The Tactic knee guard is Scott’s attempt at a lightweight, pedal-friendly pad for all day stints in the saddle where a bit of protection is a bonus rather than a necessity.
Inside sits the massively malleable, super low-profile Armourgel pad that moulds to the shape of your knee comfortably. There’s enough padding there to take the edge off smaller impacts, knocks and scrapes. But with no real side padding the Tactics don’t feel as protective as heavier, more conventional kneepads.
Getting them on and off is easy thanks to the two huge Velcro closures – you don’t need to take your shoes off to get the pads on. Both closures then feature secondary Velcro tabs for additional adjustment to help tailor sizing even further. This is mainly because the Tactics only come in one size.
When on the trail, they certainly feel light and airy. They didn’t slip down, but due to the open back of the pad they did bunch up and splay out a bit when we were pedalling, which became irritating after a while.
We do like the idea of minimal Tactic pads, but think that fully enclosing the rear of the pad could help avoid the bunching problem.
This article was originally published in Mountain Biking UK magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.
