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.

---

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.

---

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

---

"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.

---

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

---

"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.