Hi, I’m new to the forum.
I’m wondering what everyone wears for wrist protection, if anything.
I’m currently recovering from a broken wrist sustained on my mountainbike, but when I get back on the uni I want to be sure my wrist is protected, to avoid having surgery on it again.
Cheers
I use TSG professional wristguards, I’ve had some massive falls on them with no injuries sustained, they do wear out (im on my second set now) but they’re pretty cheap.
Other unicyclists use the harbingers wrist wraps and the KH pulse gloves. Both of these have a long fabric section with inbuilt braces that wraps round the wrist, the harbinger is a half finger glove, the KH a full finger. Obviously the Kh was designed for unicycling and a new model has just come out which addresses the problems people had with the stitching on the old models, and looks even cooler. These are both normally available from UDC.
Thanks Dave, I’ve been using the older KH gloves on the uni, but as luck would have it, I wasn’t wearing them when I stacked the mtb!
Do you wear gloves under the TSGs?
No i wear them on their own, im lucky in that my hands never get cold, even when we’re clmimbing through snow and ice. They cover everything except your fingers from the first joint up. Wrist gaurds are the only thing that i always wear when riding, I just know the day I leave them off Im going to rip my hands up.
For Coker riding I think that skater protection is better. If you crash while riding faster than 20 km/h it will be quite similar to a crashing skater. The skater protection has a hard plastic surface, it will slide on tarmac, which is good for high speed dismounts. For muni the harbingers and KH gloves are probably better.
Hans
I wear the old KH Pulse gloves with the plastic wrist support from some random wrist guards put into the from pocket area then wrapped around my wrist.
A friend of mine had bad experiences with 661 wrist guards, i think they were the shorter version but the construction appears to be the same. Bascially they were very expensive and after a couple of falls were ripped to shreds and unusable, and didnt protect his hands from getting cut up. I love all their other kit but these were far from impressive.
Yeah, my 661 wrist wraps didn’t last particually long. They don’t offer a huge amount of protection so aren’t ideal for unicycling. They are, however, flexible enough to be worn whilst mountain biking. I broke my wrist a while back so I tend to be pretty protective these days. I wear Fox gloves (gloves made by Fox, not the flowers) with integrated wrist wraps while MTBing and skater wrist guards with hard plastic inserts for unicycling. Best to go to a skate shop and try a few on.
I’m a big fan of Harbingers wrist guards, they have saved me from numerous injuries and are still in great condition
I would recommend them over any other wrist guards, they are a bit pricey but they are the best as far as I am concerned.
Plumsie
Ahhh, memories.
I’m currently using KH Pulse gloves, but harbingers are much better for wrist protection, they slide well and are reasonably durable.
We(me and my brother and sisters) used to skateboard. We still have the wrist guards around. We got them at K-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us. They’re learning how to unicycle now, we’re ‘pumped’ because we met 3 times unicycle world champion Javier Ruiz yesterday. He’s awesome, and he taught me a few mounts and tricks. I think this is his web page. I had a few falls and I may have saved my wrists…and my brother’s.
I broke my wrist last April due to a uni incident and now wear a set of TSG wrist guards. My surgery scar is not near as impressive as your’s though.
wrist protection
A very topical thread! As I type (one-handed) the other is in a fiberglass cast due to a scaphoid fracture from a fast and nasty UPD from my radial 360 recently.
I shopped around all summer looking for wrist guards but didnt have much luck. When I did find some, they were children sizes. It is great to see UDC selling more variety than in the past.
Question about the Harbingers, it sounds like they have a reinforcing solid splint built into the gloves… my question for those familiar with the 110G… upon impact, how do they deflect the impact forces around the wrist? Or is something else better on the market (in adult sizes of course). The comment earler about hard plastic to slide across the pavement makes sense (as I have seen my brother side down the road from spills from his streetsailer but on his knees). Thanks!
mscalisi: Did you change from Harbingers to KH Pulse for any particular reason?
I just bought some Pulse gloves - last years’ are half price in the UDC UK sale. They’re nice, but seemingly offer less support than my skating wristguards. I’ve previously found the skating guards are good not only for protecting my wrist but for allowing my hands to slide on the ground rather than stop suddenly - reducing the force of the impact.
The Harbingers look really good, but they’re expensive!
It’s true that the Pulse gloves have less support than wrist guards. This is because they’re not designed to replace wristguards, of which there are plenty of good ones on the market already. But the problem many riders have with wristguards is that they overly restrict the wrist, and the plastic splint isn’t comfortable gripping the handle for technical riding. And fingerless Harbingers provide no fingertip protection, and pure wrist guards no finger protection at all. And putting wristguards over gloves is a bit of a pain. So many riders wear nothing at all for these reasons.
So for those riders who want some level of wrist and palm support but don’t want the restrictiveness of wristguards, the Pulse gloves are good. Otherwise there are many wristguards to choose from as an alternative.
Cheers,
Kris
Two reasons really, one is because I always like trying something new and my harbingers were worn out. The second reason is that I wanted something full fingered.
Wrist guards
Two weeks before we were set to leave for Hawaii in 2004, I had a nasty UPD and planted my right hand square on asphalt. The bone at the base of the hand fractured and I had to have three lengthy pins inserted laterally. Trust me, you didn’t want to be there when then pulled them out with pliers.
My long-suffering wife has banned me from riding the uni up to two weeks before any vacations. We’re leaving for a cruise on November 4th but I did manage to sneak in a half mile ride yesterday to commemorate my 60th birthday.
Needless to say, I don’t ride at all any more without wrist/hand protection. I bought the hard plastic/velcro things that rollerbladers use. The first time on the uni after knee surgery this Spring I had an identical UPD to the one that caused the fracture. This time the wrist guard allowed the hand to slide on the pavement instead of stopping abruptly. I’m too old to be going through another hand surgery.
I just bought a pair of the older pulse gloves and I noticed that there is a little pocket thing in the palm of the glove with velcro that a splint slides perfectly into. I have slipped a splint into my left glove because thats the one I fall on the more, and I find it amazing, same support as a wrist guard, but with the confort and finger protection of a full glove.
Was that the design of the glove?
Yes- I should have mentioned that. There is big variation in opinion about how much padding/protection should be in the palm, from bike riders wanting nothing at all, to some unicyclists wanting plastic splints. So I included a velcro-closed pocket to hold the palm padding (which is gel on the 07’s and foam on the previous gloves).
If you want more protection, just cut a piece of flat plastic to the same shape as the pad, and insert it. I’ve never put a splint into it though; that’s a good idea.
Kris
