Knox are a British based based company who specialise in all forms of body armour and so it comes as little surprise that these Oryx gloves of theirs aren’t just a regular pair of gloves.

The unique feature of them is their ‘SPS’ scaphoid and palm protection. If you haven’t got a clue what your scaphoid is then basically it’s a little bone in your wrist and more often than not it’s the one that you break if you crash and land on your hand. From my experience it’s a bugger to heal too, and you really do want it to heal because apparently it only has a blood supply from one end so if it doesn’t heal it can lead to the broken off bit dying.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I’d strongly recommend that you try not to break the little sucker, and these gloves are designed to help stop it happening. When you first put them on they do feel a bit strange because there is some substantial padding going on in that area, but then once you put your hands on some grips you really don’t notice it as it is out of the way. In fact the area of the palm that is in contact with your grip is actually nice and thin and gives good feel.

I know hands come in different shapes and sizes but I found these to be a great fit, both in the palm and the fingers.There’s also the usual grippy bits on the ends of two fo the fingers (which also don’t have a seam at the end to improve comfort), and it’s great to see a good old snot wipe.

Overall the gloves feel well made and although it’s impossible to tell for certain the scaphoid protection bit at least gives you the impression that it might make a difference in a crash, and as I said before you don’t really notice it whilst riding. Oh, and if you fancy the sound of the SPS system but want an even more minimalist glove then Knox make just such a thing in the shape of their Oren gloves which sell for a fiver less.

Price: £39.99
www.knox-armour.co.uk

Photos: Ben Winder

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