this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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I mean, I have worn some pretty breathable crotch rocket gear in the middle of summer. I get where everyone is coming from with needing to dissipate heat from a human powered mode of transportation, and keep it as light as possible, but simply saying “no protection cause speed must be fast” is just not a phrase that makes sense with today’s and tomorrow’s technology and textiles.
In cycle racing that's all of it, they cannot wear protective gear as it would slow them down and they would lose to people who don't wear it
In recreational cycling it hardly matters, speeds aren't all that high.
My experience with heat is different to yours. In winter I wear shorts and short sleeves and gloves. In summer it's the same but the gloves don't have fingers.
@psud @snekerpimp honestly the gravel rash you can get at 40kmph is pretty significant, and hills to get that much speed aren't weird.
My experience is on recumbent bikes where you're not falling far and not going over the handlebars. I think the most skin I have abraded was in a 50kph crash on concrete and grass where about a 2cm circle of the skin over the thumb mound of my left palm was gone. That would have been prevented by gloves
@psud I really should try a recumbent bike one day, I enjoyed my trike but the bikes always scared me. But I should give one a try.
It took a few hours on a grassy hill to learn to balance it
My fast bike is an M5 carbon high racer
It got too easy to ride, also I don't trust carbon composites to last a long time in Australian sunlight, so I also now have a steel (CrMo) shockproof 559
@psud I got enough skin taken off my knee at 20kmph to make dancing at my wedding 6 weeks later sketchy.
Although that was gravel.
I reckon if the sports organisations required pro cyclists to wear protective gear it'll be more common for amateurs to also use PPE and make that stuff easier to get