I have only 3 weeks training behind me with my 24" uni and now I ride
some 3-4 kilometers on the sidewalks and in the parks. I feel pretty
secure and I haven’t had any fall yet that made use of my paddings
(knee, elbow & wrist). I only ride on paved surface and well … it is
getting darn hot with all this plastic covering the body’s joints. I am
thinking of laying the armour off, but I am not sure. What do you guys
wear under similar riding conditions?
roasted chicken
when it is too hot, I skip the armour, and adjust my riding accordingly.
I would have no one to blame but myself in an injury though!
Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but in all my experience unicycling, I have never, ever, landed on my elbows, so I think it would probably be safe to ditch the pads on them 
As for knee pads, you probably don’t need those either. However, if you pedals have spikes in them, I would recommend getting some sort of leg armor, like sixsixones. They will protect your legs from getting cut up, like this 
Wrist guards I definitely think you should wear if your a beginner, until you learn to control your speed and slow down if you get going too fast, its rather easy to fall off and land on your wrists. I broke my wrist once from this happening.
always remeber chicks dig scars! and when you fall knees hurt and wrists break!
its never too hot for wrist guards and a helmet, especially when you are just starting to learn.
Woah, should I be wearing armor 
When I Coker, it’s helmet, Harbinger wrist guards, elbow pads and knee pads. I have NEVER had a pedal bite from the Coker. When on the MUni, with pinned pedals, it’s helmet, Harbinger wrist guards and always 661 knee/shin guards. Depends on the type of riding and terrain as to if I wear elbow guards or my 661 elbow/ forearm guards. I would stongly suggest a helmet and wrist guards at the very least. Here in Texas, where I ride, the temperature is usually somewhere from 95 to over 100 degrees with the heat index. I’d much rather be hot than broken 
I’ve been wearing every type of armour you can imagine but was over my grandmother’s house the other day and wanted to show her that I can ride a little way. I thought the investment of time getting all that gear on me was way too much for the 30-second demonstration. When I mounted, I was shaking like a leaf.
Hmm, I don’t wear any gear any more.
I only fall once and while. I think I’d rather get some injuries than wear padding.
I draw for a living. Brain and wristguards everytime. I can deal with the shin and calf scratches to avoid the raw spots my sixsixone leg armor rubs on me. I’m probably doing something wrong in the way I put 'em on or something.
Anyhow, Brain bucket and Harbinger wrist protection. Much good.
At least a few times a week I just jump on my uni to fiddle around on the street (no big trials stuff or risky tricks), and sometimes I can’t be bothered to strap on the gear. A couple minutes into the ride the curb starts looking interesting, moreso those stairs over there, and so on till I’m cutting loose. And just about everytime I get bit and bit hard by the peddle.
It’s be said, and I second the motion: at the very least, no matter how hot it is, always wear shin gurads.
JL
Re: armour off or on?
My best motivation to strap the armour on comes from knowing I won’t be
training the week(s) while wounds are healing. No chicks gazing at my
scars will make up for this loss.
That said I will lay off my knee padding until I get a new pair. The
ones I’ve got are uncomfortable and the heat makes it even worse. And as
some of you suggested, I think I’ll manage without elbow protection.
I agree head and wrists ought to be protected at all times.
But shin protection also means calves protection, not? As far as I
understand the pedal can go either way. So in order to avoid that spiky
pedal from chewing leg you’ll need padding all around. That sure sounds
hot!
All feathers,
I learned to ride without an ounce of padding. Not even a helmet. I don’t think much of it, as I don’t think I needed it. I even began basic freestyle without a helmet. Then, for longer sessions, at the very least, the skidlid goes on. Now I only ride my unicycle on easy, paved areas, and me feet are both always planted on the pedals, without a helmet. When I commute I’m often sprinting and crossing streets and doing big rolling gaps up curbs, so the helmet is a must. For trials, freestyle, basketball, and ESPECIALLY muni, the helmet is a must. I think that all other pads are unneccessary compared to a helmet. I never wear wrist guards, since they make gripping the seat harder. Eventually I will wear them, but they’re low on the pad list for me.
In order of importance I’d say my equipment goes: Unicycle, helmet, leg armour, arm armour, gloves. If it’s hot, first goes the gloves, followed by the arm armour. If I’m trying to develope any skills, no matter the heat, I have the helmet and leg armour. I’d say as long as you don’t go out and do heavy rides and such, you should be fine with just a helmet and a uni. I know plenty of people who learned to uni without mishap, and they didn’t wear any padding whatsoever. Also, it’d worth it to say that you should ride some without the armour just to boost your confidence and make it so you don’t need the armour. If you are scared when you mount and ride without armour, then you probably wear armour too much. And this is coming from the biggest wuss of a trials rider ever.
Padding
I learned without any padding, though I should have used knee/wrist pads. That would have saved some skin.
Ethilien said he’s never landed on his elbows… I have, hard. I still have the scar on my left elbow, and if i had hit a little harder I prolly would have broken something… Was dismounting with the uni forward, and it skidded out on some sand covering the pavement… Jarred my arms pretty bad.
If I’m tooling around town from point A to point B, I wear my helmet and that’s it (unless you count steel toed shoes ;)). For muni I have Fox elbow/forearm pads and Fox knee/shin pads. They aren’t full wrap around, but my pedals don’t have sharp pins, just dull ones. What I do is I attach the pads to my Camelback, the leg armor spoons together, and I use one of the straps from the legs to hold the arm armor. This keeps me cool until I get to the trail. On the trail, armor all the way. Right now the entire right side of my body hurts, save where I was wearing padding. Rocks hurt, especially when you fall on them!
Yeah, I know that I can fall on the way to the trail, but it’s less likely. And if I do fall, it’s nothing I haven’t done before 
But the pads do help when yer doing hard/new stuff.
Well, I guess its possible to fall on your elbows, I just tend not to I guess
I suppose it depends on the person, or the kind of terrain you’ve ridden on. Or maybe I just guard my elbows really well as I’ve broken one before
I’ve never really come close to hitting my head so I’ve not got a helmet- though this is a really poor reason for not having one. i have a big head and finding a nice helmet to fit is a nightmare- so I buy other things to cheer me up! Lol!
I got some full leg/shin pads, but don’t really bash my knees so I just use my shin pads now. They big ones occassionally come out though.
I use gloves for muni or trials where I’m likely to graze my hand or if there is gravel about. I’ve cut my palms on a gravelly road before and don’t want to do it again! My other reasons for wearing gloves is so my hand doesn’t get sore on long sessions and so sweat doesn’t affect my grip.
I’ve hit my elbows falling backwards of my uni whilst (trying!) one foot wheel walking. It might improve my confidence with them but I find it much easier to talk myself into buying spares etc over pads!
Like you, I’m new at this, but I’ve been padding myself up in the most dorkish way possible–knee pads, elbow pads, helmet, wristguards, soccer shin guards, and heavy duty carpentry gloves under the wrist guards. I look like I’m about to play rollerball.
All of it seemed to be a bit silly because even though I fall alot, I ALWAYS landed on my feet.
Then a couple of days ago, I decided to forgo everything but the helmet. I went up the street, and jumped off due to an unexpected crack in the road–I must have banged my ankle because it hurt like hell afterward (luckily, it was uninjured, but bruised)
So, right after that, I padded up again in my usually dorky way. And I’m glad I did because about an hour later I crashed and I landed on my knees and wrists. I was hurting all over, and both my knee pads had big scrapes in them that were not there before-- as did both by wrist guards.
I have no doubt that I would have been really fucked up had it not been for the armor. Will I continue to pad up? Yes, every time, no matter how good I get, even if I look like a total nerd.
I look at it this way–its not a question of IF you take a fall–its more like WHEN.
Oddly enpough, the most interesting piece of protection I have are those gloves–just 5 weeks on the uni and they are SHREDDED!
Armor is like condoms–better safe than sorry…
Steve
Padding
Well, in follow up to my last post, I had a wicked bad fall off a table top in the local skatepark yesterday… I felt like a slinky… but i landed on all my pads on the way down, got up with nary a scratch… Pads rock!
Just always wear your helmet. You almost never fall on your head, but the one time you do, you’ll want your helmet.
All the armour I wear is a helmet and ankle guards for the KH crank nubs. I really wish I had shin guards, though, not only would they protect me, but they would superly boost my courage/confidence.
I’d rather look like a healthy nerd than a scarred and paraplegic fashion plate anyday, I always wear a helmet (I’ve got TWO), and, if I’m Cokering or MUniing (how many "i"s in MUNiiiiing? 
) knee, wrist and elbow PPE. I’ve already had blood on my pants from Cokering and don’t want to repeat, as for MUni, the rocks just scare me! 
Re: armour off or on?
Yesterday I rode to the park where I train. I kept my padding on all the
time. When it was time to go back home I took of the kneepads cause they
are not made for sitting on a knee that is constantly cycling (I use
skatepads). Ah, how nice to feel the wind against my sweaty knee caps,
and to be free from those evil hard straps. Then I fell when going down
a curb. I glided over the tarmac on the wristguards but the knees stayed
unharmed. Five minutes later I fell again, this time on my ass. Before
this happened I didn’t have one single fall during my 3 week long
unicycling carrier. Now you say it was about time I had some falling.
Ok, but why did it happen when I took off my knee armour? Someone
already wrote about it in this thread - what effect the armour has on
your mind; and what happens to that poor mind when armour is not there
any more. I didn’t notice any mental change but I am sure this was the
reason to my falls. Maybe it is a good idea once in a while to ride
without armour as someone suggested, just to boost your confidence, but
I think I will stay on the safe side and use it as much as I can.
even marble eggs can crack