Sweet Protection Knee Guards Pro Review

Modern mountain bike trail/enduro knee pads have a tough job. They are expected to be protective when called to duty but at the same time comfortable enough to wear/pedal in all day long almost to the point to where you forget that you are wearing them. The Sweet Protection Knee Guards Pro do all of the above and do it well! On a recent 10 day trip to the Maritime Alps of Southern France and Italy I was able to put these pads to the test.

Most of the days consisted of van uplifts to access 10,000-12,000 ft of descending but we managed to have a couple of longer days in the saddle too. While riding in a van isn’t going to test out the pedaling properties of a knee pad the almost non-stop descending of technical rocky, rooty and wet (it rained or snowed 8 out of 10 days while in Europe) trails of Molini, IT definitely allowed me to spend some quality time in the Knee Guard Pros and get a feel for how these stack up to the competition .

Construction

All knee pads consist of similar components to achieve the same goals; stay in place and protect your knees. Pretty basic right? It seems as if some brands have figured this out better than others. With the Knee Guards Pro, Sweet Protection employs what they call “3S” a visco-elastic material to handle the protective duties. This material seems similar to D3O and other foams that remain flexible for trail riding but harden upon impact and I have no doubt they will do as advertised in the event of a crash. The second element of a knee pad is keeping it in place. Sweet wraps the 3S visco-elastic material in the front with a stretchy durable material that feels like it will fend off abrasion from rocks and dirt well.

A couple different densities of soft breathable mesh wrap around the side and back of the leg. The sleeve extends about 5” above the top of the knee to about half way down my calf and I found the length to be near perfect. High enough to get a good purchase on my calf and long enough to protect my upper shin from pedal strikes. The interior of the knee guards feature a nice soft polyester that didn’t leave any abrasions on my knees.

The interior of the upper cuff features a nice wide silicon gripper band up top and a Velcro clad elastic strap near the bottom to do the grunt work of keeping pads in place through a day of riding, hike-a-bike, pedaling and van uplifts. One last construction feature that I liked that I didn’t put much thought into is that the 3S padding is removable which makes for easy “hand” washing (not going to lie I threw them in a washing machine with the rest of my dirty kit). I found this to be quite handy on a week long trip of riding in mud and snow.

Fit

A key component of a knee pad that you are going to pedal in is the fit. They need to stay put otherwise I find myself tugging and adjusting them through out the day and that is annoying. I also find if they move around a lot they also lead to leaving little irritations on the skin on the top of my knee. Now, this is going to ruin my day or trip but it’s something I wouldn’t mind avoiding. When selecting a proper size I followed the size chart and guide provided by Sweet on their website and I found the size XL to be spot on for my 22” in circumference thighs. In the past I have had knee pads on either end of the spectrum when it came to fit.

My first set of knee pads were a very low profile minimalist knee pads that seemed to never stay put with a single elastic Velcro band across the top. The top of the pad was just above my knee cap and the bottom lined up with the top of my calf with nothing to tighten the lower portion of the pads. I constantly found myself adjusting the pads on the pedal up and the descent while also not feeling like they would provide a lot of protection if I went down at trail speed.

After a couple of seasons of use I decided to move on to another knee pad that featured Lycra sleeves that go half way up my thighs to keep things in place. While those work just fine I did find myself having to put them on first before my riding shorts as they come up quite high on the thighs. These pads used a thin silicon strip on the top and bottom interior to hold them in place and this worked fairly well until things started to stretch out, then there was no way of snugging things up. Along came the Sweet Knee Guard Pros which I found struck a nice balance of not going to far up my thigh but went further down my shin to protect from pedal strikes and wayward rocks getting kicked up from the trail.

I will note that while the gripper material on the interior does a great job of holding things in place the outer fabric isn’t as stretchy or as long as some other pads out there so the silicon gripper is doing a lot of the work here and its important that you have the right size for your legs.

Performance

After wearing these for a week straight and over a 100,000 ft of descending I can confidently say the Sweet Knee Guards Pro are a contender for one of my favorite pieces of kit! Put them on in the morning and take them off at the end of the day. There’s no need to slide them down to your ankles while pedaling or strap them to your pack, just put them on and go.

The material is plenty breathable for all day comfort and the protection is adequate to feel safe and secure. Like most visco-elastic pads they take a little bit of body heat to become pliable but once they do its off to the races and I soon forgot I was wearing them!

Sweet Protection Knee Guards Pro Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Offers serious protection for all-day comfort
• Secure fit for pedaling without adjustments
• Substantial protection while remaining breathable

Cons:

• Outer fabric not as stretchy
• May leave little irritations on skin

Overall Impression

While the protectives category is a crowded field with options from hard plastic exoskeleton like products to neoprene knee sleeves that seem more appropriate for playing a racquet sport I found that the Sweet Protection Knee Guards Pro ($129.99) strike the perfect balance for most mountain bikers. You can wear them all day regardless of how you get to the top and they feel substantial enough on the way down to fend off any sudden impacts you may have. The only situation I think I’d step up to a hard plastic knee pad would be if I was strictly riding DH or bike park and Sweet offers this on the Knee Guards Pro Hardshell.

These are the type of piece of kit that I put on before almost every ride and don’t think about them until the riding is over for the day.

Related MTB Gear We Tested

1. Velocio TRAIL Access Appareal Collection
2. Endura MT500 MT Shorts
3. Sweet Protection Durden Google
4. Black Diamond Knee Pads