I've never been able to get past the mental barrier of wearing kevlar jeans - if you went down at 40-50 mph you're going to go through them. If I'm not in leathers I have been wearing BMW City pants and just replaced them with City 2 pants. Yes they are pretty expensive but they give full knee and hip protection to CE 2 standard. Your body heat makes the armour more pliable and comfortable. I had the grey colored City pants and grey City 2 (although I think they've got a green tint). I'm somewhere between 36-38" waist and an XL fits good. I also got my knee down - just touched down briefly - a couple of times wearing these pants and they didn't show a mark. Just gives me personally more protection confidence.