Protection
The armour that came with your jacket may be a piece of foam. It takes thirty seconds to find out.
Open the shoulder, elbow, knee and hip pockets in the kit you already own. Take out what is in them.
Certified armour is marked. The standard, the level, the type where one applies, a size. Printed on the piece, because the standard requires it.
A placeholder is blank. Plain foam, no printing. It occupies the pocket and it was never tested against anything.
A transmitted force measured on a rig under a defined impact, with level 2 recording the lower figure.
Reaching level 2 usually takes more material. That means thicker, stiffer and warmer — so it is an arbitration rather than a ranking. A soft, thin level 2 protector that disappears into the pocket is armour that stays in; a thick one that bulges comes out in July and never goes back.
Ventilation, because a protector that cooks you is a protector you remove.
Cold flexibility, because a soft protector that stiffens in January changes how the whole garment sits. One protector in this catalogue publishes exactly that.
The back protector is the separate purchase, with its own standard and its own type — B or FB — describing coverage. Level and type are independent, and a listing giving one without the other has given half the classification.
6 mm · EN 1621-1:2012 · shoulder, elbow, knee or hip · flexible in the cold
An ultra-thin 6 mm protector certified to EN 1621-1:2012, usable at four positions, with a patented design stated to keep its flexibility at low temperatures.
Best for: Any armour pocket that will take 6 mm, in a jacket worn through winter.
≈ €13
D3O Ghost · level 2 · elbow or knee · one size · the maker cites EN 1621-3
A pair of soft, thin level 2 D3O protectors for elbow or knee pockets, published against a standard the other four protectors in this family do not cite.
Best for: Filling the empty armour pockets of riding trousers with something thin enough to forget.
≈ £28 / €26
EN 1621-2 level 2 · D3O · breathable and flexible · fits any jacket
A level 2 approved back protector using D3O, published as breathable, flexible and light, with a universal fit the maker states is compatible with any riding jacket.
Best for: Replacing a foam placeholder in a jacket pocket with a certified level 2 piece.
≈ £38 / €30
EN 1621-1 impact test · CE level 1 · 3 mm TPU shell · dual-density foam · reflective
Knee guards published as having passed the EN 1621-1 impact test at CE level 1, with a 3 mm TPU shell over dual-density foam, extended shell coverage and reflective strips.
Best for: Riders who want a published standard, a published level and a published thickness on the same guard.
≈ $37 / £45 / €50
EN 1621-1 level 1 · knee AND shin · removable EVA padding · ventilation slots
A strap-on knee and shin guard certified to EN 1621-1 level 1, with removable EVA foam padding and ventilation slots cut into the shell.
Best for: Off-road riding, where the shin takes the hit the knee does not.
≈ $76 / £57 / €52
Certified armour carries printed markings: the standard, the level, the type where the standard has one, and a size. A foam placeholder carries nothing. Take the piece out of the pocket and look at it.
Level 2 records a lower transmitted force in a defined impact, and it generally takes more material — thicker, stiffer, warmer. A level 2 protector too bulky to lie flat in its pocket sits worse than the level 1 that does.
EN 1621-1 is limb protectors — shoulders, elbows, knees, hips. EN 1621-2 is back protectors, with a type as well as a level. Reading the number on the piece tells you what it was tested as.
For : Any armour pocket that will take 6 mm, in a jacket worn through winter.
Main strength : Publishes the standard AND its year, which is more precise than any other protector here
Main limitation : The level is not published, and EN 1621-1 classifies two
For : Filling the empty armour pockets of riding trousers with something thin enough to forget.
Main strength : Level 2 in a soft, thin protector that fits a trouser pocket
Main limitation : The standard cited is not the one the four protectors beside it cite
For : Replacing a foam placeholder in a jacket pocket with a certified level 2 piece.
Main strength : Publishes a level, which most protectors here do not
Main limitation : The type — B or FB — is not published, and that is the coverage classification
For : Riders who want a published standard, a published level and a published thickness on the same guard.
Main strength : Names the standard, the level and the shell thickness — the most complete citation in this family
Main limitation : The 90% absorption figure carries no stated test condition
For : Off-road riding, where the shin takes the hit the knee does not.
Main strength : Standard AND level both published
Main limitation : A strap-on guard is worn over or under trousers — it is not a pocket insert
31 € – 50 €
4 models
What separates the brackets here : Amazon reference — Entry level 0 · Mid range 9 · Upper range 9
Head-to-heads already published between two models from this guide or this aisle.
The models here come from the catalogue of this site. Specifications are those published by the manufacturer and on the Amazon product page; prices are what Keepa reported on the date below, and both move. The ranking uses declared specifications, the balance of stated strengths and limitations, and price. No product on this site has been physically tested, and nothing here claims otherwise.
Last checked on
Nothing written into the text below is a current price. Where an amount appears in a sentence, it is the reading taken on the day that sentence was written; what a shop is asking at this moment loads beside the product itself, and that is the figure to go by.
Helmets and riding gear are discounted over and over through the year — hardest of all in the weeks when nobody is riding, which is months away from when most of it is bought — and a struck-through figure on its own says nothing whatever about what the same model was charged at four weeks ago. UniverTrack holds a week-by-week history for every retailer, which means a reduction is judged against a price somebody actually paid rather than one dreamed up for the sale — and it tells you when the moment to buy has genuinely come.
