Whether their marketing is so bold or not, Sendhit have just released a new handguard design set to challenge industry leaders AVS. Made in France with an aluminium mounting bracket, Nock Hand Guards come in at 169g per pair so they are a little heavier than most designs. What’s unique about these however is the Micro Shock absorption pad on the inside face of the guards. Here’s everything you need to know about Nock.
Nock Hand Guards for Mountain Biking
Under development for the last 20 months, Nock Hand Guards claim to solve many of the common complaints made about other designs on the market, including sizing, flexibility, weight, coverage and aesthetics.
Certainly, on weight, they aren’t going to win any awards, coming in heavier than aluminium options from both AVS and Mr Wolf. Given that trail riding and enduro mountain biking aren’t disciplines that care too much about weight, we can easily look past this and onto some of the unique features of Nock Hand Guards.
What immediately caught our attention was the Micro Shock absorption pad that sits on the inner face of the guard. Nock make a very good point; hitting your knuckles off the inside of the hard plastic may hurt just as much as whacking them off the tree you unintentionally clipped.
While the mounting bracket is made from rigid aluminium, the polyamide nylon protector plate is itself more flexible. As such, upon impact, it flexes back toward the rider’s hand. The Micro Shock pad dampens the impact at the rider’s knuckles, taking the edge off the hit.
The clamp measures just 10mm across, so doesn’t take up too much space on the bar. Overall, the Nock Hand Guards shouldn’t interfere with your brake levers or dropper post lever, unless you run new Shimano brakes (with the brace) and you’re very fussy about lever placement.
In fact, they will also offer some protection to your brake levers in the event of a crash. Note the shape of the protector plate extends down slightly at the inboard edge in a bid to offer more protection to brake levers.
The designers of Nock Hand Guards believe the shorter the distance is between the guard and the rider’s hand, the better the level of protection offered. This distance can actually be adjusted to suit rider preferences, however. The protector plate can be moved up and down the aluminium bracket by 12mm, so that it sits around 7.8cm to 9cm away from the grip.
Pricing & Availability
Sendhit’s Nock MTB Hand Guards are available now at 69.99 €. There are 32 decal designs to choose from.
