car.

Not sure if you're UK or US, if UK then look for "CE" marking on armour, there's not a whole lot of conclusive testing on body armour but that's the closest we've got for now.

As for other brands to look for, again this is a UK bias, Forcefield back protectors are highly regarded, so I'd take a look at the rest of their range - http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.co.uk/product_selector.asp
Knox and Hiprotec stuff is commonly found as OE kit in leathers and is similarly well regarded. Alpinestars, I rate their gloves highly but a lot of their other kit gives me (and this is personal opinion remember) the impression of style over substance, it's very flash, looks pretty, but put together by sweatshop workers in the far east and seems a little dubious on the quality side.

EDIT: The norm? Not sure what the norm does, but personally I don't leave the house without it, tho both my one piece leathers and the jeans (hood jeans, UK competitor to Draggin) have armour velcro'd in.