I noticed that almost everyone at Moab this year was wearing a helmet but very few people were wearing wrist protectors. I have always thought that wrist protectors were the most important peice of safety equipment because if I don’t land on my feet when I fall, my hands always hit the ground before any other part of my body.
Has anyone out there ever fell from a unicycle and hit their head? What do you think is the most important peice of safety equipment and why?
Re: What is the most important safety equip?
Although injuries to the wrist may be much more common than those to the head, injuries to the latter are much more dangerous and potentially life threatening and for that reason:
a) Helmets are the most important piece of safety equipment
b) Adults responsible for children will always insist that the children wear at least a helmet. (I know that there are many minors posting here who will take offense to being characterized as children, but let’s for the sake of argument say I am referring simply to the legal definition and while common sense should dictate globally, my statement goes for the US where I believe the law is clear on this.)
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
Re: What is the most important safety equip?
I have hit my head on a rock on the ground. It wasn’t a bit hit, but it may not have been good had I not been wearing a helmet. As it was, I was able to continue the ride as if nothing had happened.
For muni and trials I generally ride with helmet, Roach leg armor, and full finger gloves. Sometimes I’ll put on elbow pads or the Roach arm armor. Occasionally I’ll put on wrist guards, but I have yet to have a crash where wrist guards would have been necessary.
For Coker riding I wear a helmet and full finger gloves. Often I’ll also put on some inline skate style knee pads. And sometimes I’ll wear wrist guards.
A helmet is the most important bit of safety gear simply becasuse a head injury can be very serious.
The Roach leg armor protects my knees, shins, and calves from my frequent falls.
Full finger gloves keep my hands and fingers from getting scraped up when I fall. The gloves also make it more comfortable when grabbing the front or the side of the seat.
i have hit my head also. well not while mountain unicycling considering i dont muni. but i was riding down 5 stairs on a slippery day and my unicyle slipped in front of me and my head went back in sort of a whiplash motion and hit the stairs quite hard. had it not been for my helmet, who knows what would have happened. im witht the others in saying that a helmet is the most important, but my leg armour takes more abuse from my feet slipping off. always ride with a helmet! buh byes, Kevin
Re: What is the most important safety equip?
tomcopeland wrote:
> I noticed that almost everyone at Moab this year was wearing a helmet
> but very few people were wearing wrist protectors. I have always
> thought that wrist protectors were the most important piece of safety
> equipment because if I don’t land on my feet when I fall, my hands
> always hit the ground before any other part of my body.
Yep, you’re considering the wrong variable. Frequency is not important.
Importance is important. Fuck up your hand, no big deal.
>
> Has anyone out there ever fell from a unicycle and hit their head?
Yes.
Not me, of course, I’m a god of ukemi. But even monkeys fall out of
trees…
> What do you think is the most important piece of safety equipment and
> why?
Helmet.
Break your arm or leg, pretty girls sign your cast, and you’re back in
action in a couple of months.
–
Success is goals.
–Lloyd Conant
Re: What is the most important safety equip?
In article <tomcopeland.lfucn@timelimit.unicyclist.com>,
tomcopeland <tomcopeland.lfucn@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
)
)Has anyone out there ever fell from a unicycle and hit their head? What
)do you think is the most important peice of safety equipment and why?
I think my wrist guards are my most frequently utilized piece of protection;
they hit the ground maybe 4 times at Moab, while the leg armor only hit
once. I think leg impacts are more likely to be painful, but wrist
impacts are probably more likely to actually break something. Memory
of pain may be what drives people to shin guards.
The helmet is obviously the most important in terms of what it protects,
but the likelihood of a head impact while riding a unicycle forwards is
pretty low, even off-road.
-Tom
I must fall differently than most people, because every time I fall to the ground, I land hard on my hands. I won’t even ride around the block without wrist guards. I don’t see a need for a helmet unless I’m going to try something on very steep or uneven terrain.
I’ve know several people who have broken their wrists, either unicycling, snowboarding or roller blading, and besides being painful, it’s not easy getting around with one hand. 
I too have landed on my head after taking a spill from a sandwich board that I hit at a wrong angle and moved. It could have been pritty bad but I walked away just kinda shaken up and wondering how I landed on my head.
While wrist guards are nice they are not 100 neccesary not because when you fall you only some people land hard on thier wrists. Its just because doing full face plants dont happen that often for the average rider and having a broken arm isnt that big of a hassle (I have broken my arms a total of 8 times I dont plan on any more but mearly see it as an inconvinience now)
Landing on your head and being a retard because of the fact you were too lazy to put your lemit on is the stupidist thing out there.
At the moment, I dont wear a helmet unless I am doing downhill Muni on my kh24.
I ride 3 kms and back to university every day with no helmet (on raods/footpaths)…I do sets of stairs, curbs, drops (up to 1.5/2 feet) with no helmet.
Most of my falls, I land on my feet or put my hands down and all they receive is a little grazing.
Ive never broken a bone due to uni and dont intend to.
I dont own any protection besides my helmet - I cant afford leg armour at the moment…and dont see it happening for a while.
Ive started wearing a helmet on the tough downhill sections of my muni trips now where I go quite fast. I have fallen off once and hit my head on a tree(whilst wearing the helmet).
I know I should wear a helmet and other protection all the time but just feel like a total nong when im just riding down steps or on the street and such.
I suppose it will take a broken bone to change my opinion.
note: I dont push myself too hard. I dont to anything that I’ll know ill biff, and learn everything in small incremenets. So im doing anything too extreme that will require too much protection.
Pants are obviously the most important and underated safety equipment.
…indeed.
Re: What is the most important safety equip?
While I’ve never hit my head, I’ve seen people do it. At Moab last weekend,
my son fell on his head so hard that he was knocked out briefly. Without
that helmet I hate to think of how bad that would’ve been - MILES from a
road. When Kris broke his helmet on Orizaba…yow!
Riding Muni, I ALWAYS have wrist guards and a helmet, and usually leg armor.
On Coker, I always wear a helmet and gloves.
—Nathan
“tomcopeland” <tomcopeland.lfucn@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:tomcopeland.lfucn@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> I noticed that almost everyone at Moab this year was wearing a helmet
> but very few people were wearing wrist protectors. I have always
> thought that wrist protectors were the most important peice of safety
> equipment because if I don’t land on my feet when I fall, my hands
> always hit the ground before any other part of my body.
>
> Has anyone out there ever fell from a unicycle and hit their head? What
> do you think is the most important peice of safety equipment and why?
Am I the only one here who breaks things intentionally? I’m thinking Mike may as well (how else can you need more than one hand to count the number of times the limb it’s attached to has been broken? :)).
I’m seeing a pretty strong consensus for the helmet, with which I agree. I generally feel the need to do a bit of dumb stuff here and there (and always make sure I’m using protection), but I do still ride around campus (to class and whatnot) without my lid. I think one reason I don’t wear it more often is because it’s rather old, and I haven’t dropped $100 for something that looks decent. That and I’m pretty vain about my hair :).
Later,
Eli.
Ohhh… I hate helmet hair. This is me with a clasic case of helmet hair.
I’d say leg armour is the most useful form of safety equipment. Leg armour was the first safety equipment I bought for unicycling - and that was after riding for 10 years with no protection of any kind. Mind you the reason I got my leg armour was that I was determined to master 180 uni-spins which are very painful if you mess up.
I’ve never hit my head unicycling nor even come close to it. I feel wearing a helmet is more for the reassurance of other riders than my own safety. Seeing as a unicycle is legally a vehicle in NZ, no helmet is necessary.
As for arm armour I have a pair of 661’s but seldom wear them - they’re too hot. I wore wrist guards for a time but found they made my wrists sore, especially when hopping.
To sum up: for freestyle riding I wear no safety gear or sometimes leg armour if I’m doing uni-spins. For trials I wear leg armour (always) and full-finger gloves (and a helmet for MUni).
WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT?
It’s your BRAIN.
I’ve gotten hurt over the years mostly because of a momentary lapse in brain function. Know what you can do. Know what you should not do. Move towards the “should nots” in progressive steps.
A recurring problem is when a buddy does a thing and then I just have to try it. Somewhere deep in the psychy, emotion overpowers logic and KERBLAMMO!
But, if your lucky, with age comes wisdom. With age also comes aches (the fuel of wisdom).
Another recurring brain lapse problem is lack of focus. Somewhere in the middle of a regular stunt, I’ll find myself thinking about lunch or weather or that lizard we saw a few minutes ago and KERBLAMMO!
That being said: I sometimes wear a Helmet (especially MUni), but ALWAYS wear wrist guards.
Re: What is the most important safety equip?
In article <harper.lgcvc@timelimit.unicyclist.com>,
harper <harper.lgcvc@timelimit.unicyclist.com> writes:
>
> Pants are obviously the most important and underated safety equipment.
>
I’m also a big believer in shoes. When I started, I was always
stubbing my toes into the pedals and wracking up my toes on the
UPDs. I found it really awkward and painful having my little toe
hung-up in the spokes and jammed in next to the frame. Shoes were
a big win here.
Although I’m with you though Harper - pants before shoes - I’d rate
pants as more of a comfort than safety thing. One’s “tackle” is
fairly well protected from contact with the ground, pedals and
spokes as-is.
============================================================
Gardner Buchanan <gbuchana@rogers.com>
Ottawa, ON FreeBSD: Where you want to go. Today.
The brain, it tells us what we should and should not do. Sometimes only a fool would go out and do this stuff without body armour, other times we just need the helmet in case a drunk driver nods off at the wrong time. carjug
One time I was at this dirt jump on a bike. We were trying to nose down a whole lot to land on the landing and I wnet to far. I went all the way over, landed right on my head and cracked my helmet. Right now I don’t wear any safety gear because the pads in my helmet came out and I lost them.
-Isaac
Injuries
My Viscount seat kills my fingers while hopping or MUni riding, so I always wear fingered gloves when riding for extended periods of time. My helmet has never saved my life, but I still wear it for MUni riding (but not while street riding). I figure I could injure myself just as bad while running to campus, yet I don’t wear a helmet then.
My friend broke her wrist in two places falling off her uni. I felt bad since I was the one who introduced her to unicycling.
FYI, I would suggest wearing protection while riding on glare ice. Even if you fall off and land on your feet, your feet slip out from underneath you. I had the experience of ending up on top of my uni with the pedal directly under my back. Ouch.