The Conflict knee guards from One Industries are the brand’s first foray into the world of bike-specific protection.
The main knee cup is constructed from thick, hard moulded foam, with separate upper and lower sections made from the same hard foam to extend coverage and improve articulation. There’s also integrated side protection in the form of soft foam inserts, and a Lycra sleeve to hold them neatly in place.
The elasticated Velcro straps at the top and bottom of each pad are designed to hold them in place, although even when those straps were tight we experienced slippage on longer rides.
We think it could be down to the hard foam cup – rather than cup the contour of the knee, it tended to push outwards, due to the squared angle in the formed foam. As well as causing the pad to slip, it wasn’t particularly comfortable and got pretty annoying on longer stints on the hill.
We found the effect was less pronounced with trousers over the pads, but the cup pressed uncomfortably against our knee caps, meaning we wouldn’t want to ride more than one downhill run at a time without adjusting them.
This article was originally published in Mountain Biking UK magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.