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I recently fell off a roof, lost quite a bit of skin from my elbow, which broke the fall, and that made me think: if I took a fall from my bike, how would I land? I would more than likely try to use my hands to break the fall, but my hands are unprotected.

In addition, winter is coming, and soon my hands will be freezing as I ride my bike. Therefore, are there any protective gloves that I can wear? I'm looking for something relatively inexpensive but something that would also give my hands (and fingers) a decent bit of protection should they kiss the concrete/asphalt. Therefore I don't want any gloves with finger holes ... those seem a bit pointless.

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    Welcome to Bicycles Dissenter. Did you check out the "Related" questions on the right? In what way didn't they answer your question?
    – andy256
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 5:17
  • Another option is like mechanics gloves as they are designed to protect the skin. They are not going to be a great bicycle glove but designed for protection.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 14:16
  • What about motorcycle gloves? I found some with carbon fiber inserts for about twelve dollars
    – Dissenter
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 14:18
  • If you go for thick gloves, make sure you still have enough suppleness there to e.g. operate the brakes easily. Ski gloves, for example, might make this tricky. Certainly, if you're thinking of motorcycle gloves, be aware of this. Probably any substantial glove will protect your skin, but generally with bike crashes you're looking at either a broken wrist or collar bone (depending on whether or not you put your arms out to break the fall).
    – PeteH
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 15:54
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    I think the trick is to stay off the roof with your bike.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 0:55

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Usually when you fall on asphalt, fingerless gloves do cover the area of impact.

Lots of manufacturers do make cycling gloves which are full fingered, such as the Giro Bravo shown below:

girobravo

You may feel more comfortable with this, but your hands will get a bit warmer and having open fingers helps making some adjustments a bit nicer.

Depending on how cold your winter is, combining a thin running glove with a standard fingerless cycling glove may be adequate and provide enough protection as well. I often use this when its a bit chilly (say around 30F). When it gets into the 10s or 20s, I might double up a thin running glove with something like a Underarmour Coldgear glove -- not too thick, but layers are key for cold.

However, depending on winter riding you may want something like a lobster claw like the following Pearl Izumi's (possibly combined with a thin running glove - great in under -10F ish weather):

enter image description here

Or if you're in the crazy cold, pogies:

enter image description here

(from Icebike's protecting your hands page)

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  • Your picture of pogies is in their more common use on a paddle (canoe in this case by the look of things). Do they actually fit round brake levers with enough room to operate them? I've foudn them to be more use for keeping the wind off than real insulation, and in the temperatures you're talking about, while dry, you need both - unlike canoeing when the temperature is rarely much below freezing but wind shill on wet hands is the issue.
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 20:16
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    I've replaced the picture of pogies with pogies for a bicycle - I didn't notice that they were for canoeing. Not exactly the same product, but you may want to pair them with gloves depending on the temperature (or heating devices or something).
    – Batman
    Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 20:41
  • How is a glove attached to the bicycle going to protect the hand in the event of a fall? That is the stated question.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Oct 23, 2014 at 20:54
  • It depends on how you fall. I end up having to replace my poagies every couple years because when I fall, I just leave my hands inside them on my grips. I've never hurt my hands in a fall with this method.
    – Deleted User
    Commented Nov 17, 2014 at 21:48

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