Why no one wears protection?

[dmethvin]

I wear a bike helmet and fingerless gloves, will switch to full gloves as it gets colder. Due to a nasty crash where I got road rash, I now wear long pants and shirt even when it is warmer. I don't ride with my hands in my pockets, that seems super dangerous. Arms are useful for regaining balance when you hit an unexpected bump, and I'd rather have my arms break the fall with the ground than my face.

Wearing a helmet and some basic protective gear, I feel a lot more confident about riding. I've had a few close calls where I had to fight to get balance back, and I might have been inclined to bail off without the gear on.

[indetrucks]

I don't wear protection because I am a 39 year old dude and already look silly on this thing. 

Ha!

[zlymex]

Why I put my hand in my pocket? Same reason why people don't wear protective gears even they have them. Dangerous but looks cool.

[Colestien]

I wear a bike helmet and fingerless gloves, will switch to full gloves as it gets colder. Due to a nasty crash where I got road rash, I now wear long pants and shirt even when it is warmer. I don't ride with my hands in my pockets, that seems super dangerous. Arms are useful for regaining balance when you hit an unexpected bump, and I'd rather have my arms break the fall with the ground than my face.

Wearing a helmet and some basic protective gear, I feel a lot more confident about riding. I've had a few close calls where I had to fight to get balance back, and I might have been inclined to bail off without the gear on.

Now that you said it ...I've notice, as long as I'm wearing my helmet, I push a little more, hang on just a little longer before stepping off.  It has helped me make tighter turns.  

 

[Jason McNeil]

Reasons of incident:
1. EUC problems.
2. Riding skill is not good enough.
3. Bad road and pay no attention or over confident.
4. Going too fast or accelerate too hard.
5. Others(such as traffics, show off).

Great post! Been intending to writing about this & coming up with an accident classification system. The worst situations are those where you've been riding your Wheel for a while (in some cases months); then one day you take an ascent at a slightly higher speed than normal, when the Wheel comes out from under you. 

I've been do quite a bit of research on limit testing with a number of different makes/models like IPS, Ninebot, Airwheel, & Gotway. It seems that the most typical cause of failure is when the voltage falls below the cut-off point during acceleration or acceleration on an incline. If manufacturers used the latest generation of battery cells with low internal resistance, like the Samsung 30Q 18mOhm or the LG HG2 20mOhm, they would be much more resistant to this common cause of cut-out.

[Hank]

If manufacturers used the latest generation of battery cells with low internal resistance, like the Samsung 30Q 18mOhm or the LG HG2 20mOhm, they would be much more resistant to this common cause of cut-out.

Excellent info - are there any manufacturers that already use these preferred batteries?

[Jason McNeil]

Excellent info - are there any manufacturers that already use these preferred batteries?

Not yet, pushing IPS to adopt in my next order. With 64 cells (e.g. King Song + GW), there's four parallel packs, so is far less of a problem.

Here's a brilliant example from dampfakkus.de comparing two of the latest, & arguably the best, cells available under the extreme load of 20A. The gap between the two is about .6v under this load, if added together with the 16 in the series =  ~10v, which is the difference between racing up the hill or having an injury.

 

 

 

[Mono]

Why I don't wear protection? For the same reason I don't when I go running.

[Phil Wright]

To those who think that it is a matter of speed, my faceplant ocurred totally unexpected, at slow speed (I figure I was doing around 10-12 km/h) as I was approaching a pedestrian crossing and on a completely flat surface (bycicle lane), nothing could have made me think I was going to be flying the next second. In just the blink of the eye I found myself on the floor without knowing what happened. I hurt my wrist and elbow by instinctively putting my hands first, I guess the wrist absorbed the impact and transmitted it to the elbow (or I took a blow to the elbow also, I can't really tell as it ocurred so quickly).

I know you are supposed to "run" off the euc (I have done it many times) and if you have to fall, try to roll (done it too) but as I said, when the fall is totally unexpected you don't have time to think or react, you just find yourself on the floor without a clue on what happened. It is different also if you are riding on rough terrain or you can see an obstacle coming, in which case you prepare and are very alert and probably can react much rapidly in that state.

My advice is to lose the cool and be safe.

Sorry to hear of your fall....

may I ask if your 9Bot was running the 1.2.6 version at the time of your cutoff?

[Jebarus]

I pushed my unicycle too much and I face planted. You don't see it too much in the picture, but it took a good chunk of skin off, and that was with a coat. I think I would have seen bone without coat. I will wear protection from now on. It really hurts, and I was not expecting it.

 

[Jason McNeil]

Interestingly, the IPS Zero is the first Wheel to include knee & wrist-guards as part of the package. Whether this is to indicate the state of the preproduction batch or a new drive to inculcate better safety is not yet clear. 

[MrBump]

Why I don't wear protection? For the same reason I don't when I go jogging.

Remember to wear a helmet, kids.

[Colestien]

Time for an update.  My son Joe hurt his right wrist when he face planted.  Its been a week and he told me it still hurt.  Today he went to the Doctor, and we found out his wrist is fractured.  I have the wrist guards ordered but they haven't came in yet. (bad excuse)  He is 26 years old, but I'm the Dad so I still feel like shit.    I told him that, and he just said I wasn't the one controlling the Wheel. Of course he said it in a funnier way. Something like, Oh!  so your the so-n-so that made the wheel go fast!  Then he gave me the look like I was stupid.  I should have never taught him that look.

I made the hour and a half drive today (one way) and bought the only set of wrist guards Dick's had. (that would fit)

  On a some what funny side the Doctor told him if he sees him on the wheel again (until he's healed ?)  he will whip Joseph's ass.   Now that's personal service you can only get from a county Doctor.

[micro]

Reasons of

incident

:

1. EUC problems.
2. Riding skill is not good enough.
3. Bad road and pay no attention or over confident.
4. Going too fast or accelerate too hard.
5. Others(such as traffics, show off).

This is really a very good post. I would give another order: 1. over confident (which is more or less the same as bad skills, going too fast or accelerate too hard), 2. EUC problems.

As I am a specialist in falling down, no matter whether I am on a ladder, bicycle, or whatever, here some remarks.

Typically, I am falling on my hands, so I am wearing always gloves on my EUC. Consequently, I am wearing them now also on my bicycle. Wrist protectors are also a good idea, I will start wearing them.

Other injuries can be of all kind. For instance, some weeks ago I fell down from my unicycle (the old type with pedals) so hard on my ass, that I got a hard impact on my spine and got almost unconscious. Or compare our risks with those of professional bicycle racers. Face, thigh, collarbone (I broke mine three years ago). The helmet is not very often "used" which does not serve as an argument against helmets here. My conclusion is that protection is as effective or ineffective as in other dumb leisure activities. The protection discussed here do prevent us from less serious injuries (except helmet). You would need a football helmet to protect your face. An old argument is also that you become overconfident with an effective protection (Hamilton in his carbon car).

EUC problems: I do not believe that this is really a big issue (as long as you are not over confident which includes confidence in the EUC). I read here some of the arguments on safe and unsafe EUCs. As you see, I am pretty new in this forum, I am riding my EUC only for some two months now, so I regard my opinion myself as preliminary. Here some thoughts on it.

Either battery current, power bridge or motor limit the actual available power. In the case of a rather low power drive, less battery resistance will make no difference except the batteries are almost empty. I cannot regard this type of EUC as "unsafe". For me this is similar to the opinion that a powerful car is safer than a less powerful one.

Or the motor/drive train is powerful and tries to draw very often more than 20A. Then either the developer did his job and there will never be a shutdown due to undervoltage or we have to be very careful with this type of EUC. So I am coming back to my obsession: We should press all manufacturers as to give a clear answer on the question what they did in the unexpected shutdown problem.

[Chuts]

Out torqued my EU again today going up an incline at speed.  Was only city riding... I was heading home after buying some groceries.  Before it shutdown it made an unusual noise which I've heard two other time before.  The noise only lasted for a second but was enough of a warning for me at least to expect trouble.  So managed to run out from the unicycle and stay on my feet.

Again I highlight that this is only because of riding experience and knowledge of the sounds that my EU makes.  Still best to wear protective gear if you are starting out or you know you are going to be doing tricks or pushing the bar in what your EU can perform.

I know someone at the age of 60 and seen him run out of a faulty EU he bought, 3 times without getting hurt.  He has 6 months more riding experience than me.

[castShadow]

This is turning into a very good discussion.  There are three answers to the question.

I wear wrist guards - they were made for rollerblading and they are actually two plastic splints that will prevent a sprained wrist.  You see I am the type that will catch themselves on their hands when they fall - i will always do this.  The wrist guards are the best bang for the buck for me.  I like to wear the wrist guards all the time.

If I were the type who would fall on their elbow I'd be wearing good elbow pads because hurting your elbow is really bad.

When I ride near the street and going places where I've never been then I'd also wear a skateboard helmet - I like this type of helmet better than bike helmets.  I actually wanted to get an equestrian helmet to get that one-upsmanship over everyone else but they cost a bit more.  If you have a choice of what helmet to use, go for one that protect down to the lower back of your head for when you are riding backwards and fall - this can whack the back of your head pretty good.

it's easy to put on a helmet (just don't be a dork and put it on wrong or have the wrong fit) - when you have a helmet on it's like wearing sunglasses - you can be a dork inside but outside you're some dude wearing sunglasses.  It's the same for a helmet - when you have it on you're some dude in a helmet - no more no less.

With helmet I may wear knee pads and elbow pads for more protection.  For me the knee pads will be needed next before elbow.

What do I want to buy next?  I want forearm guards like The Batman might wear - except without the spikes.  The forearm that continue into good elbow pads maybe.

(That is answer #1 - what I wear)