Much to the chagrin of my doctor father-in-law, I do not wear work gloves. I find it impossible to feel what I need to be feeling.

I have learned to correct my technique after a few too many chainring-knuckle collisions while removing pedals that required a trip to Urgent care, but I have finally learned my lesson on that front.

Since having a baby, I now keep a box of nitrile gloves in my garage. Most of my wrenching happens at night when my son is asleep, but I have had too many occurrences of hands covered in grease and grime when the baby wakes up and my wife needs me to bounce him, so to keep everyone happier I always don the gloves when doing anything with the drivetrain or bearings. As much as I hate disposable plastics, it may become a permanent habit because it's so much easier than scrubbing chain grime or bearing grease off the hands later.

Sure, they tear, but not always and it still saves a lot of cleanup time.