damaged wrist or collarbone ?

[Ronin]

While watching a video from speedyfeet on the v11 he mentioned in a comment that he never wears wrist guards due to the damage (transfer of force)  they cause to the collarbone. He makes a point. So I wonder what the community here thinks about it. 

[BarrettJ]

I can see that, but then I'd still want the sliders on my palms, personally (which I don't think I see him using, but might be mistaken).

Edited September 27, 2020 by BarrettJ

[meepmeepmayer]

I think it's monumentally stupid. No point in protecting your collarbone (lol) if the price is brutally torn up hands. I don't want to know how badly a crash without wrist guards can end for your hands, and easily with permanent consequences. Way too many delicate parts there. Torn nerves, muscles, ligaments, whatnot - forget ever using your hands properly again.

Maybe Ian's pure skill made him never have a crash, but for the rest of us, wrist guards are mandatory. I nearly tore through my winter gloves from a simply walking speed cut-out (fried my wheel) where I didn't even fall (just landed on the hands), and got wrist guards immediately. Then I had one simple medium-speed fall with pretty deep scratches in my wirst guards just from smooth perfect pavement, and upgraded to better ones.

Permanent debilitating hand damage - no thanks!!

[houseofjob]

6 hours ago, Ronin Ryder said:

While watching a video from speedyfeet on the v11 he mentioned in a comment that he never wears wrist guards due to the damage (transfer of force)  they cause to the collarbone. He makes a point. So I wonder what the community here thinks about it. 

I don't get it, then you instinctively land on your outstretched hands anyways (tends to happen quick, can't reason it out in the moment), and both your collarbone AND your wrists are F'd, palms torn up and swell from bruising. Every time I went sans wrist guards or palm sliders (flatlands) I've ended up regretting it: even if I go 1 block, the absolute least I wear is just a pair of gloves/wrist guards. My last fall sans hand/wrist protection due to an oil patch, my wrists were so sore, I couldn't do any upper body gym stuff for a solid 6 months.

First and greatest point of impact for every one of my falls on EUC has always been hands/wrists, so the first thing I wear and the first thing I recommend for EUC gear is hand/wrist protection.

There's a reason why Jason throws in a free pair of wrist guards with every eWheels wheel purchase.

Edited September 27, 2020 by houseofjob

[Ronin]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Quite clear conclusion on this. 

[shellac]

On 9/27/2020 at 4:52 PM, houseofjob said:

I don't get it, then you instinctively land on your outstretched hands anyways (tends to happen quick, can't reason it out in the moment), and both your collarbone AND your wrists are F'd, palms torn up and swell from bruising. Every time I went sans wrist guards or palm sliders (flatlands) I've ended up regretting it: even if I go 1 block, the absolute least I wear is just a pair of gloves/wrist guards. My last fall sans hand/wrist protection due to an oil patch, my wrists were so sore, I couldn't do any upper body gym stuff for a solid 6 months.

Curious about when you decide to use gloves with palm sliders vs wrist guards.   Aren’t the wrist guards more protective than the palm sliders?

I do want to use full gloves with sliders since there are so many nice ones from Knox but what holds me back is that the wrists may be less protected. 

[houseofjob]

34 minutes ago, shellac said:

Curious about when you decide to use gloves with palm sliders vs wrist guards.   Aren’t the wrist guards more protective than the palm sliders?

I do want to use full gloves with sliders since there are so many nice ones from Knox but what holds me back is that the wrists may be less protected. 

It’s a case by cas scenario I think. 
For myself, I’ve been fine with just palm Knox sliders because (my theory) I’m not severely overweight (altho I do have some pandemic fat to shed 😄) and I regularly lift weights, so I know this stresses the bones to become stronger.

I’m sure there are many who are not this and need the wrist support, but all my falls with sliders I’ve found I personally don’t. We’re all built differently I guess.

Edited September 30, 2020 by houseofjob

[meepmeepmayer]

For EUCing, 95% of the purpose of wrist guards is the palm sliding thing. So as long as gloves have sliders, they do more or less the same.

You don't really fall in a way where you would bend and break your wrists like you would do in snowboarding, for example.

Not sure if there has ever been a crash with broken hand bones due to overbending of the wrist (which wrist guards usually  are designed to prevent). But wrist guards might help move or distribute an impact from your delicate hands to your (slightly) less delicate shoulders. So wrist guards can't hurt, but the really important part is the palm sliding.

[Jj Luo]

3 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

For EUCing, 95% of the purpose of wrist guards is the palm sliding thing. So as long as gloves have sliders, they do more or less the same.

You don't really fall in a way where you would bend and break your wrists like you would do in snowboarding, for example.

Not sure if there has ever been a crash with broken hand bones due to overbending of the wrist (which wrist guards usually  are designed to prevent). But wrist guards might help move or distribute an impact from your delicate hands to your (slightly) less delicate shoulders. So wrist guards can't hurt, but the really important part is the palm sliding.

5% is still a lot of risk to take. Adam from Wrong Way used to wear gloves until he broke his wrist, he now wears wrist guards. I think he is a very skilled rider.

[Marty Backe]

23 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

For EUCing, 95% of the purpose of wrist guards is the palm sliding thing. So as long as gloves have sliders, they do more or less the same.

You don't really fall in a way where you would bend and break your wrists like you would do in snowboarding, for example.

Not sure if there has ever been a crash with broken hand bones due to overbending of the wrist (which wrist guards usually  are designed to prevent). But wrist guards might help move or distribute an impact from your delicate hands to your (slightly) less delicate shoulders. So wrist guards can't hurt, but the really important part is the palm sliding.

How exactly do snowboarders fall differently than us?

[meepmeepmayer]

10 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

How exactly do snowboarders fall differently than us?

They fall to the side and catch themselves with already bent wrists. Think falling to your side when standing in place, and landing on your hand. Your wrist is probably bent when your hand hits the ground.

EUCs you mostly do the superman and your wrists are straight.

Edited September 30, 2020 by meepmeepmayer

[meepmeepmayer]

27 minutes ago, Jj Luo said:

5% is still a lot of risk to take. Adam from Wrong Way used to wear gloves until he broke his wrist, he now wears wrist guards. I think he is a very skilled rider.

That was a figure of speech, not an actual number But you're right. I'd also feel safer with proper wrist guards than only gloves with sliders.

[redsnapper]

2 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

How exactly do snowboarders fall differently than us?

Snowboard/skateboard - shoulders at right angle to direction of travel vs EUC facing direction of travel. But friction coefficient so much higher when falling  on pave/dirt so even falling from a OneWheel is likely to produce bad voodoo cuz you will turn as you fall to use your hands/arms as buffers.

Although I think the wristguards are very good idea, I just can't bring myself to  wear them :-(

I guess the more geared up I get the less free I feel. Helmet and gloves is about the most I can do ( I don't really ride fast or all that hard though )... 

[Daley1]

Wristguards stop the wrist hyperextending and breaking .That is their primary purpose .Flexmeters have a slider built in to the palms that may help disssipate some of the force on impact ,but fingers are still unprotected .I always wear leather gloves for finger protection as a hand is not very useful if it has no fingers on it!. One of @Mike Sacristan videos showed his friend with some nasty hand injuries post fall.

[rainystateguy]

2 hours ago, Daley1 said:

Wristguards stop the wrist hyperextending and breaking .That is their primary purpose .Flexmeters have a slider built in to the palms that may help disssipate some of the force on impact ,but fingers are still unprotected .I always wear leather gloves for finger protection as a hand is not very useful if it has no fingers on it!. One of @Mike Sacristan videos showed his friend with some nasty hand injuries post fall.

I came off of my wheel at low speed a few weeks ago while wearing full gear including flexmeters. I still managed to not only badly dislocate the little finger on my left hand, but also something broke into the skin right there deep enough to expose the tendon.  I'm guessing that I hit the pavement with the side of the little finger rather than with the slider.  I will be adding gloves to the mix.

[Mike Sacristan]

I used wrist guards for the longest time when rollerblading. Gloves for mountain biking.
I have fallen off my EUC a few times and all times it was with my leather fingerless gloves. The leather was slippery enough for me to slide on. I ended up scraping my elbows and knees a bit.

I would choose gloves before wrist guards and I would prefer gloves with scaphoid protection. You can go crazy and look at the knox ones or high racers.

Put your gear on... run at around 10kmh and throw yourself on the ground superman style.
Then you will begin to learn the weaknesses of your gear.

Falling is just nasty and we should do everything we can to avoid it.
Two riders in the group now with recently broken collarbones. One wearing wrist guards at 28kmh and the other wearing motorcycle gloves seated at 60kmh.
Another rider fell at 73kmh and got up with just some scratches. Another fell at 60kmh with torn up fingers.

The wheels are ok.

[Ronin]

6 hours ago, Mike Sacristan said:

 

Two riders in the group now with recently broken collarbones. One wearing wrist guards at 28kmh and the other wearing motorcycle gloves seated at 60kmh.
Another rider fell at 73kmh and got up with just some scratches. Another fell at 60kmh with torn up fingers.

The wheels are ok.

Damn bloodbath in your group man, take care... 😓

[Marty Backe]

15 hours ago, rainystateguy said:

I came off of my wheel at low speed a few weeks ago while wearing full gear including flexmeters. I still managed to not only badly dislocate the little finger on my left hand, but also something broke into the skin right there deep enough to expose the tendon.  I'm guessing that I hit the pavement with the side of the little finger rather than with the slider.  I will be adding gloves to the mix.

Would gloves have prevented the dislocated finger (I'm guessing not)? But road rash yes 

[shellac]

15 hours ago, rainystateguy said:

I came off of my wheel at low speed a few weeks ago while wearing full gear including flexmeters. I still managed to not only badly dislocate the little finger on my left hand, but also something broke into the skin right there deep enough to expose the tendon.  I'm guessing that I hit the pavement with the side of the little finger rather than with the slider.  I will be adding gloves to the mix.

I’m wearing full finger hillbillies now which have wrist protectors. Mainly I’m worried about my fingers as well which I need for work. (They’re nice to have around anyways even if I’m not working.)

I’ve looked at the knox handroids which seem to protect the fingers with some support on the dorsal aspect. But I’m not sure that even the gauntlet version has good wrist protection, though at least they have sliders. It seems to be slim pickings and no complete options for full protection. 

[Marty Backe]

6 hours ago, Mike Sacristan said:

I used wrist guards for the longest time when rollerblading. Gloves for mountain biking.
I have fallen off my EUC a few times and all times it was with my leather fingerless gloves. The leather was slippery enough for me to slide on. I ended up scraping my elbows and knees a bit.

I would choose gloves before wrist guards and I would prefer gloves with scaphoid protection. You can go crazy and look at the knox ones or high racers.

Put your gear on... run at around 10kmh and throw yourself on the ground superman style.
Then you will begin to learn the weaknesses of your gear.

Falling is just nasty and we should do everything we can to avoid it.
Two riders in the group now with recently broken collarbones. One wearing wrist guards at 28kmh and the other wearing motorcycle gloves seated at 60kmh.
Another rider fell at 73kmh and got up with just some scratches. Another fell at 60kmh with torn up fingers.

The wheels are ok.

Your story just highlights that it's a total crap-shoot whether we'll get injured from a fall. People like to predict what happens (like snowboarders fall a specific way, etc) when you fall, but every single fall is different. 

I look at my gear as providing a little bit of extra insurance, but with no guarantees. In some ways I think it's just making me "feel" safer, which can be a good thing for the mind.

The only gear which unequivocally protects you are the knee pads, IMHO. 

[redsnapper]

3 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

The only gear which unequivocally protects you are the knee pads, IMHO. 

Marty - I figure the helmet is so obviously protective that it goes without mention? Gloves may not prevent finger/hand injury bit they will prevent or minimise shredding of your skin - which on the hands can be pretty detrimental! But I agree there is no predicting what happens when you hit the pave...

Edited October 1, 2020 by amelanso

[RayBanMonster]

On 9/27/2020 at 4:41 PM, Ronin Ryder said:

While watching a video from speedyfeet on the v11 he mentioned in a comment that he never wears wrist guards due to the damage (transfer of force)  they cause to the collarbone. He makes a point. So I wonder what the community here thinks about it. 

I don't put much stock in that at all, because there are simply way too many variables... every crash is different. We've all had many falls, none follow the same path except hands are out... for me i often end up winded if i cannot negotiate a sideways hit  and roll.

There are three guarantees in life, an EUC crash, Death & Taxes,...  breaking the collarbone because you wore wrist guards isn't one of them..

Edited October 1, 2020 by RayBanMonster

[bnapalm]

On 9/30/2020 at 8:31 PM, meepmeepmayer said:

For EUCing, 95% of the purpose of wrist guards is the palm sliding thing. So as long as gloves have sliders, they do more or less the same.

You don't really fall in a way where you would bend and break your wrists like you would do in snowboarding, for example.

Not sure if there has ever been a crash with broken hand bones due to overbending of the wrist (which wrist guards usually  are designed to prevent). But wrist guards might help move or distribute an impact from your delicate hands to your (slightly) less delicate shoulders. So wrist guards can't hurt, but the really important part is the palm sliding.

Hi!

New forum member here, new-ish EUC rider.

I'd like to present my experience to the contrary. See the 2 month old image below for aftermath of my low-speed EUC crash (computer imaging of bone, SFW) :

https://imgur.com/a/hDeZt3W

This was 100% due to my own foolishness. I was riding a V10F in the rain, in a park. The speed was low, perhaps 10-20 km/h. I hit a puddle with dirt and leaves underneath. The wheel slipped, I tried to regain balance with my legs, and my legs partly slipped off the pedals (these were the old V10F pedals — silicone with no griptape. good in dry weather, slippery when wet), and about a second later I just realized that there was nothing I could do and I will fall backwards in a moment. Instinctively, I put my left hand behind me to break the fall — not something you should do, but it was not a conscious decision — and you can see the aftermath in the image. 

I was only wearing gloves with abrasion-protective "sliders", but without wrist guards. Had I had wrist guards, I would probably have been fine. So yes, while normally you would fall off a unicycle at speed "superman" style and/or on your knees, it is still very possible to land badly on your wrists. Only have the cast off for 2 weeks now, working with physiotherapist to regain movement, and I'm never riding without wristguards again. 

[rainystateguy]

2 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

The only gear which unequivocally protects you are the knee pads, IMHO. 

In that same recent fall which I mentioned above I also managed to sprain my knee, despite wearing knee pads.  No road rash or similar to the knee  Judging from my injuries I must have been twisting to my right as I landed.  So as protection from abrasions or straight on impacts they seem to work as intended.  As for injuries that involve twisting in directions that aren't supposed to twist, not so much.

[Mike Sacristan]

This brings me back to the whole "falling sucks" thing.
Yesterday I was riding down a rocky hill and a stump appeared out of nowhere. I jumped off the wheel.. the pedal hit me in the back of the leg.

Feels amazing man... feels amazing. The wheel was ok though.