Unicycle protection

For downhill I use a fullface helmet, protector jacket, gloves, protector pants, knee- and shinguards and ankle braces… all the time… and i’ve needed every single protector, probably multiple times.

As a total newbie on a uni, I started with just a helmet. After my first crash last week, I’ve added wrist guards to my “must have” protection. My wrists are still sore from a UPD off the back. Landed on my rear and both hands, ouch!

We’re all different, and while I’m totally confident and comfortable doing some really gnarly stuff on a MTB with just a XC or road helmet, I can’t blame someone else for showing up in full on DH kit. If it’s what they need to feel safe, that’s fine in my book.

I dunno, I always think they’re taking it a bit too far when I see people in a full set of body armour just to ride up farm tracks or whatever. Obviously it’s their choice though, and I won’t berate 'em for it :smiley:

It’s odd though. I’ve seen MTBers kitted out with all the armoured kit, and they stick out like a sore thumb. Look absolutely ridiculous. Yet when I’ve ridden with unicyclists, nearly every one of them has had a more-than-decent amount of protection on, and I don’t even notice until I look for it. I guess our kit is just cooler-looking :sunglasses:

+1 on this. I wore half-fingered gloves for a long time (for comfort and dexterity) until I flew hands first into some rocks and came up with the tip of my finger sliced off. I play guitar, and I had to play a gig the next week! :astonished: Talk about misery! I still wear half-fingered for road riding, but it’s full-fingered for muni from then on! Doesn’t matter if it’s hot, I’m not risking that again.

It’s nicer to not wear gear, but there are some real differences in MUni compared to mountain biking which lead to MUni riders wearing more gear on average. If you’re a good mountain biker riding easy stuff, you can get pretty close to a 100% guarantee that you won’t hit the ground on any given ride, whereas even the best unicyclist will take a fall every now and then.

Full-face helmets are pretty overkill, because our speeds are low, but knee and shin pads come in handy a lot. On the recent Nepal trip, without pads, I took three skinned-knee falls in nine riding days, which isn’t a lot, but it’s at least two more than I would have taken on a bike. Scott Wilton is a world champion and he took a couple. None of those wound up being serious injuries, but it only takes one rock in the wrong place to turn a skinned knee into an injury.

For me it’s a risk-reward calculation depending on what I’m riding. When I’m doing fire roads or easy singletrack on a fast uni, with low fall probability, I usually don’t wear knee or shin pads, but I always wear wrist guards. When I’m doing technical MUni, I always wear knee and shin pads, because I want to try difficult lines where I know I’m going to fall on rocks.

Part of the history of MUni is that the sport was founded by guys with a background in rock climbing, and so they had a sort of rock climber’s sense of risk assessment. If it had come out of BMX or skateboarding there probably would have been a lot less protective gear. And the street and flatland uni disciplines are that way because that’s where they’re coming from.

What I wear:
for Flatland: usually shinpads, sometimes, when I am just doing rolls no protective gear at all.
for Trials: Helmet, sometimes shinpads and kneepads, gloves if stupid IUF regulations force me to (I understand that Helmets are mandatory, since not wearing one can result in severe injuries. Not wearing gloves only results in minor cuts and splinters.)
for Street: Shinpads, Helmet, sometimes kneepads and gloves (Only if the ground is really gnarly and I feel like it) Sometimes a pullover. Yes, a pullover is a protective item for me, it protects my skin if I have to roll on concrete.
for Muni: Helmet, Kneepads (if I find them), no gloves.

For me, protective gear is mostly to protect me from big injuries, like concussions or worse, and to help myself feel comfortable and commit to tricks for street and flat. Also very frequently hit spots (Shins for tricks, knees for Muni) I like to protect, since constantly getting hurt isn’t fun. I don’t wear full armor Body for anything, since I don’t believe the advantage of wearing elbow pads for example outweighs the discomfort it causes me. And I absolutely hate gloves. I dont exactly know why, but I hate them. I believe good falling technique replaces wrist guards, I know how strong my wrists are, and go into a roll if necessary.

I’ve found from painful experience that the achilles heel is the achilles heel of unicyclists, so I wear volleyball kneepads over my ankles, rotated so the pad side covers the heel.

Most people who reject safety equipment haven’t had their first serious injury.

I almost always wear just wrist guards, but I must admit when I look on my shins that I should definitely wear shin protection too.

Hey Newob, I’ve always had the issue of smashing my ankles on BMX cranks. I felt like, as I got interested in uni, this issue would crop back up, so I was preemptive: I try to always wear my 5-10 Impact High shoes. They completely cover the ankles and offer great support. Very comfy shoes, too.

That’s not true. I know people who use them because the fell on their face. Speed doesn’t really matter here. Mine was of great use when I fell into a creek head forwards with my chin and shoulders onto rocks. No head injury “just” a broken shoulder.

Of course speed matters. It’s not impossible to fall on your face, just exceedingly unlikely. Certainly less likely than in a mountain bike crash.

And you fall a lot, A LOT more often on a unicycle. So the chance you fall on your face once increases also a lot. This makes it not that exceedingly unlikely.

Yep, that’s me! :astonished:

The main reason I won’t put a helmet on for the road is because I’m sick of it being used as a tool in the media’s “cylist crushed to death by truck - found to not be wearing a helmet.” rubbish. Utility/commuter *cycling should be seen as a safe activity, and going round doing it decked-out in safety gear to me is rejecting that idea.

Sport cycling is a different story obviously, especially if you’re riding MUni. But 90% of the riding I do is either on-road (see above) or on segregated cycle tracks, which are probably the safest place to cycle. The only danger to me most of the time are other cyclists, and my own stupidity :smiley:

I’ve been riding super-technical MUni with small and large groups, pretty constantly for the last 12 years. In that time I’ve seen one broken nose, back in 2007 or so. That’s it for facial injuries. So yes, it’s exceedingly unlikely. You’re talking about fear, not risk.

For flat/street: Usually nothing, but Leg Armor if I’m practicing unispins or it’s going to be a long session…

For muni: Padded cycling shorts, Leg Armor, “road bike style” helmet, Hillbilly leather gloves with wrist guards…all these, in my opinion, are necessary, (except maybe the cycling shorts). There are plenty of rips in my Leg Armor that could have easily been holes in my shins. Helmet is obvious. Gloves are necessary because you will fall, no matter how good you are.

Honestly, I think as far as risk/reward goes…wearing safety gear is worth it, especially for muni. I simply would not have attempted some of the things I have if I wasn’t protected adequately. It has nothing to do with skill or confidence. If you have the knowledge that you will fall, but you’ll be ok, it’ll allow you to focus more on your riding. It even makes tumbling down hills and flying into trees kind of fun. :slight_smile:

And I know at least 3 people who fell on their faces and now use a full face and two who fell on their face wearing a full face helmet. And I don’t even ride unicycles for 12 years. So no it’s not exceedingly unlikely considering how small the unicycling community is.

Since I started mountain unicycling (KH29) 3 weeks ago, I’ve been on 5 muni rides. I wear a t-shirt (hoodie or something if its cold) fingerless gloves and a helmet. If I ride to school just a helmet.

On my 20" I don’t wear protective gear. I only wore a helmet when I ride it to school, because I have to. I never needed it once, for the 6 months of riding it to school. I only went 5MPH, and went on the paths. The worst accident I had was when I had to do an emergency stop and fell back and landed on my hand, and hurt my wrist. Now if something like that I just idle or just get off.

For elbow and kneepads, no. Full face MTB helmet? Yes. I think full face helmets belong to motorbike riders and BMXers who do crazy stunts. One time I saw someone wearing a motorbike helmet on a road bike… look so strange and dodgy.

Full-Face on the road? :astonished: visibility sounds like a problem there!

Then again I suppose if you’ve got a helmet/arm-mounted mirror, maybe not. After all, motorbikers use them… :smiley:

Totally justified for really hardcore Muni though I think. Maybe not for the kind I do…

For purposes of the survey:

  • I learned to ride at age 17. At 17, you are mostly indestructible. Also in 1979 there was a lot less helmet-wearing in the cycling world, so it wasn't even considered.
  • In 1980 I started unicycle racing. I figured out pretty fast that it was more comfortable to ride wearing some volleyball kneepads and some gloves than it was to ride with scabs and blood.
  • In the late 80s I bought my first helmet. Can't remember if I bought it for my bike at the time, or for offroad unicycling, which I was only doing on "easy" trails (Long Island)
  • After moving to California and finding much more challenging terrain, I took to wearing a helmet all the time for dirt. Like seat belts, they only work if you have them on when you crash.
  • Road riding today: Helmet and gloves (bike gloves; I was never comfortable with wristguards though I know they're more protective
  • Muni today: Helmet, gloves, and keepads or leg armor
  • Freestyle today: pants. Somebody above mentioned "nothing" for Freestyle, but I've tried that and it's really not that great.

Wow, I never heard about that one. Certainly that’s rubbish. We all make our own choices. Years ago, I decided my brain was worth considerably more than the cost of a helmet, and I haven’t minded wearing one. And yes it had impacted the ground a few times. Not very much, but you never know.

There was a survey published in the UK that showed that road cyclists wearing helmets are overtaken much closer by cars than the ones not wearing helmets. Scientists call that “transfer of responsibility”, as in “That guy has a helmet, I don’t need to care about him”, or “Careful, that one doesn’t have a helmet, better stay far from him”. I experienced that first hand on bike.

With muni, of course it’s very different and the tree you’re crashing into won’t care about this survey.