Many enduro riders know the agony of crushing their hand in a tree impact, whilst still wrapped around the handlebar.

A momentary deflection or misjudged line option can see you clip a tree with your bar end inevitably bruising a knuckle.

Read more: enduro mountain bikes 

Rethinking the idea of hand protection

Handguards are a rarity in mountain biking, but the popularity of enduro riding (and Sam Hill) revived the concept. And French brand, Sendhit, has a new handguard called the Nock.

The barriers to handguard ownership are many: weight, appearance and brake level impingement. Sendhit spent nearly two years developing the Nock handguard and addressing the issues with handguard design.

In terms of size, it measures 150mm across and 65mm in height. That should give you a lot of hand protection but the real benefit of this Sendhit design, is on the inside of the Nock’s shielding.

K(n)ock logic

Handguard design theory has generally underestimated the compressive force of a plastic shield hitting your glove, when impacting that misjudged tree. Sendhit’s Nock features padding inside the shield, to absorb the impact and reduce injury risk to your knuckles.

It is a clever and insightful bit of design that makes a lot of biomechanical sense. But will it mess with your handlebar ergonomics?

The Nock’s mounting clamp is only 10mm wide and should not interfere with the way you like to arrange handlebar controls.

If you are concerned about brake lever height, the Nock is adjustable. It can sit between 78- and 90mm away from your handlebar, which should leave room for

At 169g per side, the Nock handguard will add some weight to your ride. But this is a level of protection that committed enduro riders, who frequent technical forest trails, will gladly sacrifice the weight for. The Nocks price at €69.99.