With my first BMX bike in the mail, I am trying to figure out what protective gear besides a helmet and gloves I should get for street/park riding and would welcome advice. The facts: I am 26, a chick, and new to BMX, but not falling. I have two mostly healed injuries from other activities: ankle and elbow, but probably only the elbow needs to be babied a while longer.

What do you use when you are trying something new? What needs to be guarded the most?
Aren't hard shell guards pretty inflexible and therefore annoying? I tried some knee pads on and hated them.
What offers the best protection with the least intrusiveness? Brands?

Thanks.

Unless you're going to be doing rooftop gaps or airing out of 10ft vert ramps at first, I wouldn't worry about anything more than helmet and gloves... Actually, I'd probably suggest practicing manuals and bunnyhops for a week before hitting up a park, and a helmet won't really help for that.

Only time I wear any protective gear is when I either need it to get in a park, or when I fell I need it because i'm practicing stairgap 180's and such.

We like our women without scars or extra lumps. That said, there's not too much you really need other than a lid and some gloves. Knee or elbow pads would just get in the way.

i like how you mentioned EXTRA lumps

Just being respectful.

Thanks for the info.

Ahah.

I always wear a helmet. Sometimes i'll wear shingaurds when i have shorts on but never with pants on. Most parks around here don't require you to wear elbows and knees if you over 16, which is nice. But when i have to wear my elbows and knees i wear Shadow knees (they are slim and pretty comfortable.) and Fit elbow pads(basically Volleyball kneepads, but with a Fit logo...)

i like the snafu knee shanks they're good and i wear "chick pants" or whatever, and feel pretty normal not to much lost flexibility.
note: i only wear them when im practicing tailwhips which i can almost do. And yes I pretty much was learning tailwhips before barspins.

I learned tailwhips LONG before barspins.

Seriously, not many people do that. Oh well i can do both now so im happy.

Never tried either of them. I want to go to a skatepark as soon as I'm able. I noticed I've been talking a lot about my injury lately. Excuse me.

tailwhips are death

I don't think they will be that bad... unless I hit myself with the bike. Ow.

I've been practicing footjam whips for a looong time, I'm a slow learner. Going to be so proud when I finally learn them... I can get the bike almost all the way around but I chicken out before I get to the point of jumping onto the pedals most of the time, that or I just miss the pedals if I try.

I practiced footjam whips but couldn't get them because I didn't know exactly how to push the back end and how to balance... now I do... but I can't try it.

Knowing 'how' is not the same as being able to pull it. I 'knew how' the first time I saw someone do it, but actually doing it is another story, same goes for all tricks. Unless you have some zen mind-body coordination thing going on, lol

I didn't know how to do it when I tried. Now I know how to do it so I think I would learn it rather quickly.

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Nice flair.