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So, LittleGinge has finally decided that he can ride his bike with out the stabilizers (and with the pedals) and that this is the best thing in the world. As such, we had a very pleasant 9k jaunt around one of the easier trails in our local forest today (not bad for a four year old who only learnt to ride properly a few weeks ago) and ended up sat watching all the bikes going round the pump track just before heading home. LittleGinge was very keen to join in with all this but as the track was quite busy and a pretty unforgiving concrete surface I manged to persuade him to leave it for our next trip.
Before we do go back and have a try I'd very much like to sort him out with some riding gloves and some light weight knee/elbow pads. These are as much to save his skin from being grated off as they are to protect against impact and I was wondering if anyone here can point me to anything good.
Most of the stuff I've been able to find so far (in my fairly limited searching) is either out of stock, too big (he takes age 5 clothes) or looks a bit too heavy duty; like it would be difficult to ride in.
Troy Lee and Fox have small kids gloves that I rate. Pads are tricky. I've not found a set of decent slim pads for small riders. 661 do small hard shell elbow pads that might be worth a look for both knee and elbow duty (its what we put on new young members to the bmx club pre covid).
We have had fox launch pads for my kids as well, they look bomb proof but are a bit bulky. Great for pump tracks, but probably not for a 9k ride beforehand. One for dad's backpack until you get to the track perhaps.
I bought some Fox Dirtpaws for my 3yo daughter. There are very few that are small enough for that age. These were the smallest decent brand ones I could find and are very nice quality.
https://www.evanscycles.com/fox-clothing-youth-dirtpaw-full-finger-glove-EV341767
They were too big for her to begin with but we found some cheapo ones in Halfords that were slightly smaller.
Might be in the market for pads when she goes up to a pedal bike. For the time being we make sure she's wearing thick jeans and a jumper.
Our little one has these. They say 5-6 but she used them age 3 on wards. They don't seem to bunch up or cause discomfort. Finerless are a bit easier for them to get on as well.
I've steered away from knee / elbow pads. Not sure that the extra faff / discomfort is worth it over jeans and long sleeves.
Polaris make good kids gloves, from 2-3 years up
Pads are very tough to find one!
Thanks for the suggestions so far. The fox dirtpaw gloves look fairly promising and fox list an XS small size on their website that might work. I just need to get hold of a tape measure to check sizing before seeing about ordering some of those. If they are too big the polaris ones look like they would do the job too.
Elbow pads used as knee pads sounds like it might be a workable idea too, I'll see what I can find that might fit the bill (I may even let him try my g-form elbow pads on tonight to see how they fit but I expect they might be a little big still)
So, I ended up ordering this lot for the boy in the end. The XS Troy Lee gloves are a good fit and are much better than I was expecting. The Fox pads are possibly a little on the large side but seem to have been enthusiastically taken on board (they have been worn around the house most of today) and just need to get their first proper trial out on the pump track now.
https://troyleedesigns.com/collections/bike-youth-gloves/products/gp-youth-glove-orange#size-guide
https://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/322854/products/fox-launch-pro-youth-knee-guards-black.aspx
https://uk.foxracing.com/yth-launch-pro-elbow-guard-%5Bblk%5D-os/25159-001-OS.html
My youngest was wearing my soft race face charge elbow pads as knee pads, not impact rated but have saved a lot of lost skin on the pump track and skateboarding. Troy lee youth gloves have been really good for our boys too, if you’re close to Forest of Dean the shop at Cannop keeps a good stock of kids gear in