Review: G-Form Pro-X Elbow Pads and Knee Pads

Bowen got it into his head that he wanted to do mountain biking. (I swear it wasn't all those Danny MacAskill videos I showed him when he was small) Now you can buy MTB tandems, but I draw the line there. Off pavement, where there are no hostile motorists waiting to run you over, I'm a big believer that kids will learn how to do appropriate skill assessment, and become better bike handlers if they ride their single bikes.

Of course, Bowen is particularly accident prone, and crashing hurts, so I went shopping for elbow pads and knee pads. By far the most highly recommended body armor for MTB use are the G-Form Pro Elbow Pads and Knee Pads. These are astonishingly expensive, running around $50 a pair on Amazon, and I tried but didn't find any place selling them for less. If there's anything I've learned as an outdoorsman over the past 25 years, however, is that when it comes to outdoor equipment, there's just no point trying to save money.

These are incredibly flexible, and to be honest, Bowen never crashed while wearing them, having perhaps learned (finally!) from his years of crashing bikes that it's not fun. But since his brother started wanting to come along, we gave them to Boen instead since he was still crashing. We finally tested them on Long Ridge, where at one point Boen crashed hard down a gravel road. He cried and screamed as though the sky had fallen on him, but when I turned around and walked him down, I found that he was tapping those pads, surprised that he actually wasn't hurt. (Yes, the little guy was screaming and crying out of habit!)

People who don't have boys keep telling me how girls are more expensive. That's not true. Boys just spend money on different things, such as coast guard rescues and hospital bills. These $50 crash pads might end up saving you $300 on hospital bills, and obviously sparing your kids from pain because they had crash pads that they'll actually wear are a plus for any parent.

After writing this review, I realized that given how bad I am at mountain biking, I bought a set for myself. After all, unlike my kids, I'm unlikely to ever outgrow mine. As you can imagine, that makes this product something I would heartily recommend to anyone.