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Protection - always ?


vasuvius

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I've been commuting on the wheel for a couple weeks now - just for the last mile to/from train station for a total of 4 miles a day.

I don't wear a helmet or wrist guards on the commute - blame it on laziness, messes up my hair on my way to work, etc. Getting the wrist guard on top of heavy gloves is quite cumbersome as well.

On any other ride or when I'm trying new skills, I wear a helmet and wrist guards.

On my motorcycle I believe in ATTGATT - All The Gear All the Time. Usually a full riding suit + helmet, gloves, boots, etc.

While snowboarding, I only wear a helmet.

What's the conventional wisdom for EUCs when it comes to protection ? 

 

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Ideally you should gear up no matter what, but I unfortunately rarely do.
 

I will however always wear a reflective safety vest and have lights galore if I'm night riding (I also have highly reflective conspicuity tape in many places on my Tesla).

The only time I have my full face helm and pads on are when I plan on riding above 22 mph on roads along with cars.

I have skateboarded and long-boarded most of my life and have learned how to bail and when to bail. So even though some wheels will not give you warning when something goes really wrong as long as I'm not trying to show off or push my wheel to it's limit I won't feel the need to fully gear up.

 

Also I don't want people to think I'm a danger to them or that what I'm riding is dangerous at slower speeds (12-18mph). Being fully geared up on casual rides in public places makes people nervous I think.

 

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whatever you feel comfortable with... generally the conventional wisdom is always wrist guards at bare minimum.. next helmet and then knee/elbow pads.. some people dont ever wear any gear of any kind, some always wear full protection.. up to you lol

Edited by Rywokast
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19 minutes ago, Biped Phil said:

Politics enter the calculation too, when you sail amidst pedestrians.  I have tried wearing a plain bicycle helmet and a helmet with a jawbone (although not at the same time).  Folks engaged end empathized better when I was not dressed for a severe accident. 

ill ride downtown in crowds of hundreds of people on sidewalks and bike lanes.. with zero gear at all, if they even notice im on something, ive never had a bad reaction.. lots of thumbs up though lol

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I dislocated my shoulder crashing at merely 32km/h. I've never hit my head or hurt my wrists or knees (much) at any crash.

Wear gloves and maybe one of those skateboard jackets if you must, but I suspect no realistic protection would have been enough to prevent my shoulder injury.

 

Edited by alcatraz
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I only wear a helmet on cold winter days for warmth. The rest of the time I dress for weather. All of my riding is city or very light trail riding and I'm not trying to set any speed records ever, so it works for me. Agree that pedestrians are less scared of a person who doesn't look like a serious crash is waiting to happen.

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I've had a few of minor spills and the wrist guards and knee pads were both dinged, so I feel much better wearing them. Maybe it's just the way I fall. (But in each situation, more experience or judgement would have prevented the falls too, so...)

Edited by brockj
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13 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

 

Until I have half a dozen written agreements from persons of the public to pay for my medical bills if anything goes wrong, I don’t care the slightest bit how nervous they are when they see me riding.

Actually, writing that I realised that no matter how many agreements, I’m still not putting my ass on the line. I wear protection, perioid. Getting hurt hurts a bit too much for me, and neither I nor the hospital workers would care how my hair looks. So many things can go wrong no matter if one is riding in public, on the bike lane, on the street, or off road.

Protection is of course a tough sell for a slow one mile commute, and everyone of course has their priorities.

Age and experience clearly affects the opinion on protection. Riding unprotected is a lot more common with young or newish riders. Hang around at the forum enough or talk with other riders and one tends to learn what the odds are.

I'm 51 yrs old and I don't recover easily from injuries any more. That said, I have a lifetime of experience falling off various moving objects - bikes, rollerblades, skates, snowboards, skis, and sadly motorcycles. I've mostly walked away luckily. I tend to not fight the fall and just relax which makes the fall go easier. Being lighter also helps I think.

But it definitely doesn't mean that the next time I won't break something. The commute is the only ride where I don't feel like wearing any protection. All other rides I have a bike helmet on and wristguards from my rollerblading days. Even when I'm just in front on my house learning to make tighter turns and figure 8s. 

Maybe I should get a wrist guard glove - they make these for snowboarders.

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I don't wear a helmet because it doesn't fit over my headphones. B)

 

10 hours ago, Rywokast said:

ill ride downtown in crowds of hundreds of people on sidewalks and bike lanes.. with zero gear at all, if they even notice im on something, ive never had a bad reaction.. lots of thumbs up though lol

Well, as a ta'veren you simply inherited Dark One's own luck. ;) Everoyne else would be long dead doing the same.

Edited by atdlzpae
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33 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

 

Until I have half a dozen written agreements from persons of the public to pay for my medical bills if anything goes wrong, I don’t care the slightest bit how nervous they are when they see me riding.

Actually, writing that I realised that no matter how many agreements, I’m still not putting my ass on the line. I wear protection, perioid. Getting hurt hurts a bit too much for me, and neither I nor the hospital workers would care how my hair looks. So many things can go wrong no matter if one is riding in public, on the bike lane, on the street, or off road.

Protection is of course a tough sell for a slow one mile commute, and everyone of course has their priorities.

Age and experience clearly affects the opinion on protection. Riding unprotected is a lot more common with young or newish riders. Hang around at the forum enough or talk with other riders and one tends to learn what the odds are.

I think you misunderstand what I meant. When I say casual rides I mean short rides that don't involve speeds above jogging-running speed. Like I often take  sub-mile trips to the strip mall right down the road from where I live, lots of foot traffic at the mall and stop signs/crosswalks. Street speed limit is 10-15 mph, and there are large sidewalks I sometimes ride into before I dismount to go to a restaurant or store. Fully gearing up for such low speeds isn't really a vote of confidence for these EUCs, and it will assuredly convey "Don't ever try one of these they are super dangerous and unreliable at slow speeds. I might fall off and send this thing flying at you any second"

Age and experience are factors but really I'd say location is even more of a factor. US riders seems to be the ones that actually gear up to the nines. I see riders from Sweden, Netherlands, Russia and most parts of Europe that almost never even wear a helmet. I'm not young, I have done far more dangerous sports for more than half my life, so I'm quite confident in my reflexes, instincts, and knowledge on how to fall in even worse positions than what these EUCs put us in.

Edited by tenofnine
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2 hours ago, vasuvius said:

I tend to not fight the fall and just relax which makes the fall go easier.

I will be your crash attendant for the next 20 seconds. Please relax and let the asphalt work its way over your body. You will feel some impacts and scattered flesh tearing. Don’t worry this is all part of the process. After you come to a complete stop, move slowly and carefully to make sure you don’t further damage yourself. Thanks you and I hope You enjoy your crash today. 

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I’m not here to say what other people should do. I have managed to stay alive for 47 years, and I’ve done sports like alpine skiing, ski jumping and off-road biking in a time where nobody used any type of protection gear, with only a few minor injuries, broken ribs and stuff like that. I’ve had far more injuries doing normal everyday stuff, so I know shit happens when you least expect it, and therefore I always wear a helmet when I ride my EUC, even for short low speed rides. My routine for taking on the helmet is so automated that I have walked my dogs with the helmet on a couple of times:)

Gloves are also something I always wear. Wrist guards, knee- and elbow-pads are worn on my daily 1 hour long off-road exercise fun ride.

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11 hours ago, glorat said:

Wrist guards always

From now on never without!

Just slipped out a bit to the front on a few wet leafs while going really slow a few weeks ago. I landed NOT on my butt because my hand was so fast out. Ouch! 

Very classic: Head of the spoke broken.

Before I thought, my thick motorcycle gloves would be enough, that's wrong!

Never ever without wrist guards!

 

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13 hours ago, winterwheel said:

I only wear a helmet on cold winter days for warmth. The rest of the time I dress for weather. All of my riding is city or very light trail riding and I'm not trying to set any speed records ever, so it works for me. Agree that pedestrians are less scared of a person who doesn't look like a serious crash is waiting to happen.

I forgot that my New Year's resolution is to skip the bike paths and ride on streets with cars for at least part of my commutes; I started wearing a helmet for when I'm going to be doing that since on those occasions I consider the wheel to be a form of motorcycle and as such, I'm legally mandated to wear one.

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The streets with the cars are great as long as it is either a bit slow due to congestion, or so few you dont have a car right behind you. While the cars themselves are dangerous, there are so much fewer obstacles and surprises than on a bike lane. I started at night when no-one was there, feels nice compared to the narrow bike paths.

(helmet with back and front light, reflective gear)

Edited by null
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2 minutes ago, /Dev/Null said:

I think it's funny how people (from the posts above) think they are perceived if they wear a helmet.  They are "scared"...why?  It is the responsible thing to do.

I can't tell you how many people (here at least) are the opposite and think you are just an irresponsible hooligan or careless if you don't wear one.  That goes for bicycling, motorcycling, and EUC'ing.  First thing people ask when I tell them about EUC'ing is "YOU DO always wear a helmet, right?"  EVERYONE does...

It's also perspective. I will always wear a helmet while snowboarding, skiing, and on my motorcycle and roadbikes or while whitewater kayaking. For some reason, my mind is resisting the helmet for the EUC at least for the last mile commute and short errands. I don't really care about what others think, it's just me.

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