From reading the posts, it seems sensible to protect shins with guards, particularly as a complete beginner.
I have seen the Kris Holmes guards, but they are quite expensive.
Are there any cheaper options out there which would serve?
I looked at some local offers on Nike football guards which were great for £5 and very tough, but they only came 2/3 way up the shin.
Would this be enough?
Also, how important is protecting the rear of the lower leg?
I have “angry” pedals on my 26" since very begining and used shin guards from very first day (I have plenty holes in my shin already left from MTB rides/jumps).
For MTB I used Brand-X Knee-shin guards (ordered from CRC):
Now for unicycle I use Cope shin guards:
Mostly it is mental factor which give me more freedom and free my mind from thinking about shin damage (I still remember how hell painfull it is). Once riding without them (just 10 meter to the car carryng shins in my hand) UPD and deeply scratched my calf - i always wear protection… but… that was kinda remider 
So - I wear gloves, shin guards and helmet. That is best set for me.
Depending of pedals you can wear or not shinguards 
That was filling right after learning
wrist guards
In a similar vein (sorry) - Do you think it advisable for a beginner to wear wrist guards?
If so I have seen some reasonably priced Pro-Tec’s, which I think have removeable splints, and will give some protection.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PROTEC-Wrist-Guards-Snowboard-Protection-IPS-Camo-/370623272401?var=#vi-content
I am not planning any big jumps or big hills, I just want to do some flattish forest/trail riding for the exercise.
Any opinions on these or others very welcome.
Yes your wrists are at the biggest risk, I use gloves with splints built into them and wear KH leg armour and a helmet.
The protection gives you confidence and to be honest it is not worth the risk not wearing them, and cost is irrelevant when it comes to protecting yourself.
Even through my leg armour I have badly bruised myself and like HudsonAktau I too had an incident on the one time I didn’t wear my leg armour and have some nice scars now 
I use a fairly cheap pair of protec shin guards, they have been fine. Every now and then I go down and hit a knee but it’s no big deal, certainly nothing like having a pedal rip your shin to shreds which has happened. There are people who use soccer/football shin guards too, anything is better than nothing.
As for wrist guards, it’s your preference. Lots of people don’t use them because it makes it harder to grab your seat/uni when your doing tricks. Some people are fully decked out in all pads known to man… Others don’t wear any. It’s a personal choice.
I use soccer shin guards. If there is one thing that I can do flawlessly, that’s missing the front pedal after trying a unispin. Soccer shin guards always served me fine. Also, the alkle protection that comes with the shin guards is useful to protect my ankles from the rollo disks.
As far as wrist guards are concernd, in my personal experience I sometimes fell scratching the palms of my hands but never hurt my wrists. I use fingerless biking gloves that protect from scratches and to avoid blisters when I practice (for instance I always got blisters from sideways WW)
I use lizard skins. I got them for about $40 on sale. They work fine. They don’t have built in knee protection, but I find ihave not needed that. There are plenty of older posts here about shin protection. It’s useful for trials type riding and muni.
661 opinions
Any opinions on the six six one knee-shin guards (white, look like storm trooper legs)…thanks