POC Joint VPD Air Knee Guard Pads: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

One of the inevitable evils of riding mountain bikes is that you will eventually go down at some point. A preventative measure is you can wear pads of some sort. They aren't just for preventing serious injury but also the annoying road rash. Our friend Matt shares his thoughts o his POC Joint VPD Air knee guards. Check it out! 

Overview

My everyday riding is in Santa Cruz. Land of loam, roots, and very few rocks. Typically I will pedal 20 miles and 3500 ft, on these days I wear Fox neoprene knee guards and they do the job with comfort. Falling in the loam or dust usually has minimal consequences, lighter pads will do the job. However, not all riding is the same and sometimes you need to up the protection level. We learned that lesson somewhat the hard way last year at China Peak when my son had a crash in practice that bruised his knee pretty bad and almost caused him to skip the race.

This year we again both raced the China Peak Enduro and this time we both were sporting the POC Joint VPD Air Knee Guards. These pads while not being a hard shell still offer significant protection with a thick dense foam pad that covers the critical parts of the knee and upper shin. They're comfortable enough to wear all day as long as some of that day is lift-served. During the race, I crashed and did a superman slide across a boulder resulting in bruising and road rash to my arms and stomach. My knees, however, came out of it without a scratch or bruise! Without being too tight the pads did not slide down my leg like others I've worn. POC Joint VPD guards rock!

Final Thoughts

China Peak is known as one of the gnarliest races in California and it'd be foolish to ride there without excellent knee protection. POC knee guards were more than up to the task and I would recommend them to anyone.