jadmt

...my attempt at sarcasm flopped I guess. I presently do wear a helmet but going to try weaning myself from wearing one.

13velos

I had quit wearing gloves for a number of years until I had carpal tunnel surgery on my hand. I bought some really cheap gloves to help with the post-surgery discomfort and am still wearing gloves all these years later.

NJgreyhead

I find gloves very convenient for snot-management.
Your mucus may vary.

rsbob 

Cheaper than a neurosurgeon. Had a good friend many years back take a low speed tumble without a helmet and smacked her noggin so hard, she was unconscious in the ICU for weeks and could never return to work because her eggs were so scrambled. She never fully regained her mental faculties.

Also witnessed an autopsy where I guy ran into a light pole and the resulting pressure in his brain caused it to turn into the consistency of red Cream of Wheat. That image is indelibly etched.

So it can never happen to you? Unfortunately on a bike, you can’t always control all the variables.

jadmt

most of the brains I have seen looked nothing like cream of wheat...more like chunks of chicken...

rsbob 

Evidently they didn’t simmer long enough.

VegasJen

I don't pay attention to what the pros do, I'm so far removed. But I wear gloves on every ride because road rash hurts.

cyclezen

2024 Giro - Stage 19, Andrea Piccolo -EF team, hit a small pothole which turned his front wheel. He endo'd and landed arms down and on his torso and knees.
Tore himself up quite a lot.
Wasn't wearing gloves and both his hands were so badly torn, he couldn't even put them down to get himself up...
Abandon... It'll be a long recovery.
Ride On
Yuri

rsbob 

Yeoch!

PeteHski

I bet he wears gloves from now on. Tuck and roll crash “technique” obviously didn’t work for him either! Many crashes like this are beyond our control and then it helps if you have some form of protection. Helmet and fingerless gloves is a bare minimum for me and I sometimes wear light elbow and knee pads for mtb, which have saved some nasty injuries over the years.

rsbob 

I hear that about elbow and knee pads. Finally graduated to those after too many bruises and blood loss. Never was as good as I thought I could be.

PeteHski

Yeah I’ve walked away unscathed from numerous mtb crashes that would have certainly removed all the skin off my knees and elbows. Wearing pads is something I picked up from my skateboarding youth. I don’t wear them all the time for mtb, but certainly anywhere unfamiliar and challenging.

NJgreyhead

This from BQ's Jan Heine:
"In longer events, numb hands and even nerve damage are common. The Rene Herse Randonneur bars may look unconventional, but they’ve evolved from a shape that has been fine-tuned for decades. The upsweep provides three-dimensional support for the palms of your hands to eliminate pressure points. (The palms of your hands aren’t flat when you hold the bars.) This works so well that I’ve stopped using gloves for these long adventures. I found that gloves can bunch up and cause blisters—and I just don’t need them any longer."

Unbound XL: Jan’s Bike – Rene Herse Cycles

cweb99

I don’t wear gloves


soon I won’t wear shorts or a jersey


just a helmet and clipless shoes it’s the future

LarrySellerz

I might start wearing gloves on one of my bikes, got a single speed and the grips or tape gave me chemical burns on my hands.

Over 2 weeks after exposure

I got a shop to switch the tape, but now I’m paranoid and don’t trust the hoods, they say I need new brake levers to swap that. Considering using gloves when riding that bike, and I often dont wear a shirt, usually don’t wear a helmet, use street shoes, feel like gloves would look silly. But I have tough hands (work with them for a living) and this was not a mechanical rubbing of skin. Could be Lyme disease but that would be a bizarre symtom. It looks a bit better than the picture now, but still tender like 3 weeks later.

as for crashing, I’ve torn up my hands while crashing, and for me that isn’t reason to wear gloves. I’d be shocked if I don’t tear them up again at some point, it’s just something I accept. Cost of doing business I suppose, wearing padding in case of a worst scenario is bad juju in my opinion.

Fox Farm

I have been wearing them since the middle 1970s. Better grip of the hoods and drops, can wipe sweat away from the brow better, safer in a crash, prevention from sunburn....

rsbob 

Waaay too logical and rational. And you forgot shock absorption. Now clean up your act!

tomato coupe

Yeah, that would look silly.

downtube42

I expect modern padded tape is ultimately the reason.

I rode with gloves for years, for all the reasons discussed.

I'll occasionally ride gloveless these days, even on a 200k if weather is nice. If weather is cool, I'll wear unpadded full fingered gloves. I don't find padding helps comfort. With unpadded tape, gloves mattered for comfort.

I've crashed with gloves and without. With is better. Not crashing is even better. I make my decisions and accept the consequences. The boney protrusions at ankle, hip, and elbow would also benefit from protection. I have scars on scars there.

​​​​​

Trakhak

Interesting. The responses in this thread show who does and who doesn't read both thread titles and opening posts. Seems to run about ten who don't to every one who does.

tomato coupe

As noted in post #17, the premise of the opening post appears to be false, so reading it is of questionable value.

https://www.giroditalia.it/en/foto/

cyclezen

Most threads are a start of a conversation, and like conversations, they wander broadly. Sometimes the OP has a specific Q or Qs. That will wander also.
There are always plenty of other conversations, when one no longer has interest in any particular one...
Ride On
Yuri

Groasters

Unless it's well below 10 degC I never wear gloves when riding and haven't for several decades. I see no point. I wear full finger gloves when it gets cold.

The safety angle for me is nonsense given that I've crashed once in the last 15 years and when that happened my front wheel slipped out so quickly that I went straight down onto my shoulder, still holding the bars. And I ride a lot, at a reasonably fast pace, and have done lots of TT racing.

I ride somewhere with a low accident likelihood (rural roads with virtually no traffic). For the infinitesimallly small likelihood of crashing I choose to wear a helmet (high stakes: brain damage prevention) but not gloves (low stakes: gravel rash prevention).

If I road raced I would 100% wear gloves.

Horses for courses.

Eric F 

Looking through pics of Stage 15, Pog had no gloves at the finish, but was wearing gloves in an earlier pic. He ditched them at some point.

cweb99

Gloves are like condoms. Good protection yet without them it feels so good