Product name: Ion Scrub AMP Protection Shorts Plus
Price paid: €140
Score (out of 10): 2
Short (polite) Review : Disappointing.
Honest Opinion : Absolute Crap - Overpriced at €20.
Long Review : (For conclusion see above).
Despite being more expensive, thought these would be a good companion for the Leatt 5.0's..
The positives:
G-Form now have a suitable competitor in the supermarket shorts segment. Yes, a design of shorts designed purely to protect you from slight knocks from wayward supermarket trolleys.
With the pattern version, the mesh doesn't appear to be see through as it does in the black version.
The Negatives:
Size guide doesn't seem overly accurate. Haven't even bothered to try these on as there's no way I'm keeping them, but the guide says these are for me. However, I'm pretty convinced I'll injure myself trying to get them on.
Overall construction isn't awful, but it's not good. A thick waist band, silicone on the thigh bands.
Unfortunately though, the "armour" pads are just stitched to the inside with a sandwich of extra material with lumpy bumpy stitching all round - so could rub and create pressure points. The Leatt, for example, has it's pads stitched on the outside, so the inside is flush. The Ion also means you have the armour and two layers of materiel - so more heat.
Protection :
Firstly - it's not very protective .. It says it comes with 5 Sas-tec pads .. it seems to have two Sas-tec pads, one in each hip, which are very thin and not vented at all. The thigh pads and coccyx seem to be very very very soft and light foam. I thought the Leatt soft pads were a bit lacking, these are completely pointless and will only add to heat retention whilst providing zero protection.
Secondly, the armour pads are SMALL !!! This is a hip pad (with Pedal) and thigh pad below :
Compared to a very crashed Leatt :
To try and give some idea of pad thickness/resilience :
The Ion thigh pad can be rolled and squashed to virtually nothing.
The Leatt Thigh pad, whist still a "soft foam" is considerably thicker and more resistant :
The Ion Hip pad is more of a memory foam/none newtonian type pad, but is woefully under specified for the task at hand and can easily be folded over several times.
The Leatt crunch is considerably more difficult :
The Ion Coccyx can be scrunched to nothing :
The Leatt, whilst not outstanding, at least has some resistance :
Basically .. They're not very good. Maybe if you only ride on the road, but the problem is, if you do come off, they'll give you next to zero protection. Not really sure what they were thinking.
