A Scottish chap summed this up perfectly for me.

On my my mate and him reaching he top of Innerleithen and they started padding up, full face lids pads all over and me just in my shorts tee shirt and XC lid I commented how under dressed I felt.

"Oochhh, you're only under dressed if you come off" he replied. 🙂

Horses for courses IMO and if it makes you ride better, harder faster with pads, wear them. If you think your skin and bones are harder than whatever it is you ride over then go ahead and have fun without them.

For me, I wear leg pads, gloves and normal XC lid always. Alps, full armour full face lid, if only to stop a silly "off" from ruining my holiday.

Doing an uplift at Cwymcan on Sunday and I'll be have all my pads on and a full face lid.