Upgraded Knee/Shin Pads Under $8 (Total Cost of Knee Pads + Upgrade Is $43.00 CDN)

ABSTRACT

Greetings! This is an instructable for turning cheap motorcycling knee pads into a set knee pads that can be used for a variety of sports and activities. These knee pads were ordered from Banggood.com with the intention to be utilized in the paintball arena since every time I go I seem to get shot in the knee cap. My solution to this problem was to buy some relatively cheap knee pads that would absorb/dissipate some of the kinetic energy of the paintballs.

***DISCLAIMER: I do NOT endorse these knee pads, even after upgrades, for use in motorcycling. I must stress the fact that in my opinion, they are unsuitable for any motorized sports.***

Without any further ado, I shall explain my improvements step-by-step.

Ergo Incipiamus

The materials required are, in order of appearance:

Motorcycle Knee Pads (pair) - $35.18 CDN / $24.85 USD

Dollar Store Foam Knee Pads - $2.50 CDN per pair of 2 pads

Dollar Store Adhesive Velcro - $2.00 CDN

Exacto knife (it can be any knife, a box cutter will do)

Total Cost: $42.18 CDN as of Feb 8, 2016.

*** Cost does not include tools ***

Cut the adhesive Velcro strips into a size that you deem suitable for the interior. Remember, the more Velcro is adhering to itself the more difficult it is to remove. I say this because if you have too much then you might actually tear off the foam from the pads when you want to remove them to clean out the knee pads.

The first strip was approx. 8.5 cm / 3.5 in

The second was approx. 7 cm / 2.75 in

The third was approx. 4.5 cm / 1.75 in

The remainder of the strips are approx 4.5 cm 1.75 in

I chose to place the gripping side of the Velcro (hook side) onto the shell of the pad seen in the images above, and the softer side (loop) onto the foam knee inserts.

In the first image I show where I cut the foam pad. Specifically, I cut them to fit from just over the knee cap to where the hinge is inside the plastic knee pad. Afterwards, with the removed material, I chose to add an additional small foam block that was cut from the removed material as see in images 2 and 3. In image 6, I make the adjustments on a full length foam pad to remove some of the "top" rounded part of the foam to comfortably fit around my shins. the second to last and last images show the orientation in which I install the inserts into the knee pads.

An easy way to get the Velcro in just the right place is to place the matching length strip on top of its counterpart in the knee pad. Then, carefully place the foam knee pads where you want them to fit and press firmly so as to cause the sticky adhesive side of the Velcro to adhere to the foam.

As of this step, most of the work is done.

Following the order of the images above, I show the assembly procedure. Beginning with what you should have from previous step in image 1, to the final product in image 9 (last).

This concludes the first tier upgrades. I will be making another 2 instructables on these same knee pads, one to correct the orientation of the elastic Velcro straps that hold the pads attached to your legs and another that adds metal plates to increase durability and resistivity to stronger projectiles (probably not bullet proof but will likely cause the bullets to ricochet).

Please comment on what you see here. All feedback is valuable to me.

Enjoy your upgrades!