I bought a stet of POD K300 knee braces recently and wanted to share my thoughts on them as knee injuries are pretty common in our sport and maybe this can help someone else to make a decision.
A little background first. I tore my ACL about 7 years ago and have been living and riding with the torn ACL since. I would wear a cheap knee brace when riding, but the knee would still "pop out" from time to time so I decided to get it fixed about 6 weeks ago. After the surgery I was wearing a custom made Don Joy brace for support. These are carbon fiber and along with the CTI braces they are pretty much the best made. But they aren't designed for moto, so I decided to get a pair of moto specific braces for both knees. I chose the POD k300 braces for several reasons. First, they consistently got good reviews both from mags and actual customers. They also had some features I wanted. Like a removable knee cup so I could wear them for everyday activities and snap the knee cup back on for moto use. Lastly, the price isn't too bad. $500 per pair vs $1000 each for the don joy
Onto the review. Compared to the custom made Don Joy they are a little lower on the quality scale. Not by much, but the POD's have a plastic hinge housing where the Don joy have an aluminum housing. The don joy is carbon fiber frame where the k300 is a plastic frame. POD also offers a k700 that is a carbon frame and I almost went with this one but they are $300 more than the k300. The don joy fits a little better, but again it is a $1000 custom made brace vs a $250 off the shelf brace. The POD fits extremely well however and I wouldn't consider the fitment to be sub par by any means. After the surgery I wore the don joy for about 2 weeks only taking it off for showers and bed. The comfort was ok. Not bad, not great, just ok. I did have to reposition them several times during the day as they would slip down. When the POD's showed up I switched to see which was more comfortable for all day use. The POD's are wayyyy more comfortable for all day wearing! I have been wearing the pod brace for 12-14 hours a day for the last month and I usually forget I have it on. They are that comfortable. They don't slip down like the don joy did so I don't have to reposition it during the day. I have not had the chance to test them during a ride yet since it will be another 6 weeks until I swing a leg over my Husky. I will update when I have some ride reviews to give.
So to summarize, I would highly recommend the POD K300 braces for anyone looking for knee protection. Two thumbs up from me.
A little background first. I tore my ACL about 7 years ago and have been living and riding with the torn ACL since. I would wear a cheap knee brace when riding, but the knee would still "pop out" from time to time so I decided to get it fixed about 6 weeks ago. After the surgery I was wearing a custom made Don Joy brace for support. These are carbon fiber and along with the CTI braces they are pretty much the best made. But they aren't designed for moto, so I decided to get a pair of moto specific braces for both knees. I chose the POD k300 braces for several reasons. First, they consistently got good reviews both from mags and actual customers. They also had some features I wanted. Like a removable knee cup so I could wear them for everyday activities and snap the knee cup back on for moto use. Lastly, the price isn't too bad. $500 per pair vs $1000 each for the don joy
Onto the review. Compared to the custom made Don Joy they are a little lower on the quality scale. Not by much, but the POD's have a plastic hinge housing where the Don joy have an aluminum housing. The don joy is carbon fiber frame where the k300 is a plastic frame. POD also offers a k700 that is a carbon frame and I almost went with this one but they are $300 more than the k300. The don joy fits a little better, but again it is a $1000 custom made brace vs a $250 off the shelf brace. The POD fits extremely well however and I wouldn't consider the fitment to be sub par by any means. After the surgery I wore the don joy for about 2 weeks only taking it off for showers and bed. The comfort was ok. Not bad, not great, just ok. I did have to reposition them several times during the day as they would slip down. When the POD's showed up I switched to see which was more comfortable for all day use. The POD's are wayyyy more comfortable for all day wearing! I have been wearing the pod brace for 12-14 hours a day for the last month and I usually forget I have it on. They are that comfortable. They don't slip down like the don joy did so I don't have to reposition it during the day. I have not had the chance to test them during a ride yet since it will be another 6 weeks until I swing a leg over my Husky. I will update when I have some ride reviews to give.
So to summarize, I would highly recommend the POD K300 braces for anyone looking for knee protection. Two thumbs up from me.
Flash forward 1 year later I wear DonJoy customs with the MX specific impact guard and won't ride off road without them now. I had to learn the hard way. I wouldn't wish a ruptured quad tendon on my worse enemy. Makes an ACL injury seem like a hang nail... Buy the good gear and wear it
