Fingerless gloves - why?
 

At the risk of sounding like a troll, I'd like to start another "why" thread. I've never worn fingerless gloves to ride with, and wondered what's the advantage? Cushioning? Do you really get much benefit from a shortish commute, rather than mountain biking or maybe a long tour?

The only time I ever wear gloves is when it's cold, and then fingerless would be, um, dumb. :)

Steve

Most falls usually end up with your palm hitting the ground first. You'll appreciate gloves when they save your hands from being gutted. Being fingerless just keeps you cool in the summer.

>Most falls usually end up with your palm hitting the ground first.

Oh! Didn't think of that. Strangely, the fall I had earlier this year, I whacked the ground really hard with my hands and expected bruising and grazing. They were fine, it was my legs and arms that were ripped up. My dad (GP) said that's typical: your hands tend to hit the ground and grip it (no grazing), while your legs slide along it and get shredded.

I can see how they would reduce bruising, but I guess for me the risk isn't such a big deal...

Steve

+1

Safety.

My friend ate it on his unicycle. He had some road rash all over but was wearing gloves. The gloves got all torn up but his hands were ok. If he hadn't been wearing them it would have just been another wound and he wouldn't be able to type (he is a engineer/programmer) so they saved his hands.

Come to think of it, I've crashed my (old) bike a lot of times, and don't recall ever doing anything too bad to my hands, though I did shred a pair of woollen gloves as described.

Steve

A lot of those cycling-specific gloves are awfully cushiony. If you're running one layer of cloth tape on your bars down down chip seal roads, you'll be feeling it without gloves after only a few miles.

Mainly, though, I concur with the safety aspect. Knowing you can use your hands to protect yourself in a fall with relative safety to them might keep you from mashing up some other less fortunate body part as badly as you would have otherwise.

One nice thing about fingerless gloves is that they can fit snugly into the space between your index finger and thumb while holding the handlebars.

That's the problem with full-fingered gloves -- IF the finger length is too short. When you jam a handlebar in your hand and the glove's fingers are a little shorter than yours, the fabric pulls at your thumb & forefinger, causing discomfort.

Personally, I ride with full-finger gloves because my hands can get sweaty enough that the brakes & shifters get slick. I just have to shop around a bit more to find gloves that are long enough.

Less dumb than you might think :D. Around 0C and up to maybe 10C or so, my regular mittens are too warm if I'm being active outside. My hands sweat. If I go without, my hands freeze. Fingerless gloves are a good way to bridge the gap.

I learned during my bmx racing days the importance of protecting the hands and now that I make my living sitting behind a computer I never ride w/o. I have a pair of construction grade fingerless that has a wide reflective strip across the knuckles, and since I ride a mtb 75% of the time they help with the comfort level too...

I always try to land Judo style, but that it never seems to work that way. Better to be picking gravel out of your gloves than out of the palms of your hands.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...and_Injury.jpg

Steavage asked about "cold" weather , not 0°C to 10°C, a downright heat wave in a Wisconsin winter.

Maybe all those worried about "saving" their hands, with a thin piece of cloth, from the alleged hand injury danger of bicycling, should lobby their LBS for magical Styrofoam gloves.

In the meantime for those who are serious :rolleyes: about "saving" their hands from bicycling danger: http://www.tactical-store.com/ts-wx-gl-tag-1.html

I wear full finger every time I ride. You should have seen the gloves after being hit and tossed 40 yards down concrete, yet no damage to my hands. I used to wear fingerless until I took a nail off mountain biking.

it's mainly a matter of sweat control for me.

I've gotten the heels of my hands scraped down to the meat 3 or 4 times in my life, but only every hit my head once. IMHO gloves are at least as important as a helmet. Fully healing the worst palm injury I've had took almost 3 months. 1.5 months of that I had very sensitive (RAW) palms; this means riding hurts, and for a programmer it's not much fun to work either.

Protects my palms in the event of a fall and better grip on the bars as well as a touch of added cushion.
I don't like the feel of bare sweaty hands on the bars.

IMHO you are correct, both items are about equal in capability for significant reduction of bicycling injury risk (i.e. severity x probability.)

Meh, I can ride with them or without them. IF you fall, they do help prevent getting dirt and gravel embedded in your palms, they absorb some road shock and are handy for wiping sweat and snot from your face and head. But many times I ride without them, if just to get some sun on my lily white hands! ;)

IMO, the only things 'required' to ride a bike are a bike and a rider, but some things can make it more comfortable or potentially mitigate the damage from accidents.

If it's below 25C, I'm *cold*. Also, I'm not a huge fan of frostbite. Soaked mittens or gloves are a good way to get it, even in a "heat wave" of 0C. So it's a YMMV thing.

I haven't experimented yet, but they're also supposedly helpful as a layer in very low temperatures. Think below -20 or -30C. Use them over or under a regular pair of gloves to get more insulation where it counts. (course, if it's *that* cold, I'll probably be cowering inside with my teapot :D)

Problem is, most biking gloves aren't designed to insulate. So I don't know how helpful the fingerless versions would be for this sort of thing.

I like 'em for comfort (the padding is good), but I agree about safety. I've had gravel in my hand from both cycling and rollerblading accidents when I was younger, and it hurts. ILTB, cloth won't help, but most cycling gloves are either leather palmed or some sort of padded suede material. They'll take a good bit of beating. I don't consider them vital though, and ride without mine often, and almost always for commuting (which I do in my work clothes)

Besides the safety aspect, they increase friction which lets you ease your grip, which is nice on long rides.

Plus, you get cool tan lines! :p

When I was right hooked by a motorist I had quite a few injuries. The palms of my gloves were shredded. Having road rash on the palm of my hands plus the numerous other injuries I had would have made it even worse. My wife went out and picked up a new pair the next day.

I wear full fingers year-round. When I fall, I land on my hands. My hands sweat, and the gloves do make them warmer, but they keep them from getting the bars and brakes damp nonetheless.

I was going to buy fingerless gloves because my grips are rubber and my hand gets sweaty from GA humidity. The gloves would help, no?

I don't wear gloves in warm weather very much any more. I do wear full-finger gloves when it gets too cold for bare hands. I've been told I'll be sorry I'm not wearing gloves if I crash and skid down the road on my hand(s) but so far that hasn't happened. I've found that I'm just as comfortable without gloves as I am with them. I did a week long 450 mile tour last summer and never once wore gloves. Sometimes I do miss the sweat/snot absorbtion capability of the gloves though.