Bliss haven’t been around on the Mountain Bike protection scene anywhere near as long as 661 or Fox but it won’t be long until you start to see the name popping up on knee pads, elbow pads and other protection all over the land.

The entire range from Bliss is largely based around their innovative armourgel protection. It acts much like a non newtonian substance in the way its almost “fluid” but upon impact it locks together to deflect force and then instantly returns back to its original and flexible state and is ready to react again.

This is by no means new technology to the bike industry and is used by a whole host of bike manufactures such as 661, Scott, Dakine, Met and Race Face to name a few who license another example of this kind of material called D30 but Bliss claim that Armourgel performs significantly better than all the other similar silicon based technology available on the market…

We are really interested to see how this performs in the long run and will bring you a much more detailed review in the future of how this technology works but in the mean time take a first look at the ARG 1.0 LTD Top and ARG Knee Pads that we have in for review.

Bliss ARG 1.0 LTD Top

First up we have the ARG 1.0 LTD Top.

This was the product that first caught our eye quite simply as it doesn’t look like anything else out there on the market today. Think “Skins“ or “UnderArmour” and all the benefits that come with having a top that wick’s away sweat with some of the most technologically advanced pads stitched into available on the market today...

And here’s the deal breaker… Tight base layers are incredibly hard to put on and take off and that’s before for you’ve spent the day getting sweaty on the bike! The ARG 1.0 LTD Top has a Zip that runs from the collar down to the bottom and opens all the way up like a jacket. this means you can slip in and out of the top no matter how sweaty you get and this will always be the case.

I should probably clear up what we think makes up a great body armour for mountain biking… We are looking for maneuverability, protection, a reasonably lightweight solution, it has to be easy to put on and remove and finally something that doesn’t make you look like RoboCop. It’s not too much to ask but it’s not very often that this magic combination comes along. Most importantly we have very different demands to the moto boys who have to deal with rocks and mud getting hurled at them at 70mph so why would we want armour designed for them re-packaged for MTB.

First impressions… The Bliss ARG LTD 1.0 could be a winner.
 

RRP. £152.05

Buy Online here

Bliss ARG Knee Pads

We also have a pair of Knee Pads from Bliss that once again use ArmourGel technology.

These pads take much the same form that is seen with all the other popular designs across the market such as both 661’s Rage and Evo along with Fox’s Launch Pro. The sock like construction has straps on the top and bottom to keep the middle of the pad with a hard protective shell in place. The rear of the pad has a large hole cutaway to stop the bulk of material bunching and pinching the back of your knee while pedaling. There’s also a few other selected areas that are given some extra foam to stop the annoying bruises from banging the sides of your knee on the frame.

There’s nothing truly innovative on show in the fitment stakes but the pad inside is where Bliss have made the leap forward.

Once again we are pretty picky about how we like our knee pads to perform as there’s nothing worse than permanently having to pull your pads from your shins back into place every 5 minutes or crashing and finding they haven’t stayed in even remotely the right place on your leg.

After sneaking in a quick blast around the trail centre, I am pleased to confirm that once again much like the ARG 1.0 LTD top… The ARG Knee pads are a winner in our books.

RRP. £75.98

Buy Online here

Conclusion.

Bliss certainly have developed a range that will no doubt be able to keep up with the big dogs of mountain bike protection and you will almost certainly hear from them in the future!

Stay tuned for our full in depth and slightly longer term reviews to see how they hold up to a few months of abuse.