New protective gear from Alpinestars, G-Form, and Kali
Tired of bashing your knuckles? Alpinestars’ 2018 product line has some exciting new offerings that will help ease the pain.
Alpinestars Gloves
Alpinestars is expanding their glove offerings. Mtbr’s favorite is this new enduro/DH oriented model, which features a dense pre-molded D30 material across the knuckle. If you live somewhere with tight trees, this is your glove. Other features included additional padding along the wrist and fingers, smartphone friendly conductive silicone print on the fingertips, and a full Clarino palm.
Alpinestars makes a glove for every occasion.
The Italian brand also offers a lighter duty version, which uses a TPR knuckle panel and EVA foam padding along the fingers. Like its burlier sibling, it retains the conducting silicone finger grip and Clarino palm.
Small tabs make removing these fingerless gloves easy.
And just for fun, here’s Alpinestars Pro-Light short finger glove. Those little strips of fabric located between the fingers are designed to make glove removal easy.
Matchy matchy we likey like.
Oh, and if you like to match, Alpinestars make kits to match their gloves.
The Drop Pro will replace the Drop 2 kit in the lineup.
Drop Pro Alpinestars Kit
You don’t necessarily think of apparel as being protective, but the new Drop Pro kit brings a lot of innovation to the table. Both the jersey and shorts feature anti-abrasion pads, plus a blend of five different lightweight materials to maximize durability, comfort, and resist tearing.
The new Drop Pro kit is all about the details.
The jersey is available in short and long sleeve iterations. It features two pockets, a micro fiber cleaning insert, headphone routing, and reflective detailing. These new Alpinestars items won’t officially launch till 2018, so stay tuned for pricing and more info.
The new G-Form Elite (right) offers moto level protection. On the left is the original G-Form Pro X.
G-Form Elite Pads
G-Form helped revolutionized the protective market with their barely-there pads. The only downside is their original offering didn’t offer quite enough protection for lift assist riding. That’s changed with the new G-From Elite. Designed in conjunction with former world champions Brian Lopes and Tracey Mosley, these knee and elbow pads are CE1 level certified. That’s motorcycle level protection for those of you who don’t speak protection code.
The knee pads retail for $99, while the elbows go for $89. For more info, visit g-form.com.
The original G-Form pads (left) offer great protection but don’t slide. The new Pro Slide (right) resolve that issue.
G-Form Pro Slide Pads
One feature that has made G-form pads so compelling is their overall dimensions. They offer a lot of protection in a very slim package, which is why many riders like to tuck them under jeans when they head to the skate park. To make the pads even better suited for this use, G-Form has developed the Pro Slide. It utilizes the same basic layout as the original, but adds a Kevlar outer. This allows you to slide without tearing up the pad.
The Pro Slide knee pads retails for $60 and are available now. For more info, visit g-form.com.
The Alchemy delivers premium safety at a reasonable price.
Kali Alchemy Helmet
In recent years, a number of helmet manufacturers have begun to address sub-concussive and rotational brain injuries with new technology. These advances offer substantial improvement in crash testing, but they don’t come cheap. Most brands charge extra for models equipped with extra safety features.
The green Lego strips are Kali’s version of MIPS + D30. They help protect against rotational injuries and low-speed impacts. The technology debuted in Kali’s $500 helmets, but they’re working to trickle that tech down to all their helmets.
Kali doesn’t believe that peace of mind should be an upgrade; they think it should come standard. To prove that point, they’ve taken the same technology you’ll find in their $500 helmets and brought it to a $100 half lid. This new mountain bike helmet is based on the popular Maraka, which features 21 vents. To learn more about the Alchemy, visit bike.kaliprotectives.com.
Kali’s new color ways are far more subdued.
New Kali Colors
During the early years, Kali was known for its wild color schemes. They didn’t offer a single helmet in plain black. Recently, they’ve toned things down. The vast majority of their helmets now ship with more modest pantones.
At the Press Camp media event in Utah in June, the brand was showcasing several future colors. Above are a few of our favorites.
The new Venture gloves offer more protection than Kali’s previous Hasta glove.
Kali Venture Gloves
In addition to helmets, Kali is also working on more trail oriented gear. A new kneepad is in development, but the new Venture Gloves are closer to production. These simple gloves feature a Velcro strap closure, TPR knuckle protection, silicone grippers along the palm, and gusseted knuckles. The Venture will retail for $40.
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