Well... Since this was bumped...
Ironically I recently finally bought some pants.
I ended up going with the Olympia Airglide 3 pants:
I think these are going to work great. Inner weather/waterproof layer can be removed to essentially make these armored mesh pants which can be worn over pants, shorts, or on their own. With the inner layer out these things flow a ton of air. In this pic you can see the hip guard which is not too substantial. Just a light foam which I doubt will do much. I would like to figure out a way to shore this up.
The knee protectors though are CE rated so they should offer a legitimate level of protection. As you can see they are adjustable to three positions.
Here is the knee protector out of the pocket:
Cordura is used in the areas most likely to have an impact or abrasion. The other areas are mesh.
There are a lot of options out there for these sort of pants. More money would get me into Klim but those pairs seemed heavier and flowed less air. I am not an adventure rider so I was looking for something to commute with, do some sport touring with, and cruise with.
Olympia has a good reputation and seem to offer a really solid product at the price point. Perhaps at some point I will get an Olympia Airglide jacket to complement the pants. For now though I still have a textile jacket plus my crazy Icon mesh jacket.
What I like about these pants is how versatile they are. On super hot days you can wear them on their own. On a commute to work you can use them as an overpant which will provide a decent amount of abrasion protection and some armor in a fall. On a more spirited ride or a sport touring scenario I can wear my Icon Knee Armor and Armored shorts underneath to bring the protection to another level.