Yes. And if riding in a group, eventually you're going to hit the deck and having gloves will seem a really really good idea.

I use different ones for road and MTB, prefer more padding pff-road. On-road the minimalist without the velcro on the back - giro make some good ones that suit my hand shape/size.

There is a steep descent at the end of IM Lanzarote which I feared a bit: especially with sweaty hands on this TT-bullhorns. A friend advised to put on gloves, which I normally do not do in races. This time I was very happy to wear some: it gave me more grip and a better feeling on that descent.

I used to prefer riding no-gloves on the road. By chance, I was wearing gloves - relatively thick, padded ones - on the day a rider swerved into me, sending me sliding down a hill at 50+kmh. I was bruised, my thumb broke, I lost skin all over - but my hands were intact, the padding worn to the last thread.

Never rode my roadbike without gloves since. I like medium-padding on the road, and ultralight on the MTB, preferably with no velcro. I still ride triathlon races without, but except for brick/simulation training I train with gloves.

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

Aside from when it’s cold, I hate wearing gloves.
I Can see the point in protecting the hands when Racing and there’s a chance to crash. But for training, no.

I always wear gloves when I ride outside but never indoors. I just drape a towel over the brake hoods.

Every ride,indoors and out.

I ride full finger gloves year round. During warm temps, I sport Supacaz, which provide nice grip, airy, and bling to the hands. These gloves have no pads - I despise padding for any riding as it interfere with my grip.

Back in the day when I raced cribs, I wore UnderArmor football gloves for the inevitable crash. I once slid across pavement palms down for a few feet and gloves were still intact.

Once you have crashed at speed without gloves you will always wear gloves.
Skin loss on the hands is quite debilitating, it is really hard to stop using your hands.

Exactly what I do. Never considered wearing gloves indoors, but all of my gloves are very minimal to begin with, and I only wear them to protect during crashes and for grip when very sweaty.

Indoors it's a hand towel on each hood.

There’s always a chance for a crash, training or racing. Since most of the miles ridden are in training odds are it’s going to happen then vs a race (which are usually on closed course and non drafting)

For me
Trainer - no gloves, towel on hoods
Training - always gloves tri bike or road bike no matter group or not
Racing - I skip gloves here for triathlons to save time in transition but I probably shouldn’t. Road bike racing I wear gloves

I also used to never wear gloves and then read how bad a crash can be on your hands. Bought some and not 30 days later they saved me.

They saved me again this past year when I feel turning onto an unexpected gravel road at 20mph on my tri bike. That one would have been reallllly bad

On tri bike, No.

Every other bike, Yes.

Yup. Except there is no such thing as a tri bike. It's a TT or pursuit bike.

When I mean Racing, obviously on a Road bike with other people.
As for crashing in other scenarios, doesn’t happen to me. Really, I dont remember the last time a had a solo crash, so no reason to wear gloves, other than cold fingers.
The few times I’ve tried it, it didn’t really increase comfort for me either

I am the exact opposite.

I always wear gloves during training rides, but would not during a race.

Same.

There's something about wearing gloves. Driving gloves, bouncers with gloves on, two gloves in golf, gloves for lifting weights etc. - seems like overkill.

I think it used to be a bourgeoisie thing to make sure no one might think you actually *had* to work with your hands. I've had huge callouses on my hands my whole life and am not ashamed of it at all.

Road rash on your hands sucks, but hot sweaty hands and taking them on and off also sucks.

Depends on the race. If it’s triathlon, never. Criterium, always, as the chance of crashing because of someone else is much bigger.

The quote that comes to mind is “there are two kinds of cyclists. Those that have crashed and those that will”

Everything becomes a total pain when you have abraded and cut-up hands. Abraded and cut-up hands also take forever to heal. Ask me how I learned this. Also, my hands tend to get slippery when I'm sweating. As a result, I wear gloves always when riding road and MTB. I like lightweight, minimal, non-padded gloves with stretch fit backs (no Velcro). Handup makes good cheap gloves.

Gloves all the time in outdoor training.

Not for races or trainer.

Gloves save you from road rash, can keep your hands warm on cooler days and most have a felt thumb pad to wipe sweat. Better grip and comfort as well. No reason to not use them for training.

I have never worn them but might start. For minimalist, what do you recommend?

The argument that you might crash so wear gloves is absurd. Might as well wear body armour too.

I never wear gloves on my TT bike.

I wear TT gloves (minimal padding and covers wrist) for every other type of riding.

I assume you ride without a helmet? Many MTB do wear body armor…

I would probably never wear gloves again if I wasn't riding and racing in the cold. Gloves feel like diapers, especially when wet. Value wise, I've never met a fingerless glove that held up to regular use, particularly aggravating when they're $$$.

As to protecting your hands, occasionally I miss them in cyclocross, if I'm really punching the posts. Maybe in MTB? Would they really matter if you clip a tree? On pavement they offer minor protection from road rash, but that risk is not worth it to me. I also suspect that truly surfing pavement with your palms will lead to bilateral thumb spica casts for broken scaphoids. A little ointment and any road rash will heal before the casts come off.

When I do wear gloves it's because my hands are cold. Most gloves suck for that, too.

I can see where that could be argued. I don't think my Felt IA is a legal TT bike but likely ok in local events.

I wear long fingered gloves for essentially all outdoor rides.
Even when it's up to 105 degrees.
I work in Bio Tech with biologicals and prefer to not have any cuts etc on my hands.

Well, I *always* wear gloves because my hands are worth protecting, and I make a living and have a child and a mortgage, so I need to keep safe and it's the only smart choice I could possibly make to protect my hands which are important to me and my livelihood and it would be stupid to not wear them and my hands are worth $50 at least and I'm not so cheap and stupid to try to save money by not wearing them and really there are two kinds of people in the world those who have had ripped skin off their hands and those who will rip skin off their hands if they don't ride with gloves so I make the smart choice *for me*..


But that's just me - I'm not commenting on any one else. Not judging.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

That's a yes from me. For one, I like the feel of full fingered gloves when riding even during the Summer. It's not weird IMHO, but makes me feel in better contact with my bike. In terms of safety, the grip feels better and when hitting the deck, saves some skin.

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Rav Dighe
Coach & Director
w: http://www.alohatri.com
e: rav@alohatri.com

Maybe I'll start wearing gloves all the time

I wear gloves during training rides, but not during races. Trying to get gloves on and off would waste too much time during transition.

On the road (which is very rare), no gloves but if I rode when it's cold out, I'd wear gloves for warmth. I always wear them on my MTB, mostly for grip when my hands sweat.

This! Except short triathlon races like Super Sprint & Spring. For 70.3 and 140.6 - always for the comfort.

No, I always ride with a helmet. Because my brain is a lot more important than the skin on my hands, dipshit.

This is where I am. Very tactile, and I don't like the barrier between me and the bars. In winter, I can deal. And, if I did go down so hard to shred my hands, I'm going to have a lot of other problems as well. If I ever decide to jump into the begginer level Tuesday night Crits near me, I could see wearing them.

As for trainer, I have towel over my headset. But like to alternate hoods/drops, having a towel there would bug me.

Very different things. I dont wear gloves, because I don’t plan on crashing (as mentioned before, different on criteriums etc). I don’t crash when I train alone, aside from maybe a noob unclipping crash. I wear a helmet, because I want to protect my head. Does that matter if I dont crash? - yes, I dont crash, But if there’s an accident with a car or something, my head is (somewhat) protected from serious injury. Has never happened to me, But not taking any chances. As for gloves and Road rash, it i’m in an accident, Road rash is the least of my worries. I Can live without training for some weeks.

As I’ve said, for races in groupset, I wear gloves. Training on my own, I dont crash, unless there’s an accident.
I know How to ride a bike, I just dont crash on my own

Just the opposite: even the best of our roads suck and I'll take any extra bit of cushion I can get

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I only wear gloves if it's cold enough to warrant it, and then it's full-finger gloves. Even doing a lot of gravel riding, I'm bare-handed. Learn how to ride light on the bars. Your core will thank you. Your shoulders and neck will thank you.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

Am I the only person who uses my gloves to scrape debris? If I run over glass or something else, I use my glove to scrape the junk off the tire. This is much less fun without gloves. My rate of flat tires is significantly lower if I do this. Also, I've crashed and been very thankful I was wearing gloves.

Ahh, remember the days when baseball players could swing a bat without wearing a pair of gloves.

Funny with me and cycling. When I got into "fast recreational cycling" back around 1980, I always wore gloves because the pros (and the cool kids) wore them. I didn't start triathlon until 2002, and I figured I could save time in T-1 and T-2 during races by going without them. (Yeah, right, but I enjoyed how it felt.) Anyway, that led me to going without gloves on all of my rides. I've had one crash where gloves would have been nice, but I still do all of my rides in warm weather, training and racing, without gloves.

When the weather drops below 60 degrees F, I go with full fingered gloves. I've got a few different pairs, thin to thick (and some inserts), including some lobster claw mittens. I like to keep my fingers toasty warm.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Bare hands on a wooden bat is the Pinnacle of being a badass.

I have road gloves, just never wear them. I wore a couple pairs out when I first started riding in the mid-nineties. I think it was pretty much the same logic, looked "pro." And, I'm sure I was a little scared of road rash. But, like others have said, skin on my hands seems like a minor concern if I crash these days. The inconvenience and heat and sweating in them day in day out seems worse than some scabs on my hands *if* something goes wrong.

Same here

I also do duathlon for which I wear gloves as they can be worn on the run, so no transition problems.

I don't have a history of crashing on the bike either, and yet I wear gloves, and a helmet. Why? Gosh, is it possible that if one does crash, that first time will in fact be the first time?
I also drive a car with high safety rating and wear a seat belt, plus I put my kids in high quality child car seats. I've never had a car crash, and yet I do these things. I'm clearly missing something!

You're entitled to decide you're willing to take the chance on the basis it hasn't happened yet and may not, but it's not rational to say "so no reason to wear gloves...." There IS a reason. It's simply that you apparently prefer not to wear them and weigh that as more important than the potential protection they provide against crash injury. Legitimate decision, but don't pretend you're not taking a risk.

There isn't? Surely there are bikes designed specifically for triathlon, which are not legal for TT (assuming most TTs are under UCI rules)? You could of course argue that the triathlon bike leg is a TT, which for non-drafting events it is, but it's also a sport in it's own right.
I would be quite surprised if TT/Tri bikes bought primarily for triathlon use don't outnumber TT bikes bought primarily for stand alone time trials.

But keeping it more specific - Are there not bikes designed and sold specifically for triathlon? The following are just a selection of those that immediately spring to mind:

1. Cervelo PX
2. Felt IA
3. Diamondback Andean
4. Ventum One
5. TriRig Omni
6. Ceepo Shadow

Are you under the impression that a lot of crashes are intentional? You know what an accident is right?

Perhaps you're just expressing yourself poorly, but the above post is simply nonsense as written!

So, you've said it's absurd to wear protective equipment in case you crash and when challenged you agree that protective equipment may sometimes be warranted, yet you call the poster who pointed it out a dipshit..... Tribike53 made a pertinent and logically consistent point. He's not the dipshit.

Risk is usually assessed by considering both the probability of something happening and the severity of the consequences if it does. Both are a spectrum. After you've assessed the risk, there's still a decision to be made about what mitigation you think is worthwhile. People vary greatly in both their realism when assessing risk and their willingness to tolerate said risk.
Your willingness to wear a helmet demonstrates you know a crash and injury is possible. So all that's up for debate is what mitigation is warranted. You seem to think it's reasonable to simply say your head matters, the skin on your hands doesn't and anyone thinking differently is an idiot. That's really ignorant and utterly misses the other poster's valid point.

Given the quality of your argument, your assessment might be called into question. Most of us use hands to type posts to ST, but do we all use our brain? ;)

Really replying to everyone but your point about assessing risk is super valid.

I ride gloves a little for comfort, a little for sweat and snot removal and a little in the event I go down in a low to mid speed crash/fall. If you have ever fallen on your hands in gravel, road debris, etc., then you know how much it can hurt. picking stones out of the cuts in your palm is no fun! So I wear gloves...that way a minor crash might sting a bit, but I know I can ride again the next day. I'll give the no glove people the point about other things to worry about in a higher speed crash...major road rash and broken bones will override cuts on your hands.

I was kidding!

Ah, I don't get it. Don't let it happen again!

Have you ever tried swimming with road rash on your palms? It sucks.

Wear gloves. And bike kit (vs tri kit) it is no MTB armor but thicker shorts and a jersey with sleeves will help a little if you crash.

I wear long gloves in winter and fingerless in summer.

• Protect your hands in a crash
• Wipe sweat off
• Keep your hands warm in winter
• Stop the back of your hands getting sun burnt in summer
• No sweaty hands when using gears and brakes.

After a bad fall while running I now wear gloves all the time when running also.

Gloves in Wonder
No gloves rest of the year.

But , in case of crash it helps, no doubt!

I've made it a habit to never again say “I fell down”

One must always say “I collided with a planet” or, even better “I was running/riding along, minding my own business, when a planet jumped up and ran into me. I simply shoved it back into place, and carried on along my way"

From a certain point of view, that's not inaccurate

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Sometimes a dirt trail gets in my way and I use my hands to keep from colliding with it.

I've seen folks be able to do that as they roll along. Me, I fear I'm going to get my fingers caught in the moving spokes. That would not be good.

Didn't see it mentioned, but the fingerless gloves in summer can give you very strange tan lines on the hands.

I usually wear full finger and full coverage for warmth. In summer, only if it's going to be a really humid sopping wet type of ride will I use a pair of summer gloves, otherwise go without.

I don't like to wear them but I usually do when I'm outside. Primarily to protect my hands, even a minor hand injury makes riding a road or MTB pretty painful for a few days.

Inside I usually just use wrist bands, but I've got my trainer bike handlebars wrapped pretty cushy too.

I wear cycling gloves when riding on my cross and mtn bikes outside. Don't wear anything on my tri-bike inside where it stays until race day. And don't wear gloves on race day. When I did ride outside on my tri bike for training rides, I did wear cycling gloves. I liked the cushion for the heel of my hand when riding in the horns (lots of hills where I live). You should see the mittens I wear when I fat bike on chilly winter days! :-)

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

From your user id I assume you rollerski. Do you wear them then? I always do, except I forgot them on a rollerski last fall. Slid out on wet leaves and took a big chunk out of my left palm. Took over a week until I could rollerski comfortably again.

English is not my first language, so maybe I’m expressing this wrong. Let me try to explain.
For me there’s a difference between a crash and an accident. A crash for me is tumbling over with no others involved or in a bike race. Any car or cyclist, pedestrian or whatever, that goes right in front of menon a training ride, is an accident, no matter whose fault it is. On my training rides, I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I try to minimide the potential of accidents, not taking any chances. What I mean by crashes, by my own definition, I don’t crash because I Can’t control the bike. And yes, I might be a better bike handler if I took chances, But I dont. If in an accident with a car, truck, bus, pedestrian, the palms of my hands is the least of my concerns, I’d probably get a taxi back home. If I miss several weeks of training because of that, bummer, but it doesn’t mean THAT much to me to train, i’m not a Pro. I do it because I like it and I find gloves uncomfortable, unless it’s cold and feel more in control without them.
My point being, unless you race bike races, no reason to wear gloves unless it’s cold or for comfort

There are only incidents, both of you. Accidents invoke "no fault". Even most "acts of God" have preventable outcomes. We reinforce buildings in earthquake zones. New fire proof building codes in forest fire areas. Downhillers wear heavier duty bike helmets or gear.

Solo incidents, or self-fault incidents...........and incidents involving others. All of which were preventable given some ultimate level of planning, safety, awareness, or otherwise. It's just the level of those factors folks are willing to take and still enjoy riding bikes. Gloves among them. Some folks even draw that line at helmets.

I do the glove thing as the incidents where I have crashed solo I could have saved some hand carnage the one time. After that time, I remember the gloves. Also, it provides a movable with you small amount of padding. You cannot wrap your entire bike in bar tape, so gloves help a bit. So, for me, it's both a small added layer of comfort and a little incident assurance in the event of a crash. Shoot, the pounding of cyclocross or gravel riding it's pretty much mandatory.

I’m not trying to argue against using gloves, just trying to explain What I really meant. I find using gloves uncomfortable, unless it’s cold, then no gloves are less comfortable. Where I ride for training, there’s basically no traffic or cycling paths. Basically very low risk, I’d rather be comfortable. If an incident actually happens, too bad, I’ll take that chance, But given the places I ride, it’s unlikely with a bit of caution. Bike races are another besat, there’s actual real chance of a crash, because riders are close together. But again, riding on safe roads, bike paths, I dont kit acidentally crash. If there’s an incident, again gloves are the least of my worries. But, I guess it very much depends where you live, whats the culture. If riding on a Road, most cars Will go to the opposite Lane to overtake here. Or stay behind until the Road is clear. Different places, different mentalities, I guess

I always wear gloves. Take some bad road rash to your hands just once and decide if its worth it or not.

Disclaimer: I went out today and forgot to grab my gloves and did not bother to go back in to grab my gloves because I do enjoy fingerless. Still, gloves 99% of the time.

The post you replied to is nearly 6 months old. This might be my first post since then. It's been a while!

Why do you think not being a professional athlete and thus not worrying about missing training due to injured hands makes hand injuries irrelevant?

Training would be very low on my list of worries if I injured my hands!

ETA: A crash, an accident and an incident may or may not all apply to an "event". All the events we're discussing here are crashes. Whether you're bothered about the cause and any other labels you feel apply as a result is pretty secondary, and of no real relevance here in my opinion.

Rubbish
The term "accident" does not preclude fault; it precludes intent.

In the Big picture, What gloves Can save my hands for lack of training is irrelevant to me. As I said, I’m not a Pro athlete, being able to train doesn’t make or break my life. I like training, but really, it wouldn’t mean THAT much to me to miss a couple of weeks. I feel better in control without gloves, this better handling.
And no, I don’t agree that all crashes are equal, wether we call them crashes, accidents, incidents or whatever. There’s a difference. First of all, in bike races, where people take chances, I’d always wear gloves, since it’s often a matter og luck/bad luck wether you get tangled or hit in a crit.
As for training rides, I try to be Aware of my surroudings, be cautious at intersections. But mainly here there are bike paths, so the main “danger” is a guy riding faster than yourself. If someone wants to hit me with a car, they can. And even being cautious it could go wrong at intersections, even if you are as careful as you can be. This far, it hasn’t happened to me. And it it does, the palms of my hands are my least concern, I just want to not get seriously hurt. If I miss fee months training, I’ll work though that

I'm confused. You say training isn't that important to you and yet entirely miss my point that hands are used for a lot more than training.
Impact of hand injury on training is not even a fearure of any argument I've made....at least not that I recall - LikeI saud, old thread.

No gloves on the road (when I did ride on the road), always long finger gloves on the MTB.

Road training - No gloves
Road racing - gloves
Crit racing - full fingers
MTB always - full fingers
Cross - Full fingers

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Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes

I was watching a video about Navy "crashes" on carriers while going down some Top Gun rabbithole and I learned they don't call them "crashes" or "accidents" but "mishaps"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I think if you break down that word, "mis" means “ ill,” “ mistaken,” “wrong,” “wrongly,” “incorrectly,” or simply negating. And of course "hap" is short for "happening". Put them together and you get some form of "oops".

Or sometimes a "hard landing". Even when it's really, really hard.

Yeah, the long explanation was that if something goes wrong, there's a procedure to follow to get it un-wrong

If you're riding along, and there is a RR X-ing you have to go over, the procedure is to approach the rail itself at an angle as close to perpendicular e.i., a right angle, as possible to keep you from deflecting the front wheel

If you fuck up that procedure, a planet might come up in your face to tell you about it

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Gloves are mandatory for anyone with hyperhidrosis. The only time I won't wear them when riding is if I'm just cruising down the road a mile or two. Otherwise my hands are a sweaty mess in 20 minutes and I'll have lost all grip of the bars.