Crashing slow speed and padded gloves

[azrider]

Crashed going approx 5 mph yesterday morning and am thinking i might have broken something. (i've narrowed it to my scaphoid also known as Navicular) It was also one of those freak times i left the house without my gloves which, aren't really that padded and might not have helped, but might have had there been some padding.....

Anybody got any rec's on some padded gloves?

[Ken Robb]

When I broke my navicular and other bones in a crash my doctor told me it has a poor blood supply so it takes more time to heal than other bones. That was so in my case but the good news was that it did heal without being pinned. I gathered from this info and experience that you should not delay diagnosis and treatment if you want the best chance of a successful outcome.

[benitosan1972]

I don't think there are any gloves, padded or not, that would prevent you from breaking something in a crash. Gloves might help with the actual road rash, but I doubt they could save your bones/tendons/etc. It's more about how you fall that might prevent broken bones. The natural reaction when flying over the bars or off to the side is to stick your arms/hands out to break the fall... and that's where wrists/fingers/arms get broken. Worse on asphalt than the road. If you can has the wherewithal to tuck or roll that would definitely help, but that's also easier said than done in times of an accident.

That being said, at least wearing gloves can save some skin... unless you want to wear DH MTB or track racing gloves with carbon armor and wrist protection

[azrider]

I think you missed the part where i mentioned my speed.

I've crashed at 25+ while racing, and from stupid mistake made by someone else in group and you're correct that tucking and rolling is best way.

However. When you're only traveling 5mph, the direct impact you make with pavement is much greater and any sort of padding will definitely "help" (i did not say prevent) and could have lessened the impact made to my wrist.

[benitosan1972]

Even if you crash at 0mph, like falling over from a trackstand... you could easily break a bone

But if you want glove recommendations I like the Pearl Pro Series, I have fingerless, full fingered, and thermal from that series. Never fallen on them, so I don't know about the protection, but they perform pretty well and have leather in the palms so they're durable and break in well.

I've always wanted to try the Rapha or Assos gloves, but cost prevents me :(

[azrider]

I guess what prompted me to ask was while the gf was in Bed Bath and Beyond today, i snuck over to the Specialized store and noticed some fingerless gloves that had a raised, hard foam padding directly over the area that i've busted.

Before dropping the coin there I wanted to ask the board if they had any rec's.

Wasn't trying to be argumentative but I'm absolutely convinced that a glove with some padding around the palm like i saw today would have greatly lessened the impact in my particular situation.

[benitosan1972]

Ah, I see your point now. Well like I said, the PI gloves that I use with the gel inserts and leather palms are very comfortable and durable. I tried the Capo & Giordana ones, but the palms literally disintegrated after a few rides. Leather palms are the way to go, and gel inserts are good padding as well as shock absorbing... hope that helps a little bit, but I'll let others chime in now

[Steve in SLO]

I guess what prompted me to ask was while the gf was in Bed Bath and Beyond today, i snuck over to the Specialized store and noticed some fingerless gloves that had a raised, hard foam padding directly over the area that i've busted.

Before dropping the coin there I wanted to ask the board if they had any rec's.

I have those (Pros, I think). They are fine, but not noteworthy. The hard, raised pads kind of take away from the feel of the bars, though.
I'd second an x-ray if you think your Navicular got broken...avascular necrosis isn't a good thing.

[LouDeeter]

..avascular necrosis isn't a good thing.

Second that. My wife has avascular necrosis of the heads of all her long bones from chemotherapy 20 years ago. She had her left shoulder replaced last month. I doubt that will happen with a single bone with poor blood supply. I also don't believe that padded gloves would lessen the shock force much, but they might shift the shear of the force, breaking or pulling something else. The worst bike wreck I've had was at about 5 mph in a grocery store parking lot--10 ribs. I feel your pain.

[LouDeeter]

http://www.innerbody.com/image/skel13.html

This is a great site. You can put your cursor over the bone in question to read more about it.

[soulspinner]

Anything that absorbs shock helps, which is why I wear gloves at all. Slow speed crashes are often the worst long term. Wearing any padded glove is
probably better than none.

[FlashUNC]

I think gloves can help, though I tend to think the padding in most isn't enough to absorb the kind of shock that could lead to broken bones in the hand/wrist. On the other hand, I think they're great for limiting road rash.

When I snapped my elbow in two, the top of my right glove was pretty mangled and the left had a couple nice divots taken out of the leather -- these were Giro LX gloves -- but my hands had minimal damage.

Probably just passed the buck up the chain to my humerus.

[rpm]

I took a 0 mph crash a couple of weeks ago, putting my wheel into a gravel-filled hole at the start of a dirt trail. Got some gravel tracks on my leg, but my Giro Bravo gloves kept my hands from getting scratched. I like the way they fit.

[benb]

I'm of the opinion motorcycling gloves have some features which can/do prevent broken bones.

The features are nothing you would want to put up with bicycling though.. like tying the pinky & ring fingers together.. or carbon fiber shielding to distribute shock across larger surface areas, etc..

Martial arts & even sports like football (american) have lots to say about how to fall without breaking bones. I'm no accomplished martial artist but I think they have a lot of good things to say that bicyclists could learn from...

For example don't stick your arm straight out and let your palm slam into the ground to break a fall.. people with no experience falling do that and break bones left and right in cycling.. you can take much much harder hits with no injury if you "fall correctly". There is nothing in a football padding that stops a broken collarbone but you don't exactly hear about them in football, martial arts, etc..

[tannhauser]

It's going to break if you hit it hard enough, padding or no, irrespective of speed.

I don't get this question -- seems obvious.

[Fixed]

When ever I crashed I would fight the urge to stick a limb out better IMHO to have your arm tucked in even at slow speed and those crashes you seem to fall into the road vs. sliding when you have some speed
Sucks. But Glad it was not worse
Cheers :bike:

[Gothard]

For the scaphoïd, as said above, necrosis is a BAD thing.
Get an X-Ray now. If it is not broken, all is fine.
If it still hurts like a mofo in 10 days, get another X-Ray. At 10 days almost all fractures are visible on plain X-Rays. MRI should be reserved for unclear cases, like ligamentar or TFCC injuries.

[benb]

It's going to break if you hit it hard enough, padding or no, irrespective of speed.

I don't get this question -- seems obvious.

If you hit hard enough yah... but there is a lot to falling.

Watch a clumsy cross racer break a collarbone falling at walking speed on soft terrain.. then watch a football player or motorcycle racer bounce up from a much harder/faster fall on harder terrain and say it is all about speed or hardness of hit.

There is a lot of protection that can come from having a background in sports other then cycling where you hit the ground regularly and get more chances to learn what it is like to hit things and how you should carry your body.

It's the same thing as mountain biking experience paying healthy dividends for a road cyclist when a situation gets hairy and bike handling skills make the difference between crashing and winning.

[azrider]

I'm of the opinion motorcycling gloves have some features which can/do prevent broken bones..

A buddy intro'd me to some sweet DMX 'summer' gloves but they offer more protection for top of the hand and fingers while palms are padless and just leather.

From looks of it, the specialized gloves are only ones with some padding around the palm. Guess i'll try some.

[azrider]

Get an X-Ray now.

so you're saying i shouldn't wait till this bruise gets any worse ? :rolleyes:

[Gothard]

One can see there is a hematoma along the visible tendon. Is it tender on pressure there? In general a scaphoid fracture is accompanied by a deeper hematoma along the fascia of the pronator quadratus, which makes this area tender on pressure and pronation against resistance. It can be a sign to enhance suspiscion of scaphoïd fracture.

[tannhauser]

If you hit hard enough yah... but there is a lot to falling.

Watch a clumsy cross racer break a collarbone falling at walking speed on soft terrain.. then watch a football player or motorcycle racer bounce up from a much harder/faster fall on harder terrain and say it is all about speed or hardness of hit.

There is a lot of protection that can come from having a background in sports other then cycling where you hit the ground regularly and get more chances to learn what it is like to hit things and how you should carry your body.

It's the same thing as mountain biking experience paying healthy dividends for a road cyclist when a situation gets hairy and bike handling skills make the difference between crashing and winning.

Yes, I agree with all this.

[gasman]

Get an x-ray now. You can't tell a lot without one. Nowadays pinning the scaphoid is common and will give you quicker healing. I spent 6 months in a cast before mine healed during my 1st year of med school.
The gloves won't hurt and just may help.

[nightfend]

This could just be me, but when I've broken bones, I tend to get a dark purple/black bruise that I don't see very often from my regular crashes. Probably from blood pooling under the skin from the broken bone. So maybe you were lucky and didn't break anything.

[Charles M]

I prefer Knox Handroid now versus the Aplinestars that Ive worn for years...

These have protection specifically for the common little bones that take a beating and have a Kangaroo skin Palm that stands up to crashing very well.

http://grandmighty.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/knoxhandroid.jpg

Of course they may be a little too bulky for some, but they (and their kind are the only things out there that reasonably address crashing and impact.


Past that, it would be GREAT is someone made a full kangaroo cycling glove that would provide actual protection versus what almost all gloves do now, which is simply push lint and fabric into wounds....

I had a set f gloves from an austrailian brand (kapado?) that were the business... but no idea where they found a home. There's a golf company called Hirzl that also do cycling...

Virtually nothing but kangaroo will work well for genuine skid protection with the low profile needed for cycling...

[tannhauser]

I prefer Knox Handroid now versus the Aplinestars that Ive worn for years...

These have protection specifically for the common little bones that take a beating and have a Kangaroo skin Palm that stands up to crashing very well.

http://grandmighty.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/knoxhandroid.jpg

Of course they may be a little too bulky for some, but they (and their kind are the only things out there that reasonably address crashing and impact.


Past that, it would be GREAT is someone made a full kangaroo cycling glove that would provide actual protection versus what almost all gloves do now, which is simply push lint and fabric into wounds....

I had a set f gloves from an austrailian brand (kapado?) that were the business... but no idea where they found a home. There's a golf company called Hirzl that also do cycling...

Virtually nothing but kangaroo will work well for genuine skid protection with the low profile needed for cycling...

I've had a bunch of kangaroo skin gloves for golf -- they're great. In fact thanks for reminding me -- I need a new set of cycling gloves in my golf bag.

[BlackTiBob]

IMO, no glove you'd wear on your bike will prevent in any meaningful way a fracture of the scaphoid.
They will help minimize abrasions. A scaphoid break is primarily caused by over extending that area too much and with a padded glove you still have xxx pounds of force on that area.

Broken mine twice and once had to be a cast from hand knuckles to armpit for 4 months and then smaller cast for months. As others have said, scaphoid has about the LEAST blood supply of any bone in the body so can take the LONGEST to heal.

The big bones with major blood supply are a piece of cake to heal in comparison.
The docs sort of divide the small bone in thirds and each area ( one third) has a better or worse average for healing--- I can't remember whhich sections are better or worse for healing (again based on blood flow).

I just remember my doc saying it is a very small bone but it can be the worst for healing.
Good luck on yours.
Recommend Dr visit and X ray....

[tannhauser]

Past that, it would be GREAT is someone made a full kangaroo cycling glove that would provide actual protection versus what almost all gloves do now, which is simply push lint and fabric into wounds....

I had a set f gloves from an austrailian brand (kapado?) that were the business... but no idea where they found a home. There's a golf company called Hirzl that also do cycling...



Here ya go: http://www.kakadugolfglove.com/multi.html