Wrist vs Other Injuries... what kinds of protection?

[soundkite]

I'm interested in hearing stories about what protection the community was wearing when incurring any arm or shoulder injuries.  For example, are there riders here who hurt their wrist despite wearing wrist guards?  Was your elbow or shoulder injury due to direct contact with the ground, or due to jarring impact from your hands?  These kinds of answers can help me decide what STYLE of protection to wear (ie- wrist braces which allow me to slide vs simply cushion a blow, padding vs hard shell protection, etc...).

[RoCan]

I always wear wrist guards, soft knee pads, armoured hoodie, motorcycle boots and full face helmet.

I fractured my thumb falling at less than 10mph. Just snagged it on the ground on my way down. (Note to self: keep digits in)

I currently have a fractured wrist after an over lean at high speed. Something had to take the hit and annoyingly my instinct was to drop my brand new Insta360 and stick my hand out. I’m now thinking hard knee pads are the way to go, with the intention of sliding. Not sure I would have had the time to react in this situation but I need to learn how to fall better that’s for sure.

I believe:

My wrist guards saved my wrist from snapping, a lot worse than a fracture.

My soft knee pads stuck and slid down as I supermaned causing an abrasion above the knee.

My armoured hoodie had a similar sticking effect on the shoulder and my hip took a beating. Easy to forget that giant bone sticking out for some reason.

My helmet saved my life, or at least preserved my speech. Still had concussion for a few days though.

Note to self: get more padding... and listen to the beeps, however annoying they get.

[giggidditygiggiddity]

We're gonna look like walking airbags one day.

[atdlzpae]

Rehab1 hit his elbow hard and shattered his shoulder indirectly.
I got my shoulder into unnatural position during lithobreaking.

There is pretty much nothing you can do for shoulder. "Roll" in theory, but with human 200ms reaction time it's impossible to do anything more complicated.

I use cheapest $5 wristguards for leisure rides around town.
If I'm doing anything more demanding, I'm wearing $5 wristguards + $5 kneepads + $5 elbow protectors + $15 not-full-face helmet.

Foresight and anticipation are most important! Safety gear is secondary.

If you see animals or children, assume they will try to commit suicide under your wheel.
Every time you pass a pedestrian from behind, keep as much distance as possible or alert them.
Every time you pass a bind spot, slow down enough to stop.

[Daley1]

I bought cheap wrist guards initially.Had a fall and the wrist guard instead of absorbing the fall/protecting, broke a bone in the hand as the design did not disperse the energy.You can go down the path of cheap or no protection,but we all fall at some stage.Experience tells me that the smarter way to go is buy the best equipment you can afford.And use it!

[Hsiang]

no protection will protect 100% of the times but you'll 100% get hurt if you do not wear any.

Having snowboarded, rollerbladed and now EUC for 20 years; the only reason I can still type is because of having worn proper wrist guards.

[Mono]

My suspicion is that relying on protection to not get hurt is a reasonably good recipe to get hurt. It's going on rather thin ice if one rides into situations with protection that one would avoid without protection. Mileages vary, and the recipe may not work for everybody.

Edited November 30, 2019 by Mono