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news
rogers glovesDo you wear cycling gloves?
Do you wear gloves when cycling as a matter of course? Perhaps you only wear gloves when it’s cold out? There are good reasons for wearing cycling gloves other than when it’s cold though, and protecting your hands in a crash is one of them.
Tinkoff-Saxo’s Michael Rogers had a nasty reminder of the the downsides of not wearing gloves while partaking in the World Championships team time trial in Richmond, US over the weekend. Here’s his tweet from yesterday.He’s clearly kicking himself for not wearing any gloves. Looks nasty.
This is an example why you should ALWAYS wear gloves when you ride a bike pic.twitter.com/wJ9cZukgU6
— Michael Rogers (@mickrogers) September 20, 2015
If you missed the crash, here’s a replay. Michael Rogers and Michael Valgren hit the road at speeds in excess of 40mph after an innocuous touch of wheels. Riding a team time trial requires riding extremely close to the rider in front, leaving little margin for error. You pay a high price for even the smallest mistake.
"I think it was a simple touch of wheels. I don't know what happened, there was nothing I could do, I just went straight over the top,” said Michael Rogers in a post-race interview with Cyclingnews.
“It's just superficial injuries at the moment, nothing broken, just a little skin off the top. I'll be feeling pretty sorry for myself for the next couple of days, but there's nothing you can do about it now,” he added.
No one plans to crash of course, but accidents do happen. So, will you be wearing cycle gloves next time you go for a ride?
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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52 comments
I don't wear them during a time trial or solo rides in the Netherlands less than 100km.
Always wear them, mostly because they reduce blisters/calluses on my hands, obviously I never fall off....
probably useful if you're a pro, especially (@KiwiMike surely you're not suggesting that Mick Rogers went out intending to crash?!)
More for comfort reasons for us amateurs, I think - for long summer days in the saddle it's good to control the sweat, reduce unwanted friction. rash, keep tape clean etc
As for winter - if you've experienced the pain of defrosting hands after riding with insufficient protection, you'll know why they are necessary!
As for crashing - unlikely, yes, but good odds that if you do you'll put your hands out to stop your fall whilst moving at some kind of speed.
I did do a piece about this subject on the forum several weeks ago. Why do cyclists wear gloves. It got some interesting answers.
So why do cyclists wear helmets then ?
because it matches my gloves...
(i'll get my coat - actually, i'll leave it, it doesn't match.)
My helmet, gloves and Belgian booties do actually match.
I wear fingerless gloves. I accept that they are unlikely to prevent anything other than superficial injury, primarily gravel rash. Besides avoiding uneccessary pain, if I do ever end up in Hospital with broken bones, I'd sooner not also have heavily bandaged hands. If nothing else I'd prefer not to have the added ignominy of needing to have someone else wiping my arse for me.
I really fail to see any downside to putting on a pair of gloves.
Does the gel/padding in gloves not also dampen road vibration into the hands -
I always wear gloves as they stop my sweaty palms from making my bar tape dirty. It's easier to clean a pair of gloves in the washing machine
Good grief, it's the bloody "helmet debate" all over again!
"While I respect your right to wear/not wear gloves/a helmet, I'm still going to tell you you're wrong for not doing the same as me."
Well, look. I respect your right to drink White Spirit, but it's still a godawfully stupid thing to do.
As if to prove a point.
I do wonder at the apparent pro 'fashion' for not wearing gloves. I landed a jump badly on my BMX as a kid, no gloves, I had bits of pavement in the fleshy bits between my fingers for ages.
road rash on knees, hips or shoulders equals pain and discomfort. Road rash (especially from impact) on palms of hands can equate to lack of ability to use hands to eat, wash, type, and drive without pain.
gloves may not always look cool or pro, but even the flimsiest bits of leather on the palms can stop impact damage (but not broken bones)
Obviously the 50% of Danes and Dutch who cycle every day are crippled, claw-handed wrecks who end up eating through straws and typing through voice transcoders
Seriously though - sure, if you are going out planning to crash, wear gloves. For everyone else, just go with what suits you. General cycling (and I class club runs in there) is so ridiculously safe that if you think you must specifically protect about 1% of your body's surface area you shouldn't be on a bike in the first place.
*NOTE: in 10+ years of 'serious' road cycling ~5,000 miles a year on skinny tyres at speed in all weathers, I've only suffered one hand injury - falling off my fat-tyred Dutch bike, at about 5 MPH. No, I'm not about to start wearing gloves to ride to/from the pub/shops/school.
hah! I'm calling BS on this! everyone knows the Dutch don't crash bikes
I don't plan on getting crap in my eyes either, but I still wear glasses to stop it. Ive crashed/fallen a few times over the years, and can confidently say I'm glad the gloves took the brunt not my palms or knuckles - but as you say, each to their own
Ah now glasses are a totally different thing - sun/rain/wind/bugs/grit/mud in your face is a 100% certainty on pretty much any ride.
And I'm sure if I crashed once in a blue moon whilst wearing shinguards that saved me a dinged shinbone I'd be evangelizing them too as demi-compulsory.
I get why some like gloves - maybe their bartape isn't nice to grip, or not padded enough, or - like many I suspect - they have grown up with gloves being the image/norm, therefore think it's perfectly natural / required / sensible to wear them. I come from a MTB/BMX background, where you wore gloves for protection from frequent offs, undergrowth on the knuckles, grip when hands covered in filth etc.
I have a veritable drift of gloves on my shelf, for all temperatures and precipitations. But when it's dry and warm, and with decent bartape, there's simply no need I perceive. If I went out thinking 'gosh I REALLY hope I don't crash, I'll wear thin gloves 'cos they'll make a difference' I'd never get out from under the desk
It's a bit like crash helmets: if you want to avoid painful skin loss and are entirely likely to fall at speed (let's say, ooh, you're careering down a gravelly rough track with rocks and tree roots, or are in a peloton, or doing a TTT) then they make a good deal of sense. Otherwise they're not actually that relevant.
Your typical travelling cloggie falls in to the "not actually that relevant" category, at least until the weather gets cold and everyone's wearing gloves anyway.
We're not all riding for sport and going as fast as possible.
Mitts rarely offer enough protection - have a lovely half moon crescent scar around knuckle of right index finger to attest. Peeled back skin off entire knuckle almost down to joint in collision with another cyclist. As its lunchtime won't post the gory evidence...
Hang on - "just a little skin off the top"
Well what is it - deep lacerations that the padded heel-of-palm area of a glove might have prevented, or nowt to worry about?
Looking at my warm-weather mitts, it's only the palm area that's protected - not the fingers or back of hand at all. And nothing's going to stop broken fingers.
I'd put the 'importance' of wearing gloves to prevent injury somewhere below shinguards.
Point is, in most crashes you're going to instinctively break the fall by putting your hand out, which hits the ground palm first. That's where gloves work. I've several at home with lumps taken out of them that I'm really pleased weren't my skin.
I didn't when I first started out- but then after a nasty off which ripped great chunks out of my palms I have done ever since. Learnt the hard way.
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