Back in college, I commuted to school a couple miles. I rode every day one year, including during Iowa ice storms where there was two inches of ice on the roads. I didn't have spiked tires, just 27x1-1/8 road slicks on my homemade suicide fixie. I've grown up a bit since then....

for the last decade or so, I've lived too far from work to commute on a bike, and done most of my commuting on my motorcycle. In the dirt bike/ADV Riding crowd, we're encouraged to ride with full protective gear, including Cordura jackets and pants with armored pads. Even with all this protection, I've seen some very bad injuries from people wearing full gear colliding with cars in town at 25 MPH and under.

I'm just starting to commute on my bicycle after moving to Spokane. This city hates bikes, as there are very few bike lanes, and I've almost been hit every time I go riding, and I'm in the bike lanes and being very heads-up about traffic. Which leads to the question:

Does anybody wear basic padded armor on their commutes? It's pretty easy to get up to 25MPH in town, and I've got to believe there are plenty of biyclist injuries from this sort of commuting. Ive got some shorts that have hip pads and thigh pads, as well as a soft pad version of a motocross roost guard. All this gear is very lightweight and perforated for heat loss since guys use this stuff on physical dirt bike rides.

Am I crazy for thinking about wearing this stuff for my commute?

I use studded tires on Ice , myself, and dont slip and crash that way . , + I dont do 25mph in adverse conditions ..

& i dont own a Fixie. My bikes have a brake on every wheel ..


good luck ... you are your own savior or worst enemy.

It sounds like you're going to battle on your commute. When I started commuting I felt like I was being threatened by vehicles around me and it was fairly nerve racking. However, I look back on it now, and I think it was more "me" than the cars around me. I was learning to commute on bicycle. There were a lot of new things... being on the road in a completely different position than sitting in a car seat, learning how to shift gears, learning how to ride with clipless pedals, learning how to use my mirror (it's even more difficult checking behind you without one), reacting to unexpected things on the commute,... it goes on and on.

No, I don't like traffic and I plan my commute so that I don't have to encounter much traffic (I have a great MUP.) But, when I'm on the road now, a lot of the things that I used to worry about just happen naturally and I'm much more relaxed and focused on avoiding the stuff that can really cause problems and accidents. I'm not going to worry about wearing armour in case I get hit by a car or crash my bike. I'm going to take the precautions to make sure that I am very visible to drivers and I'm going to avoid a lot of things that could cause me to crash just by being aware of the dangers on my route and riding at an appropriate speed. I have lights on my bike out the kazoo. I ride with the lights on even in the daylight. I wear high vis clothing - jackets and vests in high vis colors as well as a lot of reflective material. I know my route very well. I can tell you where the potholes are, where the road is rough, and even where the roots are trying to push through the pavement on the MUP. I know the high risk areas where I could encounter drivers that are not alert or might not know the rules of the road when it comes to bikes and bike lanes.

I wear a helmet. If I go down, that's the piece of equipment that I'm counting on to protect what is vital. If you get hit by a car, I don't really know what that padded armor is going to do. It might help, but I'd spend my money on the things that will help avoid that encounter. I'd spend my time on planning as safe of a route possible and learning the tiny little intricacies of that route so you can operate your bicycle safely along it.

Just to be clear: I have a real geared bike with TWO brakes

I also wear a nice MTB helmet with more protection than a standard road helmet.

riding over ice all the time, yeah it might be a good idea.

I haven't heard of anyone wearing any sort of "armor" on a pedal powered bike. I would guess the reasons are:
1. It's very difficult to do. When riding on a gas powered bike you're not working hard, when pedalling you often are which means heat buildup and sweat. Wear stuff over that and you could injure yourself from heat exhaustion.
2. Most people on bikes aren't going fast enough for your "armor" to be needed. You can get some bad road rash but it will heal given time. (I know the experts go fast enough but they're even more subject to #1 )
3. I don't think there's anything that would protect you from the violence of a collision with a car. Most motorcycle seems to be protection for flying off the bike and skidding down the road on your skin.

So other than a helmet, I haven't heard of anyone doing it.

Most safety concerns involve lighting so people see you. Some rear tail lights are deliberately a little obnoxious, the idea being that people move over into the over lane so they don't get to close to the light. Dinotte makes the brightest daytime tail light, there are a lot of others as well.

I wear a helmet and have decent lights and blinkies. I don't wear armor.

I sometimes wear off-road motorcycle pants if the roads are icy and rutted, and I think there's a chance I might take a spill. Not so much to protect me as to protect my pants. I have several pairs of cycling pants with holes in the knees and the motorcycle pants are much more durable if I go down. One of my other hobbies is off-road motorcycles so I already have the pants. Not sure I would recommend buying them just for this purpose. I have never considered using knee/elbow pads, chest protectors or any other body armor for a ride on my road bike.

I looked at armor last summer after a nasty MTB spill. I'll probably buy some soon. It's come a long way lately, like a lot of MTB stuff. There's a good roundup here.

Round-up: Best new lightweight knee and elbow pads - Mtbr.com

Also, I used mesh armor jackets with included windbreakers for years on my motorcycles and I think such a thing would work well on a bicycle. They are colorful, reflective, and cut for a hunched over posture. But you'd probably look foolish, if that's a problem. Style wise, the jersey-over-armor look of hockey and motocross is probably better suited for an average commuter.

I know the downhill riders here wear a full kit of armor but I've never seen a commuter with any.

That being said if I was riding on rutted I've of probably get something.

Thanks for the responses, all. Just to be clear, this is the type of "armor" I was talking about- spandex base layers with soft armor built in- then layer on top with loose pants and a jacket on top for most weather conditions- maybe a motocross-style jersey with some abrasion resistance in the warmer times. Obviously, a longer commute in somewhere with a real summer would not be comfy in any of these things.

I guess my question was really based off how similar riding motorcycles in town is to bicycling, and how protective gear is almost required to be taken seriously as a motorcyclist (cruiser riders notwithstanding), but for bicycling on the same roads at nearly the same speeds, spandex and a tiny helmet are seen as perfectly adequate.

Project Grizzly would protect you. Good luck operating a bicycle inside that thing though.

https://youtu.be/9WWiPiks1sU?t=80 1 min 20 sec for the pickup truck collision test.

Thinking this stuff will protect you in a collision with a car is comparable to to thinking that you will reduce the salinity of the ocean by pissing off the beach.

My former commute vehicle did offer me a bit of comfort against injuries in car traffic:

36,000lb empty
44,000lb load
40 Ton total weight
15.8 ltr engine
600 BHP
18 speed tranny
128 mph max speed

YOU CAN WEAR NOTHING THAT WILL PROTECT YOU AGAINST A MOTOR VEHICLE COLLISION. A SMART CAR WILL SMASH YOUR ASS.

You have two choices:

1: Accept it
2: Find alternate transportation.

Just the way the world goes 'round. Nothing you can do about it.

I've wondered the same thing from time to time. I think the difference for me is that a motorbike is within traffic and very fast while a bike is generally next to traffic and slow. Full motorcycle armor can take you down the road and into the K-rail at interstate speeds. The mesh jackets I mentioned earlier tend to come apart sliding around but the armor is most important in the initial impact so it still gives you a lot of protection. A real motorcycle helmet is designed to slide into a curb, fast. Your typical bicycle wreck endangers your wrists and collarbones and if you have a head impact it's on the flat ground.

I do wonder sometimes why full face helmets have not taken off for bicycles, they are comfortable, aerodynamic and quiet, it seems like an easy and profit-making win.

If I was worried about it I might look at BMX protective gear. But out of curiosity, does anybody have experience riding in BMX gear? How hard is it? Does it slow you down?

This is what I wear on a typical summer day.

It sounds to me like you plan to go out EXPECTING to be hit. I think it would serve you much better to learn crash avoidance techniques to help keep you FROM getting hit. Of course you can't predict everything, but you can greatly reduce the chances of crashing. I live and commute in an area with ZERO bike infrastructure, yet in almost 4 years of riding and commuting I've never once been hit. I've had 2 or 3 close calls that, if I had been riding differently (not observing road laws etc) I probably would have been hit.

Also remember those "armor" things are supposed to help protect you in case of falling. I don't think they'll really help you in the case of crashing with a vehicle.

No, I don't wear armor when I am commuting to work and I have never seen anyone else wear armor. If I had to wear all that stuff, it would take the fun out of commuting. Wear a helmet, uses signals and ride defensively.

Seems to be a problem if you are almost getting hit every time you commute. I only wear armor mt biking. Try some bright lights and a mirror. Hi vis vest? Talk to your local bike/ped advocacy group for some routes and safe pedaling ideas. Using the best bike routes? I do wear a helmet and gloves for operator error issues( My own bad pedaling).

You would wear a full face helmet in the Sacramento summer?

Sure. Venting is quite controllable with a face shield and presumably it would have vents like any bicycle helmet. But then again I don't get the hot-head problem some people seem to

I've got a set of Alpinestars Paragon armor that I use mainly for mountain biking. It wouldn't help versus a car, but I might consider riding in for things like ice. I got it primarily because my knees and elbows kept getting beat up on the trails.

As someone who's been commuting by bike as well as riding road bikes for over a decade in a few different places, this sounds insane to me. If you feel that you are "almost getting hit" every day, it might be a matter of your perceptions rather than the actual likelihood of getting hit. Or for whatever reason you're placing yourself in unsafe situations.

As noted, if you DO get hit by a car, armor padding is pretty unlikely to do you much good. It's intended for hitting the ground. I guess you could wear it if it makes you feel safer. Personally I have significant objections to bicyclists wearing unnecessary protective gear. It doesn't happen in a political void. It helps convey the impression that bicycling is less safe than it actually is, and convinces politicians to pass ordinances requiring bicyclists to wear certain kinds of safety gear. Which tends to depress ridership, since it's more crap you have to buy. Even safety gear that is relatively accepted (especially here on the commuting forum) is probably useless in practice. There is no evidence, for example, that high-visibility/reflective clothing have any effect on injury rates of road users. It's a useless talisman. It's pretty likely that armor would be basically the same, except sweatier.