The thought of racing or even trail riding a bike or sled without wearing knee braces has become almost unthinkable to us over the years. You know the naked feeling you get when you’re unloading at your favorite ride spot and realize you forgot your chest protector or Tekvest? It’s even worse with knee braces. In fact, we’ll take the chance without the chest pro but can’t do it with the knees. Even if you or a buddy happen to have an old set of cheapie knee/shin guards to get you through, it still lingers in the back of your head.
Knee braces are not an inexpensive proposition and while we’ve been lucky enough to get hooked up with various custom braces over the years, we wanted to do a first hand review of some of the mid-price options on the market.
EVS offered to send us their high end AXIS Pro knee brace but we chose the EVS AXIS SPORT for just this reason. The Sports share the same function and features as the Pros, with the exception being a polymer frame that is a bit heavier than the Pro’s aluminum/carbon frame. We selected the off-the-shelf braces based on the size specs on the EVS website and found them to be right in line with the custom braces we have been wearing for the past several years.
Our favorite part of the EVS braces is the two-piece sliding patella cup that provides full knee cap protection throughout a full range of motion on a bike or sled. This is actually one area where custom braces can sometimes fall short, but the EVS sliders were confidence-inspiring in all conditions and never felt overly bulky or cumbersome.
We were able to put a considerable number of miles on during our first outing with the braces and had no issues with fit and performance. One of the stretch fit straps did feel a little sharp on the back of the knee but after a couple of subsequent rides it has softened up a bit around the edges and is no longer an issue.
- EVS AXIS SPORT Knee Braces
- Hyperextention lockout
- Dual Alloy Tru-Motion Hinge
- Shark skin liner
- Form-fit frame
- Dual Defense Knee Cup
- Stretch Fit Straps
$555.45
