GMan Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Hi all. I am only into my second week of riding in the street. I’m wearing a bike helmet, knee and wrist and elbow protection. Though I’ll likely continue those, but it seems like more protection like an armored jacket, full face helmet, is a bit much at 15 mph or less. I am riding an INMOTION V8 and I doubt I’ll exceed that on my commute. When I ride a bicycle, I go faster and wear less protection. Thoughts from the experienced ones? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rywokast Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 (edited) its up to you.. a hell of a lot easier for something to trip up a unicycle vs a bicycle.. some wear max padding all the time some wear no padding ever, whatever youre comfortable with.. my personal opinion, which ill catch flak for is 15 mph/25 kph is ridiculously slow to be geared up.. be aware im definitely not saying you cant crack your skull open at that speed i just take my chances.. anyways generally the absolute bare minimum recommended are wrist guards as 99.9999% of the time your hands/wrists will absorb the initial impact and take the brunt of it.. so i would say those at least.. i would always recommend a helmet but again, my opinion is that you would have to be severly unlucky to hit your head going at that speed, i mean.. a reasonably fit person can run at that speed lol.. back in my first days of learning every time i fell off i was able to run it off, there is always a risk no matter the speed so you will have to weigh the inconvenience with the risk yourself to gauge it. recommendation is always wrist guards, try to always have at least a bicycle helmet also but slow speeds i would definitely say wrist guards/gloves are the most important Edited August 20, 2019 by Rywokast 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_fuel Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 I slammed at 17mph, dislocated a finger and hurt my shoulder pretty bad. Took nearly 2 years to completely recover. On an Inmotion V8. Not saying that you would need Leatt body armour, but a short textile motorcycle jacket with all padding should be good, and can easily be removed. Add wrist and knee guards to that. A helmet is of course always a good idea (I had a cut out, flew, but my head didn't touch the ground). The problem with the V8, depending on the rider, also is that it's not a very powerful wheel. It's a great commuter but it has its limits. Once you find yourself constantly going near the 18mph top speed, do yourself a favor and upgrade. It will be a lot safer. The train tracks that caused my wreck on the V8 because I overpowered it crossing them, I take them at higher speeds today with a more recent wheel with zero drama. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rywokast Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 1 minute ago, ir_fuel said: I slammed at 17mph, dislocated a finger and hurt my shoulder pretty bad. Took nearly 2 years to completely recover. On an Inmotion V8. Not saying that you would need Leatt body armour, but a short textile motorcycle jacket with all padding should be good, and can easily be removed. Add wrist and knee guards to that. A helmet is of course always a good idea (I had a cut out, flew, but my head didn't touch the ground). The problem with the V8, depending on the rider, also is that it's not a very powerful wheel. It's a great commuter but it has its limits. Once you find yourself constantly going near the 18mph top speed, do yourself a favor and upgrade. It will be a lot safer. The train tracks that caused my wreck on the V8 because I overpowered it crossing them, I take them at higher speeds today with a more recent wheel with zero drama. thats a very good point, i never took the fact of it being a V8 into consideration... you cant overpower a bicycle either so its not a fair comparison and your weight coupled with the power/speed of the EUC should be taken into consideration... unless youre an extremely lightweight rider, riding close to the limit all the time especially on a wheel as relatively old as the V8 is definitely not a recommendation,, all it takes if your battery to be below half and you hit an unexpected bump or hole and boom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_fuel Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 And I only weigh 150lbs (add a few for gear ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sacristan Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 I have overpowered my bicycle quite a few times and fallen at low speed. However I think the reasoning is the impact/probability. You are less probable to fall from a bike at high speed. It would hurt quite bad though. What protection would you wear in this case? You are more like to fall from a euc att high speed. 15 mph får a V8. Is that high speed or not? That is 80% of top speed with a fresh battery. When you fall you will fall on your hands, slide on your forearms, scrape your knees/leg, perhaps roll a bit in a corkscrew. You might hit your face ... but as others have said that would be extremely bad luck. Shoulders tend to take a beating as well and there is really no saving them with armor. Exercising and building a stronger shoulder girdle would help. So in the end.. what is the accepted damage level for you? Do you work out? If not, are you willing to start? The only protection I wear is leather gloves whether I am on my MSX at 50kmh or my firmware tricked Ninebot pushing it to 30kmh. I will seriously hurt myself one day... but when my 16X arrives, I will armor up until I learn my new wheel. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan Posted August 20, 2019 Author Share Posted August 20, 2019 All good points. When I got the V8 , I didn’t realize it was relatively underpowered. I’ve dumped it a bunch of times but as was said, I have been able to run it off pretty easily. I am Ok with wrist guards, a light MC jacket and knee guards. A full face helmet though seems like it would start taking the fun out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_fuel Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 1 hour ago, GMan said: A full face helmet though seems like it would start taking the fun out of it. Wouldn't use that either on a V8. Once you start riding stuff that goes 25mph, that's where you want your face completely protected. Unfortunately the relation between speed and impact damage isn't linear. 25mph doesn't hurt 30% more than 18mph. It can hurt a lot more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMan Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 I have a weekly meeting 2 miles away from my office. In the past I have typically taken an Uber. Today I used the V8 and got there 15 minutes faster than usual. Unfortunately, while riding there in a bike lane a car swerved in front of me to snag a space. Instead of stopping or swerving around (both of which I have practiced ), I panicked and bailed. Landed on my feet and everything was fine. However, between that, and the “unexpected bump overpowering the machine “ statement, I wound up riding the sidewalk at 9 miles an hour! Really it was more difficult than the bike lane would have been - a lot more bumps and holes. Regardless, back on tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles McLean Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 (edited) At a minimum, I'd wear wrist guards and a bike / skateboard helmet. 15 mph is slow enough that you should be fine from most falls. Clearly more protection (elbow pads, knee pads, jacket with shoulder and spine protective padding, full face helmet above 25 mph ... always) is better, but at the very bare minimum, bike / skate helmet and wrist guards and stay below 15 mph and you shouldn't have much to worry about, but I'd still recommend knee & elbow pads depending on how you typically fall. I always land on my right wrist, knee, elbow and shoulder in that order when I fall. Edited August 21, 2019 by Charles McLean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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