The Five Ten Neon Kneebar is guaranteed to downgrade climbs. We’ve backed a super sticky layer of Stealth Mystique Rubber with a working micro-porous synthetic liner. The snug fitting Neon is ergonomically engineered to allow full knee articulation while protecting and clinging to any angle rock.
http://fiveten.com/products/accessories-detail/12519-neon-knee-bar
Well I managed to pick up one of these. Supposedly they're selling like hotcakes, but there'll be one more for sale shortly.
I was fairly disapointed with the knee pad. This year, all of the (cheating) Peak-based kneebars I've found (at the Cornice) involved the region from just above my kneecap to mid way up my thigh.
I tried the fiveten pad in this position and it was instantly obvious it wasn't going to work. The change from front to back of the pad isn't that angled meaning that when you bend your knee past 90 deg, the rear of the pad starts sticking into the back of the knee.
This is made worse by the heavily stitched (and very stiff) pull on loops that finish here and again, stick right into the back of your knee. With my knee completely bent it was pretty uncomfortable as the elastic, and pull on loops were basically loading my collateral ligaments.
It was a bit disapointing as the pad in other aspects looked to be quite good, it has an elasticated neoprene sheath that you pull on and then fasten with velcro, this was fairly snug on me and by fastening the velcro I doubt it'd slip much. The rubber seemed reasonably flexible (more so than the upskill pad) and the stitching was recessed so it'd hopefully take some abuse. Ditto with the pull on loops, I don't think you'd rip one off in a hurry.
I think it'd work perfectly well as a thigh pad (well above the knee) for sticking your legs behind tufa's but for anything else I'm not so sure. Certainly I'll be looking to DIY (or Stu's Mum depending on psych).
Obviously this is just my opinion and it might fit others like a glove.
