The KP elbow pads didn't impress me as much as the knee pads, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad pads. The main reason external elbow pads are rarely used in the military is that the upper strap almost always falls in the elbow joint and causes abrasion and or resistance everytime the arm is bent in. Since the KP elbow pads are not on the hinge system they suffer from this upper strap problem. Furthermore, since I'm <monkey> sized, I have to tighten the straps near as far as they can go. This causes the triglide to be all up in my inner arm joint adding to the strap problem.
I need to take more pics, but the loop velcro placement seems unrealistic even for a beefy guy. The straps seem to depend on velcro-ing to the elastic rather than loop velcro. The stick of the velcro and elastic is decent, but it clearly is not good for the elastic causing it to fuzzy up after about 10 strap on/offs. Strap problem aside, the protection is good. I can go out and running elbow the side of a building without damage issues and the added forearm protection is a plus. This is good for actions such as long low crawls. The strap being further down the arm due to forearm protection also seems to assist in preventing the pads from shifting, but after activity it seems the elbow strap is doing most of the hold work. Since I knew I'd be running around bending my arms all the time, I didn't take these on my SFAUC trip. Overall these pads are good pads when it comes to elbow pads in general, but I was hoping for improved comfort.
