G-Form Mountain Bike Pads | Full Review | 2019

What's up guys? Jimmy from Mountain Bike Travel Review here, and today we're going to talk about one of my favorite products, G-Form pads. In order to break this down for you guys, I'm going to give you the full review, starting with what I think are the most important factors when it comes to mountain bike pads. First things first is protection. You want to make sure, first and foremost, that you're protecting your body. Second, we're going to talk about comfort. Comfort is huge. It gets really hot out. It gets really cold. Are the pads slipping? Are they too clunky and really just restricting your mobility? And then last but not least is going to be style. So style shouldn't matter when it comes to protection, but it doesn't hurt to look decent on the trails. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. Make sure you hit that like button and subscribe if you're a fan of the channel. So first things first, let's talk protection. Now I'm not going to lie. When I first saw G-Form's pads, they looked kind of flimsy. If you put them up against some of the competition, is it really going to protect your knees? And to understand that, we need to understand the science behind the pads. What makes G-Form so special is that they use an impact absorbing foam, which they call reaction protection technology, or RPT. Essentially, how the RPT foam works is the molecules in the foam slightly repel each other at all times when no energy is being applied, leaving them soft and malleable because there's a gap between the molecules. Upon impact, those molecules in the foam that slightly repel each other will actually bind together and harden. That allows them to absorb and redistribute the energy from the impact. Once the impact is done, they will naturally slightly repel themselves, which brings it back to that malleable, flexible state. So I'm going to do a test that I've seen online multiple times, the M&M test. Alright guys, so it's time for the M&M test. Right now I have the Pro X2 Knee Pad, I have a pack, share size red, white, and blue M&Ms, and I have a significant hammer. So we're going to dump the M&Ms into the pad, smash them with the hammer, and see what happens. M&Ms, let's put them inside of our G-Form pad, hammer, zero damage without the pad. Now if I were you, I'd probably be saying, what do M&Ms have to do with my knees? So, I'd like to introduce you to my 8lb Zucchini from my garden. That's right, 8lbs, 21 inches of fury. This, kind of similar to a leg. Let's throw the pad on that and see what it does. Nice surface there, G-Form Pro X2 pad, slide it on there like a glove, hammer, big swings. See any damage. Let's try it without the pad. Alright, it would appear that the pad did some protecting there. I'd say Zucchini approved. Since we understand how the RPT foam works, it's pretty easy to explain the next category which is comfort. Since they use the RPT foam and it's so flexible until impact, basically what they can do is use a body mapping formula to mold these specifically to each body part. So they use a compression sleeve material, then they stitch that RPT foam onto that. The RPT foam has these gaps in between that allow it to move around different contours of the body. It makes a really snipe fit. To hold it in place, on most of the pads they have this rubber stitch on the top which holds it in place so it doesn't slide down. They've improved this over time. They just recently released the Pro X2 elbow and knee pads. They actually added some more airflow holes. They made the sleeves longer on both the elbow and knee pads so it's a better fit. And they fixed this rubber seal here so it really holds nicely to your leg without too much grip or not enough allowing them to slide. Now last but not least, let's talk style. And one of the best things about G-Form is I love how slick they are. Since they use this RPT foam and the body mapping to make it fit exactly to your body, I could literally be wearing a full suit of G-Form, have my jersey, my shorts over it, and you can hardly tell. It's one of the coolest parts about it. So overall, I love the style. It's simple. It's straightforward. It's not clunky. It's not bulky. Sleek colors. Black, red. Keep it simple. Well done. Now that we've covered the basics on how G-Form works, what makes it special? Let's talk about the different assortment of pads they have. One of the coolest parts about the G-Form pads is that they have something for everything. Either I'm trail riding locally with my dog Hazel, or I'm racing or doing downhill runs at Highland Mountain, there's a different pad for every scenario. First and foremost, we're going to have my trail riding. My local trails or just having fun with the buddies. Don't need a ton of protection, but still want to feel a little comfort around the knees and make sure that my hips are protected. For that, I use the Pro-X 2. These are the lighter of the two versions of knee pads. Again, these are the new Pro-X 2 with the extended material, the better rubber, a little more airflow. They adjusted the contour shape. Really, really nice pads. Honestly, you put these on, it's enough protection to get you through your local trails. Super comfortable. I hardly even notice they're there. I will say that I do notice that they're not there. I don't feel comfortable riding without them now, which is fine. Along with the Pro-X 2 knee pads from my local trails, I usually will rock the chamois, but these are actually pretty cool. They have some nice pads on the back. They have some pads just to protect the essential parts of your hip. Really snug fit. They have that nice compression, which keeps the blood flowing smooth, so those are great. The last thing I use on my local trail rides is the new G-Form gloves. These gloves are awesome. Super snug fit. Really light material, mesh material on the top. And then they have the knuckle protection now, which is that same RPT foam. Now, for my more aggressive riding, my enduro race courses, if I'm going to do park riding or just someplace that I know is a little beefier, that's when I really step it up and wear what I call my full body armor. Starts off, instead of using the regular Pro-X 2 knee pads, I bump it up to the Elite pads. These are much beefier. They wrap around, they cover a lot more space, and then the foam is actually, I think, about a quarter inch thicker. So these are going to protect you from those big hits if you go down hard. I also like to rock the elbow pads. They have both Pro-X 2, which are the lighter trail pads, and then they have Elite elbow pads as well, which are even beefier, cover more material, again, the thicker foam. For me, I'm not huge on elbow pads. They really make me feel uncomfortable, but these, the Pro-X 2, are really nice. They're light. They're enough coverage for me and my comfort level riding, so these are awesome. Next up, I'm going to rock the chamois again. It's got the padding inside. Good for the hips. Good compression. Finally, I rock the full Pro-X compression shirt. Now, this is basic compression material. Fits really well to the body, but it covers some of your primary points, so it covers your shoulder. There's some pads right around the ribcage on the side, and there's a chest protection right in the middle, so if you take that hard hit. That being said, I also rock a back protector, so this is not going to protect you from a hard hit. It's not protecting your spine, which is key. In addition to that, of course, I rock my G-Form gloves as well. All right, guys. So that pretty much wraps it up. If you like the video, again, leave a comment below, like, subscribe to the page, and please do check out the G-Form pads if you haven't. You can find everything at G-Form.com. Thanks, guys. See ya.