Who here rides without gloves and why?
There are often pics in the mags of people pulling sick rad gnar skillz whatever with bare hands, and RD’s recent caption thread shows a rider with full face, long riding pants but no gloves.
I put mine on every time I put my helmet on and assumed everybody else did??
When I stack it I tend to put my hands out to save me, do others not do this?
Or is it just the cool kids looking cool?

Sometimes I ride without gloves
Depends what I’m doing and how long

funny, the last few road rides i’ve done i havent worn gloves, but sunday i decided to not do that again as my hand slipped off the grip of my road bike because of the sweat.

on the other hand (ha!) my mtb has grips that are good enough to go bare handed, but probably wouldnt want to do that on trails…

On the road? – No gloves,

Off road? Always gloves..

Dont bother with gloves unless its cold and/or wet.

i always wear gloves. tho some wud say you get better grip without them -(depending on your chosen grips that is… i have lizard skins, so quite grippy anyway…but then agin i dont like to get my hands choked in mud/ cow shite if i fall off 😉

Never worn gloves on the road, never felt the need to?

Wear gloves occasionally when offroad, don’t actually like wearing them so its a rarity.

Is it what all the cool kids do then? I can’t recall at the DH races recently people all factory jacksonned up but rocking the no gloves look?

No gloves is fine.

Until you fall off.

no gloves 99% of the time for me, I have to wear them at DH races (stupid rules 🙁 ) and choose to wear gloves sometimes in the wet (safer)
I def ride much better without gloves, I like very thin hard grips and can feel the bike moving and can react quicker without gloves
I also overheat noticeably more if I wear gloves (even in winter) for the same reason I don’t wear a helmet very often now either.

Always wear gloves, I just find them more comfortable. Forgot them once on a ride at Cannock and didn’t feel comfortable at all.

No gloves is fine.

Until you fall off.

all gloves do is rip

oooh how shocking GW,,,NO HELMET ? 😈

Can’t ride without them, just feels really weird now

Why the evil smiley Elaine? 🙁

I suppose if you work with your hands or need to have clean/intact hands the idea of falling off with no gloves is not great.

When I worked in general nursing and washed/sanitised my hands lord knows how many times a day, having grazed/cut hands or fingers was a real ballache in terms of keeping your wounds covered.

Forgotten my gloves a couple of times (on rare rides that start with a car journey), can’t say I felt the benefit in feel or response that others do without gloves, apart from chunky winter or windproof ones, but I like an unpadded palm on a glove rather than the bouncy spesh body geometry type.

At the risk of rising to the bait and regurgitating the helmet argument….

I’ve been hospitalised with concussion and snapped another helmet almost in half. If I hadn’t been wearing one I might be dead. Which in my experience, is a lot worse than being warm.

GW – Member

all gloves do is rip

crap troll GW. How much more of your hands would you rip without the gloves on to rip first? My helmet broke when I fell off once. I still knocked myself out and ‘lost’ half the day. If I was going to knock myself out anyway, perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered wearing the helmet in the first place.

you must wear a Helmet…. save ya noggin ! 😉

I’ve had concussion loads of times.. it’s never killed me.

there’s no point recounting your own (exaggerated?) horror stories I’m perfectly able make my own decision when/where/whether i need a polystyrene hat or not.

Sam Blenkinsop well known on the pro circuit for never wearing gloves, probably him youve seen in the mags

What’s this about gloves not being cool ?
I wear gloves while trailquesting and you can’t get a better endorsement of coolness than that.

troll? 🙄

most gloves thin enough to actually feel good riding in rip ridiculously easily, skin is tougher and heals fairly quickly

eeeeh wen i wer a lass… we dint ave non of this designer wear for bikes, we just had our chopper bikes and off we peddled (tho i mite be lying cos dint we ave those multi colured tassle thingys hanging out of our handlebars…hahhaa yep we did… 😉

I used to feel naked without gloves on on the bike, same with glasses, but am more used to it these days and mix and match. I like my gloves with a minimal palm anyway.

I do find they protect your hands, I’ve only had a gloves rip a couple of times and even then my hands probably came out better than they would have without the gloves in the first place.

Is it what all the cool kids do then?

Yup! – I think the Antipodean DHers started it, along with no body armour.

you’ll be telling us riding bikes off-road started in Marin county next 🙄
there have always been bike riders that don’t wear gloves just as there have always been DHers that don’t wear body armour.

Yup! – I think the Antipodean DHers started it, along with no body armour.

Eh?

I started riding mainly dirt/street/bmx/trials and for this all you needed was a bike rather then any specific riding attire.

I got used to riding a bike without gloves, and now when I ride with gloves I find it feels a bit odd.

If I don’t wear gloves (off road) I get sore palms, feels similar to bruising.

I wonder if that’s indicative of my bike not being set up correctly, i.e. leaning forward too much.

I wear gloves. i don’t like picking grit out of my palms

your palms toughen up after a while

I’ll let you carry on that trial. Good luck

I never used to wear gloves, the thought never even came into my head.

Then I realised everyone else seemed to, so now I do…except commuting to work.

Yes, I’m a sheep.

On the road in sunny weather or off road on climbs in sunny weather, no gloves for me.

Wet/cold weather, always wear gloves as i had nice hands and nails before climbing destroyed them get cold hands otherwise.

I’d very rarely ride without gloves. And i’d never use fingerless. I still have finger scars from coming off at Afan with fingerless gloves. They’re usually the first thing on the ground when you fall, and gravel is a bitch to get out of your hands.

I’d rather rip up a ten quid pair of gloves than my hands again thank you but each to their own. Same with helmets.

I can’t recall at the DH races recently people all factory jacksonned up but rocking the no gloves look?

Not just recent, a few fast ‘factory’ riders don’t wear gloves.
James Hughes, Elite Win, Bala, 2008.

Personally, I can’t ride without them.

Hilarious, usually wear gloves. Forgot them at the weekend – now typing one handed, gravel rash – not amusing

I only wear gloves when its cold – and then they are cold weather gloves rather than ‘riding’ gloves

davidtaylforth – I meant that made it ‘cool’.

Weirdly, now you mention it, the bmx is the bike I’m most likley to ride gloveless yet most frequently slam my hands on the deck from… even when JRA, i really need to give that thing away!

having seen and exprienced what happens when you put your palm on the road at speed i almost always wear gloves. And if your gloves are ripping try some better ones.

depends how cold it is, always when it’s cold, sometimes don’t bother when it’s warm enough. I don’t really find the grip thing that much of an issue with or without them, actually half the time i wear those £1 wooley stretchy gloves ye get in the corner shop..

Very rarely use gloves unless it’s blinkin cold. Having spent years jamming my hands in gritstone cracks for fun falling off a bike and getting an owie on my palms doesn’t really bother me.