I'm a Klim girl. I'm going to rock the Cascade's this year and even though they're a light gray color I have a few tricks to keep them clean! We'll see how it goes!!! They fit SUPER comfy, little extra room in the bumm but once i put a coat on over the top you didn't see the extra fabric so they looked great (but the extra was there to help give you room if you need it!)
Built in knee guards... not worth a darn! They DO help if you leave them in and protect your PANTS (seems odd but I totally think this is true!) If you leave them in you have some padding between the real shin/knee guards that most of us (I think??) wear and whatever hard surface your pants might come in contact with -um, boards! Really, if you're going to be mtn riding you should be wearing some decent protective gear. Tek vest of some sort and knee/skin goards -and real boots, helmet, beacon... all that stuff of course is considered protective gear in my mind too! And GOOD waterproof layers are as well. if you get wet you will be worthless and frozen if you have to deal with a nasty situation after the sun goes down!