I’m looking around for some protective stuff for my 5 year old son. Decent gloves and knee pads, maybe elbows too, but maybe getting a bit much. It’s for every day off road riding, not jumpiness, so wearability is the thing,

I’m not too optimistic on finding decent knee pads for a slim 5 yr old to be honest, but hoped people might have some real world experience to share. When he falls it’s always hi knees that take the bash, and I’d rather he was either less worried about falling off, and/or back up and riding quicker after a spill (although he is pretty good at that).

Similarly with gloves – he’s essentially got size 4 hands, not that I can find size charts etc to match anything up against. Anyone got experience of buying “small” youth gloves and how small they might actually be?

have a look at skate protection stuff – they do that down to really small sizes for kids.

Halfords do a variety of kids gloves – mostly fingerless so summer only but look at ski gloves for winter.

With all the above I’d look at going to a shop and trying it on rather than an online purchase.

Little ones bounce don’t you know. 😉

From the title I thought this is what you were looking for:

on a serious note I can’t help -sorry!

wwaswas: Yes – think skate protection stuff might be only real option. He’s got ski gloves and they’re good for keeping his hands warm, unfortunately they’re a bit too bluky and inflexible which, combined wiht little hands, leaves him with an unenviable choice of either braking or gripping the bars. Got track mitts too actually (tiny Like-a-bike branded ones!), but needs something inbetween for most of the year.

have a look at goal keeper gloves – seemed to be a reasonable halfway house for my boy.

Same problem here. Tried everywhere online. Happened on a local bike shop who’d just had some gloves in. Fingerless, but the smallest size fitted our 3yr old perfectly.
For winter I bought bigger sizes & some cheap woolen ones to go underneath.
Measure the circumference of his hand & I’ll see how they compare to my lads. If no luck I could always see if they have any left for you.

Islabikes might be worth a call, not sure if they do kit also. Probably wont be cheap though.

Years ago when our two were little we got some Fox kids stuff from here

http://shop.1stmx.co.uk/kids-youth-motocross-protection-128-c.asp

Dont know if it is still available but the arm and leg pads were great

Cheers Tracey – Fox were on the list as they do seem to go down to proper small sizes. Good to get actual recommendations though, I’ll have a hunt 🙂

In case anyone was interested – got him a pair of these. They look very similar to the Fox Peewee ones to be honest. They’re a proper small size (ie the straps are the right length!) and seem comfy with plenty of coverage. He was most excited by the 661 comp gloves I got him as well, spent all last night and all this morningbefore school wearing them 😉

661 Kyle Straights in kids size fit my 5 year old, good gloves too.

Try here or here.

😉

Are they the “slim” youth ones? And how skinny is your 5 year old (not to be too personal about it!)? I couldn’t find any published sizes for those ones. And I was very tempted by them for that whole dad/son matching thing 😉

Thought I’d give these a go first anyway as they strap on and off easily.

yeah yeah Mike :-p

I’m just bored of mopping up the blood 😉

Pipe lagging and duct tape? 😉

johnathan he is 117cm tall with 12″ thigh and 10″ calf, def slim build,they fit fine with shorts and on top of skinny jeans at the skatepark!slim youth size.

Ta – he sounds pretty like a body double for my 5 yr old. So I’ll add those to the future purchases list 😉

I’ll probably get shot down in flames for this but I’m of an age where when I was a kid we didn’t have any safety gear at all. Sure, we got injured but we learned our limits and let’s face it we’re not talking about avoiding SERIOUS injury are we? At five years old it’s about avoiding scrapes and bumps. Making a child wear helmet, gloves, elbow and knee pads before letting them out on a bike takes all the fun away and may put them off something which could help keep them fit and healthy for the rest of their lives. So, sure, protect them, but do as little as possible rather than as much as possible.

You probably shouldn’t assume what people’s motivations are. Son no 1 has been riding bikes off road since he was 2. So in the last 3-4 years he’s scraped knees, elbows and hands numerous times, split his lip a few times, gathered an impressive array of bruises, got cold and wet and generally suffered for his riding 😉

And everytime he’s got up and wanted to carry on, or “do it again”, sometimes before I’ve manage to mop all the blood up! He’s now bigger and going faster. Protection for him is simply about making sure he enjoys riding and isn’t too scared of pushing his limits. I’m certainly not going to insist he wears pads – they’re there if he wants to wear them and feels happier in them. Although I will insist he wears a helmet, and I’ll keep nagging him to wear mitts or gloves.

It’s the same as making sure he’s got comfy clothes to ride in, that he’s warm and dry in the winter and not too hot in the summer. If a bit of kit will remove an annoyance and therefore add to the enjoyment then that’s fine with me.

Fair point, you sound like you have sensible balance.

I remeber having 2 bad crashes (pre BMX so say I was 9 or 10) one took ALL of the skin and flesh off my elbow the other knocked my teeth out. My kids are getting pads.

We’ve been buying m-x for mine, the sizes are quite small and the trousers usually come with armour built in.

And as for:

I’ll probably get shot down in flames for this but I’m of an age where when I was a kid we didn’t have any safety gear at all.

True, but neither did we have bikes that we capable of the routes the ones now can take…

My little un always wears his armour (inc. full vest/arms) and full-face. He doesn’t do XC, but ‘daft’ stuff – and its certainly saved him broken bits plus the assorted gashes that are common place. And this is the kid that at 10 managed to bend the rear pivot on his Norco through full-fronting a tree at Innerleithen…

Our girls always wear helmets and armour when needed, saved them on numerous occasions

Black run in Verbier

At the top

At the bottom just dusty after crashing in the chute at the bottom, only her pride was hurt