What padding for crashing are we wearing?

"Padding, who needs padding??!!"

Bidendum

I am sure that I am not the brightest bulb in this forum as I have never ever used one piece of protective gear on a bicycle.
I can think of a few spectacular crashes I had when I was a kid that I wished I was wearing at least gloves.
I guess I was lucky, even today the thought of having to wear things like a helmet and pads would just suck the fun right out of it for me. I am pretty sure if it was in a law that I had to wear gear or not ride I would choose not to ride.
I feel the more gear you have on the more comfortable you feel on your bike or Motorcycle. the minute your comfortable your going to get bit in the A**
but if your riding in an environment like a highly skilled mountain bike course and your trying to best your last time through the course I would think any sane person would want nearly the same protection that Motocross riders wear, as you are very likely to crash many times in that one course.
Out of all the crashes on bicycles e bikes and even motorcycles that I have been in the main protective gear that would have prevented the most pain for me is gloves as when you go down hard or end up sliding instinctively you end up trying to catch yourself with your hands. while road rash sucks on your arms, legs or anywhere else on your body
once you scrub all the dirt out and put some ointment on it and wrap it the pain normally is minimal after a day or two. but you will need to use your hands constantly aggravating the injury and extending the pain. So my vote is for at minimal gloves are great because they help absorb vibrations which will allow you to ride further and defiantly help some when you crash.
Many here will say I am crazy for not at least wearing a helmet and they are probably right. but I feel if your not wearing a full face Helmet properly strapped down and you wreck a bicycle helmet only helps in some instances.
for one example lets say your hauling butt through a mountain bike trail and wipe out into the woods and crash head first into a heavily wooded part of the course a simple stick could easily impale your eye socket or work its way into the open holes in the helmet and still mess your day up.
So my point is everyone is different and has different opinions and riding habits.
you cannot be prepared for every single wreck.
wrecks suck you will get hurt or killed but if you try and protect yourself to the point where you lose the passion for what you love and stop doing it, you kind of died some without the crash. So do what makes you feel safer but make sure you have some sort of health- life insurance and can afford the consequences of your behavior as a crash that takes you out of work or kills you effects many people just as much as it effects you especially those that you love.

I wear pearl izumi gloves and a full face motocross helmet with goggles.

I ate it a couple weeks ago and that helmet probably saved me from some brain damage.

Been looking into elbow and knee pads but I haven't bought any yet

I only have OHV legal registration, so yea I got the armor called ballistic for the upper section. I though with just glove, helmet and my hiking boots I was gonna be. Then the tall boot I though because of my foot pegs and sometimes bumping my leg. Well the knee pads and the upper body armor is not really having me take extra risks. When you drop down in elevation 10 feet along a trail and come back up through a revenue over just maybe 40 feet of distance, I worked up to that. I would have walked it as I did a few times before the added gear and some after. Slowly taking more risks, I do. The gear can only help so much. Plowing through a patch of 1/2 foot deep viscous mud on a trail and not slowing so much as to loose balance and fall, I did like that I had the gear on. I think of hopping away from a heavy machine and yourself underneath, but all the recommendations pretty much say stay limp and let the protective gear do its job. If you put hands out and use muscle, injuries are usually worse. I don't want to prove by testing any theory, so I rely on what is in print for OHV and also use best judgement. I've seen some street bike rider using partial trail riding protective gear on the streets.

MT

On the race track I wear full body armor.......on the street I wear just a full face helmet and occasionally gloves. Flip flops and board shorts too.

xseler said:

"Padding, who needs padding??!!"
Bidendum

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graydog8josh said:

Nobody expects to crash, but i thought, maybe just in case i would like some more protection than just a helmet. Bought this cheap armor:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VIA0JI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
also bought these kneepads:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M16QY6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What are other people riding and wearing?

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I like how the advert says attached to a mesh shirt ....thing lol

On the street i just wear full face helmet,gloves and knee/shin guards with shorts. If I hit the track I add full pants and body armor.

graydog8josh said:

Nobody expects to crash, but i thought, maybe just in case i would like some more protection than just a helmet. Bought this cheap armor:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VIA0JI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
also bought these kneepads:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M16QY6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What are other people riding and wearing?

Click to expand...

Cool, - I could buy that and pretend to be a Klingon

My typical attire for summer riding on the Harley is Steel toe boots, blue jean shorts, Black T shirt with some kind of crazy biker related artwork on it, and a half shell helmet & sunglasses, Clear lens safety glasses for night time riding. the vest, gloves, and full face go on if I need to ride and it's raining... and body armor goes on if I need to ride in the rain on the freeway during rush hour traffic.
For fall and winter time, this is where the gloves come on and the blue jeans, the full face helmet with a lightly tinted face sheild, the light tint is just enough to prevent sunburn from riding for 3 hours straight, but light enough to still be able to see very well at night... Shades are mandatory during the day. I'll also begin to wear the vest when the temp drops below 70, then a nice thick leather jacket when it drops below 40 along with my winter gloves.
I do ride in the rain in the wintertime as well and that's where I bundle up with the leather jacket, chaps, gloves, full face helmet & clear shield, and body armor if on the freeway.

Now for a motorized bicycle... Just the boots for neighborhood cruising, gloves and full face helmet are added for speed testing or faster rides, or where traffic may be encountered. I don't ride this one in the rain but I do ride in the winter on cold days if it's not wet outside.

If I'm racing, it don't matter what bike I'm on it's full body armor, gloves, boots, and a full face helmet.

I've crashed hard on a motorcycle before - a most unexpected low-speed high-side. Cow-hide took most of the road-rash, the helmet sacrificed itself, saving me from being even uglier than before when i literally did a 3-point knees-knees-chin skid after hitting ground.. I also broke both legs in that one. It ain't the fall that hurts, it's the sudden stop with terra-firma.

The shortest and slowest of rides, minimum long pants, sturdy shoes, jacket.

Otherwise, i dress up as if i am on a motorcycle. Perhaps easy on the helmet - using a military-style FAST helmet, which is quite a bit beefier than the average bicycle helmet..

I'd rather sweat than bleed - and an infection induced from road-rash might well kill me... being immuno-deficient/compromised.

I got to check this out in person at SEMA yesterday:

http://www.airobag.com/en/home/

It really does work as advertised. An actual wearable airbag. It inflates across the shoulders in a manner that supports the helmet very well. The rib cage is protected, and it can be used under your leathers or impact gear.

It is reloadable / re-usable.

Just some basic common sense. You'll want to get a nice leather helmet. If it has foam or yarn stitched inside all the better! Rule 1 - protect the noggin!

Then you should consider your feet and hands. Flip flops are okay but mocassins will afford even better protection.

Lastly you'll want to make sure the engine is secured tightly to the bike and you should be ready for your adventures. You'll feel better knowing you've covered all the bases with regard to safety.

Honestly I only wear a helmet and gloves. Try to always where pants too.

In three years of riding motor bikes worst I've done is get four stitches on my chin from taking a corner too hard. I guess I was also hit by a car but it was at low speeds, landed on my feet and even managed to catch my bike!

I've been lucky as far as wrecks are concearned, but I've had a few... Fisrt crash was my first ride ever on a minibike when I was 7 years old... ran right smack into the back of my grandmother's brick house... broke my nose, my bottom teeth went thru my lower lip, my top teeth went thru my upper lip, and my forehead was road rashed for almost the remainder of the summer... not to mention busted up nuckles and skinned up knees. After that I didn't ride it for almost a year, then I got back on with a whole new respect for these things. What happened was the bike was a brand new Honda QA 50 with a 2 speed 2 down auto trans, I was riding it all day staying in 1st getting used to it and all, then I was getting more confident and decided to crack the throttle open some and the throttle stuck, I panicked and stepped down on the shifter expecting neutral but it popped into 2nd and when I looked up I hit the wall at nearly 30 mph...

After that little wreck I've had a few spills here and there but nothing major... I was also wearing a helmet and gloves most the time and usually practicing wheelies or other dirtbike stunts... I remember I flipped my friend's Yamaha 175 enduro trying a wheelie on it for the first time but I just got up from that one and tried again... I think I was 17 or 18 when that happened... and back then we would think nothing about taking that bike down the back roads in pitch black darkness doing 60+ and hoping no animals jumped out in front of us...

Then I didn't wreck again except for tipping over my dad's old GS 750 trying to turn around too tight on a dirt road... but had a close call or 3 on that one... it was the first really fast bike I ever rode and I was trying to see what it could do on a back road, I could usually hit about 110 before having to slow down for a sharp turn, then one day I went down that road, had the bike just around 110 or so and noticed something different... The road crew put in a culvert and just covered it with road base, by the time I saw it I could only slow down to 80 and it launched me and the bike about 5 feet in the air... I still dunno how I did it but the bike landed back on the road and I landed back on the bike with just enough time to regain control before having to slow down for that turn... New lesson... Ride the whole road first Before opening it up... I really enjoyed that bike back when I was between 16 and 18 years old until he traded it in for a dune buggy one of my friends had.

After that I didn't have another bike to ride on until I went out and bought a used 1987 Suzuki GSXR 750... and since I hadn't ridden in a few years, this bike was just plain scary fast... Nothing like the old GS my dad had... this one would hit 90 in second gear and in about half the time it took the old GS to get there, I think I took it up to 130 or so before getting that fear of deer but the bike was still begging for more... Luckily I never crashed that one but had a close call or 2

Then fast forward another 10 years and my urge to ride came back, this time I was more conservative and got an 84 Kawasaki KZ700 that was in excellent condition, the bike was over 20 years old when I got it, but being garage kept and well maintained it looked like a typical 2 year old daily driver... Very nice, it was still fast, but no where near as fast as the GSXR was... It would top out at around 130 and accelerated nicely but not crazy fast.
By this time I was in my mid 30's and all my friends moved up to cruisers so I was the only one on a sport bike when we went out for a ride so I started researching fast cruisers and when I found out the Suzuki Intruder 1400 was the fastest accelerating cruiser you could get... Not counting the V Rod, and right before the M109R came out, it was the quickest in stock trim so I got one... and still have it.
This one I don't ride like I did the previous bikes, but it's an excellent straight line performer and usually wins the stoplight to stoplight battles with other cruisers and a few unsuspecting crotch rockets... And it can still get over 120 mph when needed. Even tho this is a fast bike I still souped it up and going thru 1st gear with the front end off the ground is an easy task... just twist the grip and let er rip... it'll also burnout all the way thru 1st on dry pavement just by twisting the grip. I really like this one but it's down for repairs (new throttle and sync cables) but progress is slow because I'm always riding the Harley Sportster or the motorized bicycle so they get the most maintenance attention for now... lol

And somewhere in there I also got a Buell Blast for my wife to learn on.. The smallest, lightest, and slowest bike I got not counting the bicycle and I wreck it breaking my hand turning it around in the street.... I was working on it in the driveway and putting it up for the night, at the time the bike had the wrong carb on it, the jetting was right, but the air bleeds were wrong, and it has an accelerator pump that it don't need so it would bog or stumble, then all the sudden it's got Power... I was slowly turning it around in front of the house and feathering the throttle trying to get it to move slowly when I gave it just a tad too much, the bike didn't bog but instead lunged forward... pointing straight at the curb so I let off the gas and grabbed a handfull of brakes, flipped the bike and tried to jump off and out of the way but the bike landed on my leg so I put out my hand to break the fall. I didn't feel it right then, but after I got the bike back upright and went to put it back in the garage I had no strength in my left hand when I went to pull in the clutch. I got the bike put up, then it started to swell and hurt. Went to the emergency room for x-rays but they said no fractures. It was sprained pretty badly and took about 6 weeks to heal and at the time all I had to get to work and back were the 3 motorcycles.
I had to ride the Sportster in every day since it had the lightest clutch thanks to an EZ pull lever I installed a few weeks earlier, but I couldn't grip it, just hook my fingers around the lever and lean back to pull it in and lean forward to release. It took about 4 weeks to heal anough for me to grip the clutch the right way and about 6 to 8 weeks to heal where it didn't hurt any more, and I had a foot peg drive into my toe nail from this wreck so it's still growing out de formed 4 years later.

So in all that... what I'm trying to say is even tho I have been riding for almost 40 years, all it takes is just that one unexpected time when ya least expect it and you're hurting for weeks if not longer.

I still ride more than I drive and I don't always wear full armor everywhere I go, but my head and my hands are almost always protected (the quick trip down the street to the convenience store I usually just hop on and ride, but if I'm going anywhere else, the helmet and gloves are on) as well as I Always wear steel toe boots AND eye protection when riding... they're a LOT more sensative than one might think. It's always a judgement call on what gear we wear when riding but just remind yourself, things can happen at Any time on any bike no matter how slow you're going.

Oh... and one more I didn't mention... One night I was done doing a tune up on the KZ and decided to take it around the block to make sure everything was ok before putting it up for the night, I had my helmet and golves on but since I was in the neighborhood and going under 30 I had the face shield flipped up, never saw it coming but hit a june bug... right in the eye, no time to blink even... That really hurt and my eye was bleeding when I got home... from about 25 mph... and everything was a blur out of my left eye for almost a month. Wear Eye Protection Always when riding too.

Bike helmut, full length blue jeans, steel toe boots, gloves, shades, leather jacket, and a bandana to keep the bugs out of my teeth. Wife would rather visit me in the hospital than identify me in the morgue.

Manditory seat belt & helmut laws are set up to protect stupid people. No helmut laws in my state(Florida), but I wear one anyway. I figure if you're dumb enough to not wear one & you crash & die, we didn't need your contribution to the gene pool anyway.

We really don't have helmet laws here in Texas either... Well, we do, but people can ride without helmets if they have taken a motorcycle safety course... in which they would learn why it's important to protect their head and will most likely wear one anyway, or if they have proof of really good medical insurance, I think the magic number is like 150k in coverage in case of an accident.

But with that, we do have a name for those who don't wear helmets, and especially the ones who don't wear but also insist on going crazy fast every time they ride... Organ Donors.
We also have our fair share of Squids on the roads over here too... For those who don't know what a Squid is... Stupidly Quick Underdressed Iminent Death. I've experienced countless times where I'm out for a ride (I'm usually doing 75 to 85 on the open highway too) and get passed up like I'm not moving by some kid in their early to mid 20's wearing no helmet, shorts, tank top, and flip flops... With a female passenger on back dressed the same. It's guaranteed if they wipe out it's Not going to be good.

What's padding?