Hi everyone, I’m considering buying a pair of gloves (KH pulse gloves indeed), cause my fingers suffer a lot of small cuts and beats while hopping, and I broke my wrist 10 years ago and I don’t wanna repeat the experience xD.
But I wonder, ¿would the gloves interfere with my flat tricks?, I wanna be secure but not unconfortable, and many people seem to wear gloves only for muni-ride.
Opinions? Are the pulse gloves the better choice?
Thx uniriders 
I personally hate wearing gloves, it really messes up my feel for the unicycle and hurts my tricks. In my opinion it’s best to ride bare handed, and over time you’ll build up calluses and thicker skin on your palms. I’ve never tried the pulse gloves, but they have like built in wrist guards don’t they? I imagine wrist guards would make things ten times harder.
the pulse gloves restrict movement in your wrist enough that it acts as a slight amount of brace against a fall, but also allows enough movement that tricks are still very easy to pull off. however, they don’t allow your hands to breathe much, if at all and for that reason they become very very sweaty and smelly in no time flat. also the plastic brace pieces in mine broke after the first fall. i’d recommend getting some skatboarding or inline wrist guards and then just using regular gloves overtop. that way you can take them off and still have finger protection.
This isn’t a product review… you should be posting this in Rec.Sport.Unicycling.
That being said…
What do you value more? Having fully functional hands and fingers with no nerve damage or scarring? Or being able to pull off your favorite tricks?
for flatland i could imagine that gloves could get in the way and get caught on the seat. I personally use gloves but i dont ride flatland, i like street:). My gloves have saved me from many skinned palms and cuts. A month ago i fell pretty good and fell on the top of my forearm and skidded on it on cement and where my glove ended at is where my flesh started to peel off at. I could only imagine if i didnt have gloves that the top side of my hand and knuckles would of been skinned to 
Give it a go for some weeks or something like that. I’m sure you’ll get used to them, and it’ll be worth it the day you’d otherwise would’ve broken your wrists. 
I don’t notice my pulse gloves when I’m riding. But I do notice my wrists work like they should.
i ride trials, not flatland/street…and ever since this fail(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAF21xs208
), i’ll forever wear gloves. got massive splinters in my hand from this fail, and it took about 2 weeks to heal . it sucked…i pretty much didn’t ride that much for those 2 weeks (yea i know i’m not as brave as Elib whos ridin with a broken thumb…lol) but if i had gloves on that day it woulda never happened. when i first switched to gloves it was weird grabbing the seat for sif hops, but you get used to it.
so just wear gloves, within a week youll prob be used to them 
besides…i dunno bout yall but every time ive gone down on my hands without gloves, it leaves my hands with this tingly sensation for about an hour, and i cant stand that. that tingly feeling will sure screw up your spinning and stuff
I remember reading a while back that any falls hard enough to break your wrist onto gloves with splints, will just break your arm instead 
Im not sure though, there was something about people thinking it was an okay sacrifice as the arm bones heal quicker
Hey,
After so many years of trials riding and thousands of falls, I’m sure I’d have arthritis in my wrists now, if I hadn’t worn gloves with some kind of wrist support. So personally I’m a pretty big advocate of wearing gloves.
For the Pulse gloves, they both have the wrist wrap with the semi-flexible plastic splint, and also the gel pad in the palm. If the plastic in the wrist wrap is too much support, it’s quite easy to unpick the threads in the binding tape along one side of the wrist wrap, and just pull it out. Then you have a slight amount of wrist support plus palm padding.
If you like the plastic but want it to be more flexible, a good idea is to pre-curve it by rolling it into a tube (like rolling up a piece of paper). This lets the plastic follow the natural curve of your hand and provides some support without it feeling stiff.
Kris
Some people don’t wear seatbelts because they’re uncomfortable, others think helmets are too hot to wear, others feel that a few shin scrapes are better than suffering through the wearing of shin guards.
When I was sixteen I shattered my left wrist in a ski crash. I am now forty-five and the wrist hurts most days, likely arthritis. Now I ski with wrist guards.
I also use wrist guards when I skate and ride, every time, I won’t get on a uni without them, simple as that.
If you choose not to wear wrist guards in a sport that exposes the wrists to likely trauma with a significant risk of breaking your wrists, then you’re silly.
Like they say, hindsight is 20-20.
And though I appreciate Kris’s input, I tend to prefer a sturdier wrist guard than the Pulse:
Short Finger, Single Palm Splint:
http://www.mbs.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idProduct=169
Long Finger Dual Splint:
http://www.mbs.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idProduct=112
I have not problem riding with either glove, actually prefer the long finger, but it’s too hot for summer riding. My son rides trials with them and doesn’t even notice them. Great grip with the long fingered glove, better than a leather glove. Fit is true to size.
On another note, more related to muni than trials/street, I’ve found that the time I most frequently bail hard on my hands is going uphill, not downhill. Downhill bails might sometimes be more spectactular, but the most instantaneous UPD’s for me are usually when I’m cranking uphill and I screw up some small bump or my wheel spins out, and next thing I know I’m onto my hands on the ground. This happens most at the end of a ride when I’m tired.
Also, it’s the big injuries that get the most attention, but by far the most frequent are the small, annoying ones like scrapes that get infected, or bruises. No safety gear can guarantee protection from the big injuries, but it’s so easy to avoid many of the small ones by wearing gloves, pads etc.
Kris
I personally wear gloves, along with some ankle guards that you’d barley notice visually with jeans/sweat pants on, and even with shorts you wont notice them much.
They’ve saved me a couple times, specially the ankle guards, being that my most common injury is a bloody ankle, the guards pretty much eliminate the impact of the unicycle hitting your ankles.
Gloves on the other hand, (No pun intended. :P) are still useful, specially for street, trials, and muni. Flatland I’m not so sure it’s as important, but getting road burn on your hands sucks no matter what you do, and getting your hands cut up in general sucks.
I use a pair of nike work-out gloves, they have open finger tips, mixture of foam/mesh, and a hole on the top of the hand to allow air to pass through easily. Pretty much stopped all problems that come from simply putting your hands to work with the unicycle, and road burn/splinters.
I used to wear the KH Pulse gloves for muni. I really liked that they protected my fingers and provided subtle, but effective protection of the wrists. For what you are describing, I think they would be perfect. (I also broke my wrist skating when I was a kid and am still afraid of repeating the incident).
Unfortunately I kept tearing them up too easily by falling/sliding on my hands. The palms tore huge holes (one pair they did it less than a week after they arrived, so I know the leather wasn’t just worn out). I don’t know what was wrong with mine or how I fall on them; I have not heard of anyone else tearing them up so easily. So now I don’t wear them anymore; it was too expensive to keep replacing them that often.
However, I ride muni, so I imagine catching them on rocks/sticks/etc is going to be harder on them than just plain concrete. I would definitely give them a try if I were you.
Just my 2 øre. YMMV, of course.
Now, I just need to get my ******* saddle problem sorted out . . .
neva have. i’ve just accepted the fact that i’m gonna have to just deal with saddle soreness
i guess it’ll just increase my threshold of pain…lol