[Closed] Why do almost all "mountainbikers" wear gloves to ride?

warmer hands for 50% of the year and protectiong from cuts and scrapes when i put my hand down falling off etc.

Dont really feel the need for protection/ padding etc

Nurses don't wipe ar5es, so you need to look after your pinkies.

I wear them because I hate losing all the skin off the heel off my palms when I inevitable fall off and put an arm out.

Protection, mainly - mind you, I have a two inch gash across my knuckles from last night's thorns, despite the gloves.

Mainly as protection if it has been decided that i have to crash. Had a few cuts and grazes on my hands in the past so keen to avoid them seeing as i work with the public all day and manky hands are not a good look.

Sam blenky wun a big race a couple of years back and rob warner said how cool it was he dint hav no gloves on so me and all my m8s binned our gloves then
is a bit slippy on the grips sometimes but it looks well cool

Your fingers are the most sensitive part of your body - worth protecting.

Scraped-up hands make life more difficult than it needs to be.

Sweaty hands are more likely to slide off grips.

There's three reasons already. Give me a minute and I'm sure I can think of more...

I don't ride in gloves unless it's REALLY cold and my hands go numb. I carry gloves incase I need them.

When it's really wet, I struggle sometimes. I'll change my grips to sort that out, rather than buy gloves 🙂

I don't wear them most of the time.
If it's cold or wet I will, or if I'm riding a rocky trail/ course but otherwise I don't.
I used to, but they annoyed me - I couldn't think of a reason why I did so I stopped.

the protection thing is a funny one, I do more damage to my hands day-to-day than I would biking. the other day I sliced the end of my finger off peeling a potato... should I wear gloves for that?

As above - fall over, stick out hand, land on sharp sticking up object. Suede palms for me - have saved me several times!

grip..

More grip when I sweat in hot weather, less skin lost off knuckles/fingers/backs of hands from foliage encounters, less skin lost when I crash and put a hand out, warmer in cold weather. Bought my first pair of cycling gloves (fingerless ones) in 88/89 I think. Have been riding my BMX mostly gloveless for the last week and it's a nice change I think I'd want gloves on as I do more interesting things.

I forgot my gloves on a ride last summer and couldn't initially work out why everything felt wrong - steering was all weird and stuff. Pedalling uphill after the first bit of singletrack I realised that my hands were slipping on the grips without gloves, horrible...

I wear them because I hate losing all the skin off the heel off my palms when I inevitable fall off and put an arm out.

this

Sam blenky wun a big race a couple of years back and rob warner said how cool it was he dint hav no gloves on so me and all my m8s binned our gloves then
is a bit slippy on the grips sometimes but it looks well cool

You binned your gloves because Rob Warner reckoned it looked cool?

😆

You really need this question answered? Have you ever been over the bars at speed? Do you know what you tend to do instinctively?

Also: you should see the height of the nettles round our way, after all this rain! 😯

As Yunki says:

Grip.

also, I did a lot of judo as a kid, so if I take a tumble I tend to roll rather than sticking my hands out.
rather than breaking my wrists, I tend to knacker my shoulders instead! 😀

interesting that folk seem to see protection as a big reason so far. I've never really found the protection to be upto much from a decently thin pair of gloves.

I tend to get blisters without them. Plus I hate the feeling of sweaty, slippery hands on grips. Don't wear them for shorter rides in warm weather though.

You really need this question answered?

Have you ever been over the bars at speed? Do you know what you tend to do instinctively?

Sam blenky wun a big race a couple of years back and rob warner said how cool it was he dint hav no gloves on so me and all my m8s binned our gloves then
is a bit slippy on the grips sometimes but it looks well cool

Please tell me you're joking, if not this is the most stupid thing I've read in a long time.

I wear gloves because several million years of evolution means you will put your hands down first if you crash.

Blisters only really happen if you're not used to it, they'll eventually turn into calluses you can cut off with no blood loss at all.

At least once a year I destroy a pair of gloves in a crash, better them than me.

I wear them after a strand of thorns went between my middle fingers and then pulled through as I past 😥

And as above just general protection

Yes! many many many times. I tend to Tuck n roll mainly, what's your point?

So what part of your body breaks your fall?

Saves scuffed hands when I do fall off, don't like riding without them now as feels weird, like driving the car without a seatbelt on now, the TLD SE's I use now do offer a fair bit of protection too, I've 'tested' quite a few sets now 😉

Coz i paid a fortune for these false nails

So what part of your body breaks your fall?

coz it's what proper gents do, I wear them for driving too.

I've been riding for donks, started off road riding in 70's and never used to wear gloves until I started doing big days/milages, - mainly to get some extra padding between bars & palm. Used to have some nice original 70's string back fingerless mitts....er hmmm.

I started wearing gloves nearly all the time after a mate came off on a high speed road descent and shredded his palms - not a pretty sight....and trying to pick bits of tarmac, car window glass & dirt out before bandaging him up...not good!

After a high speed off myself whilst riding my mtn bike through a section of loose rocks, I now wear decent long finger gloves. I was wearing fingerless gloves at the time, and one of my fingernails got quite mashed (at the time, the least of my worries!!), but I could see where the palm on one of the gloves had taken a lot of abrasion, so I think it prevented injuries to one of my palms - shame about the rest of my body!

At the end of the day (and having worked in a hospital A&E Dept), I think with any 'adventure sport' it's up to participants to take on some responsibility and precautions for themselves - and for mtn biking, wearing a helmet, gloves and glasses seems sensible to me. Oh, and it might even save you a lovely evening sitting in an A&E waiting room for hours (Don't get me started on binge drinkers wasting A&E Depts time!)

Tuck and roll's all well and good if you have time, last big one in Scotland I went down like a sack of s##t chest onto the stem only just managed to break fall with my hands. (hidden rock in the undergrowth) ribs still aching after 3 weeks. 😳

several million years of evolution means you will put your hands down first

I wouldn't call that evolution.

if you've got kids, get them to do judo - I'm sure it's saved me from having lots of broken bones over the years.

there's something nice about not wearing gloves, a sense of freedom, like you get from riding without a helmet (but less taboo)

Snot wipes on gloves are useful when you are wearing short sleeves

Besides grip and crash protection, the main reason for me is to protect from sticking out branches, brambles etc. on overgrown or tight trails- which would otherwise rip your knuckles to bits.

Blisters only really happen if you're not used to it, they'll eventually turn into calluses you can cut off with no blood loss at all.

Or which tear off when I'm climbing and **** up the day.

I do wonder why I always wear gloves. The only real benefit I see is going through forests at high speeds to stop small branches hurting when they whip across my fingers and knuckles. Same reason I wear glasses.

Just feels weird not wearing them now after 15 years I guess.

There's a H&S moto in our industry

[b]"Hands are Handy"[/b]

It's true

My hands can get a bit numb, so I prefer a bit of extra padding. Plus the gorse and brambles tend to rip the shit out of my hands otherwise.
Sweat / snot wipes handy too.

the whole point of rolling is that no one part of the body breaks the fall rather than stopping dead and being badly injured.

That doesn't actually the question. :p (I know the theory - I learned to breakfall while doing Ju Jitsu)

So, when you crash, what part of your body tends to hit the ground first?

My local forest has heaps of this...

[img] [/img]

I don't really enjoy pulling tiny thorns from my fingers.

Lol at bedmaker, even bigger lol at the people who thought he was being serious!

Grip-comfort-protection, in that order. Oh and it's usually wet or cold!

Yes! many many many times. I tend to Tuck n roll mainly, what's your point?

the whole point of rolling is that no one part of the body breaks the fall rather than stopping dead and being badly injured.

Sorry, but I just don't think that if you go over the bars properly, when you're absolutely flat out downhill that you'll roll. That takes thought. And you've no time for that. Instinct takes over at that speed, whether you like it or not, and you stick you're hands out. Its involuntary. It just happens.

I came off a couple of years ago. The worst accident I've had. My back wheel hooked up and stopped the bike virtually dead, when I reckon I was doing 25-30mph, flat out downhill. I landed on my face and the palm of my right hand on gravel. Made a right mess of myself!

In all honesty, I can't see anyone else doing anything differently. Or getting a different result. You're not going to have some thought-through choice about how you land.

Hence always wearing gloves (and helmets and elbow pads) IMHO you deserve everything you get if you're not wearing the right kit.

I don't wear gloves unless it's either so cold that my hands go numb within minutes (I have bad circulation which doesnt help) or so hot that the grips are slick with sweat. I hate wearing them, don't like that feeling of material between my hand and the grip. It actually seems like less grip most of the time as the material seems to move around.. I've had this even with thin gloves.

Fashion 😉

Nothing to do with protection, grip and stopping blisters.

Warmth a lot of the year.
Also lots of nurses [b]do[/b] wipe arses(for those that can't wipe their own!), and for some years that and the other very hands on icky stuff was why I did what I could to keep my hands as intact as possible. I haven't wiped a bum for a while now, but grazed/cut hands are still both problematic and Not A Good Look in my current niche of nursing.

As an aside, GW should make this sortb of thing a regular feature. I dunno, "GW's friday pwn" or something. 😉

stopping blisters.

I get more blisters with gloves as the material rubs and chafes.

Makes switching from cycling to strangling that bit quicker

I do, mainly in case I fall off and land on my hands. I don't find them so uncomfortable as to be a hindrance. Simple as that.

If you don't want to, that's fine with me. Just don't whinge if you hurt yourself.

Anyone who makes choices due to what someone else thinks looks right or wrong, in a decision that has nothing to do with looks, is asking for even less sympathy.

3 main reasons in no particular order

1) Protection in falls and during riding

2) Padding around ulna nerve and carpal tunnel

3) Grip (you only need a sweaty hand to slip off your bars once to understand this one)

I believe that trumps looking cool.

I'm a hand model, got to protect the commodities.

Grip, comfort and protection.

Tuck and roll..... genius.

wipe sweat from my brow.
colour coordinates with my outfit.

if you can't go fast,at least look good going slow.

I don't wear them.

Mainly to show off my BMXing roots with the added benefit that I get a more even tan.

Do you know (and I've checked the thread and not seen this) that riding without gloves wears your grips down much quicker?
Yes! I don't wear gloves on my ss in the warmer weather (easier for using the fingers to whistle for the trailhound) and the grips go smooth really quickly.
So wearing gloves saves money 🙂

Thorns, branches, gorse bushes etc. Putting hands out when falling. Putting hands out to stop falling and grabbing trees. I did a whole load of MTFU when I was skateboarding and after 6 or 7 years of grazed, cut and damaged hands, I'm over it.

Sorry, but I just don't think that if you go over the bars properly, when you're absolutely flat out downhill that you'll roll. That takes thought. And you've no time for that. Instinct takes over at that speed, whether you like it or not, and you stick you're hands out. Its involuntary. It just happens

For me I roll out of a crash no matter how fast I'm going. Some people naturally turn one side towards in a crash and some people naturally stick their hands out. As far as I can tell it doesn't matter what speed you're going.

It takes no thought for me, I probably couldn't try to stop myself with my hands even if I wanted to.

So, what made you buy your first pair of gloves for biking?

They went with the bike, same make, same colour looked good, it was part of getting the look . . .

have you ever ridden gloveless? how did you find it?

Once maybe, . .i was careful to not to hurt them . . . lol . . didn't feel any vast difference in control

and why do you wear them now?

Protection from trail side and trail, but crash protection is next to useless for a big off

I wear full fingers on my road bike, which some people think is odd, but it I crash I'd like the best chance at preserving the skin on my pinkies

Maybe I should go for industrial gauntlets?

Why do almost all "mountainbikers" wear gloves to ride?

Presumably because they're not as awesome as you? That generally seems to be the main thrust of everything you post on here.

GW, are you too much of a lady to sweat? 😉

I have asked non glove wearers why and they say "I cant wear gloves..."
They dont see the humour when I ask if the reason for this is they have have webbed hands 😀

So, when you crash, what part of your body tends to hit the ground first?

I've crashed thousands of times

GW, are you too much of a lady to sweat?

Sorry, but I just don't think that if you go over the bars properly, when you're absolutely flat out downhill that you'll roll. That takes thought. And you've no time for that. Instinct takes over at that speed, whether you like it or not, and you stick you're hands out. Its involuntary. It just happens

You can't seriously expect one definitive answer?

Afraid so!

What [i]tends[/i] to hit the ground first? For example: if you crash ten times, in six of them what was the first thing to break your fall before tucking and rolling?

If you've crashed thousands of times I assume you have a massive amount of experience to reach a conclusion with. 😉

Do you know (and I've checked the thread and not seen this) that riding without gloves wears your grips down much quicker?

[i]I've crashed thousands of times[/i]

You must be a shit rider then.

pimpmaster - [i]tends[/i] to be the back of my right shoulder and back of right upper arm spreading the initial impact load (as much a glance as an impact)

What relevance does this have to whether I wear gloves or not?

You must be a shit rider then.

To all those people whose hands tend to be the first thing to hit the ground, how do you not have permanently broken wrists?

or collarbones.

^I've got permanently ****ed shoulders 🙂

Edit: And my collarbones aren't in a good way...

To all those people whose hands tend to be the first thing to hit the ground, how do you not have permanently broken wrists?

By bending our elbows. In a similar way we often bend our knees when jumping and landing on our feet.

I'm with some of you on this rolling/tucking thing, used to do judo as a kid, not something I took seriously but I did seem to learn to roll/ break a fall, often you spot a landing and start to prepare before you're really off. I've had loads of crashes that are often collarbone / wrist breakers but (luckily) so far haven't done anything more than a sore shoulder and side a couple of times.
As for gloves, did 10 days bikepacking mainly without them earlier this summer and it was great. Avoided the dreaded jazz-hands, grip was fine, comfort good, wore thin ones one really hot day with more tricky DH and on a rainy day. Not convinced they're as needed as habit suggests, but having crashes on tarmac gloveless I do think thay're a good thing.

Far too much common sense there Tom. 😉

I still use my hands (and feet. funnily enough) to break my fall fairly often too, other than thorn cuts the last times I damaged my hands was with a saw then a door, last bike riding hand injury was actually caused by wearing gloves (I had to wear them) the glove caught on a branch ripping me clean off the bike taking the finger of the glove with it. (had I not been wearing gloves the branch would have just brushed past my hand giving me a scratch)

A most entertaining thread.

A couple of other observations: I didn't notice any change for better or worse in my callus-ness when I started wearing gloves for riding (rather than for warmth) and they don't really bother me. I have never got blisters or chafing from wearing gloves or indeed not wearing gloves.

GW, Do you also leave your helmet at home for fear of clotheslining yourself on an overhanging branch then? 😉

Oh Dear Christ!!! We're heading into TJ helmet debate territory

RUN AWAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!