Race Face Flank Leg Guard: Customer Review

If you are going to be riding mountain bikes these days there's a good possibility you'll crash sooner or later. Wearing a helmet is pretty standard but getting protection for your body is sometimes an afterthought. Matthew Fairbank gives us the lowdown on his Race Face Flank leg guards. Check it out! 

Overview

Let me preface this review with several key points...

- I always wear knee and elbow pads because I fall...I fall A LOT!
- I have short legs (31" inseam) with large quads and calves which makes fit a real big problem
- I ride flat pedals and very technical terrain (ie: I NEED shin protection)
- I fall a metric shit-ton (It needed to be said again)

The Race Face Flanks are the 5th pair of knee guards I have purchased in many years. The others all failed in one respect or another. This isn't to say that they're bad pads... just not good for me ( I don't want to get a threatening letter from any of these companies). I started with 661 Rage pads but they were too loose when pedaling and too little protection. No shin protection. I had a pair of Alpinstar Paragon pads. Nice small pads but no cinch straps and too little padding. Every time I fell they slipped down or up and I still got banged up. Once again, no shin protection. The 661 full leg pads (can't remember the title) covered down to my shin but the padding was cheap and they constantly slipped down because of a lack of top or bottom cinch straps. They don't even sell these anymore. Next up was the Dainese hybrid pads. A decent concept with a partial hard shell and shin guard integrated but too small to be effective despite ordering the XL size. Always slipped down from the upper cinch strap. Finally, the Fox launch pads ended up being the same as the 661 Rage, I was beginning to think it was a lost cause until I found the Race Face Flanks.

I ordered them because of the full leg protection and the fact that they can be put on without having to take off your shoes. As always I was somewhat skeptical and, as a result, have held off sending a review until I could get some more experience with them. Now that I have a couple of months and some long rides on these pads I can give an adequate review.

Final Thoughts

As with any product, there are pros and cons:

Very high-quality materials and construction, durable outer fabric, comfortable, soft lining, and vented in the back. The padding is just thick enough to provide enough protection but not too bulky with 4 separate cinches to get a good fit. Even with my oddly proportioned legs, I find they fit comfortably. They do not slip down at all!

This is the best part... THEY GO ON WITHOUT HAVING TO TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!!!!!!  Although they are HOT, this is fully expected as they cover a lot of surface area. They are very well vented in the back, as a result of the way they strap-on rather than slip on. Because they can fully open up in the back they are easy to air out and dry out very fast.

I loved these pads so much that I also ordered the Ambush elbow and knee pads (for days on less technical terrain). The elbow pads slip on but have never slipped down ( I have also been through 2 or 3 different pairs of elbow pads). The knee pads don't have a shin protection part but are otherwise exactly the same as the Flanks. Just my 2 cents, for what it's worth.