Full Body Armor?

[Crankin]

OK, this is on the edge of being snarky, but I have to ask an opinion on this. On Wednesday, I did a club ride. There's a guy who comes to some of the rides who wears full body protection. I mean chest plate, knee and elbow protection. He is otherwise dressed like a road cyclist.
I heard him talking about crashes he had, but really, is this going to protect him on the road? He appears to be in his early forties, maybe a bit younger than the group of very fit geezers I ride with.
It just seems so odd and I am not sure if it would make any difference in the end. Between trying to figure him out and playing cat and mouse with the guy who just couldn't stand being "chicked," I had a fun 65 mile ride.

[pll]

How unusual! <pictures, please> If that makes someone feel/be safer, why not?

[Selkie]

And it wasn't even a full moon.... maybe the barometer dropping brought out the crazies (I think you're getting the downpours that flooded us Wednesday through early this morning....)?

I hope you stayed far from ArmorAll! He is either accident prone or has poor bike handling skills, if he feels for all that protection.

I've had men play cat & mouse w/me both on the bike and in the pool. It can get annoying, particularly when you're just trying to Zen out. They aren't quite fast enough to keep up or gracious enough to fall back. As a result, they are always either on your tail or in your way. Or both!

[redrhodie]

That does sound really odd. I'm imagining big shoulder pads--like a football player, even though that's not what you said. The image in my head is pretty funny.

That he crashes that much must have made you take extreme caution near him. Must have been annoying if he was the one trying to not be "chicked" if you were trying to keep a distance from him. I hope his fear of crashing isn't a self fulfilling prophecy.

[Irulan]

I didn't get whether it's a mtb or road ride. Perhaps he feels safer from a potential crash? Perhaps he had a crash and doesn't want to repeat the experience? sure it's a little different, but so what?

[PamNY]

I've never seen a biker do this, but I know one person who wore knee and elbow pads to ride a Xootr kick scooter.

She had several crashes and I suspect was accident prone. I'd keep an eye on this fellow.

[bmccasland]

Maybe he should add a layer of chain mail too :D

And a lance

[JennK13]

+1 on pictures!! :)

I guess if it makes him feel better, it's okay, but I think the only thing it would protect against is road rash - and even so, I don't get the chest protector; I don't know anyone who gotten road rash on their chest. I doubt any of it would prevent broken bones, as that isnt the point of armour....very odd.

[malkin]

I was tempted right after a crash last year when I saw body armor on sale. Brewer just laughed at me, so I let i go.

Whatever floats his boat. Maybe he has some medical condition? Or he's really skinny and likes that it makes him look bigger.

[Crankin]

This was a metric ride on Cape Cod. There were only 15 people, so I spent a lot of time looking at the riders.... the only other woman was the leader. DH came with me and didn't believe me when I told him about the chicken guy. But then, after lunch DH rode behind me and got a first hand view of what he was doing. Oh, and the chicken guy was not the one with the body armor. Guy with the body armor is a good rider, a tall, skinny Italian who has lived in the US since college. He seems very strange to me, overall. Chicken guy is a tall curly haired graying man who is probably my age. When DH saw the games he was playing with me, he completely understood what I was talking about. Thankfully, he left the ride with about 12 miles left, to go home, so I was free to ride at whatever speed I wanted to.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

People should wear helmets, elbow and knee pads when riding scooters, roller blades, and skateboards. I think it's kind of cute that this guy feels comfortable with wearing protective pads on a group bike ride- he must not mind what others think of him...so more power to him! :)

[Crankin]

Yes, he must have good self-esteem. Though, no one in this group would ever say anything. It's a very unusual group; a sub group of a local club. There's quite a few "characters," (think MIT types, both men and women), though most of the characters are in the upper age groups, which, with this group, goes up to 85. The group is getting younger and a bit faster, so we often split into 2 groups on rides. But, some of the real old timers have formed their own ride, on a different day, where they mostly ride the bike trail. These guys are in their 70's, though a lot of the others join them for this ride.
I like seeing the good role models for being an "older" rider.

[redrhodie]

Not as funny looking as I was imagining. He doesn't look that weird. Maybe we'll all be wearing this next season, :p ;) being written up in the Times for our cycle-style.

[Crankin]

I wish I had a front view picture. It looked pretty funny.
I remember the first time I saw him decked out. I kept blinking my eyes, thinking, "what is wrong with this picture?" And given the fact it was 98 degrees out that day, and we were riding steep hills in Harvard, MA, I wondered how he could stand all of that stuff on his body.

[OakLeaf]

Whatev', I guess. :p Buddy of mine just broke a few ribs in a road bike crash. Maybe this guy has incompletely healed ribs from one of his earlier crashes?

Is it possible that Italian roadies just normally wear what we'd consider MTB gear? Certainly European motorcyclists tend to wear full gear, which you rarely see in the USA except California.

[salsabike]

Maybe he has a medical reason?

[spokewench]

I've often thought about this issue lately; since I took up riding motorcycles and scooters. I don't think twice about wearing gear (jackets with elbow pads, back, and shoulder pads, a full face helmet). Long rides, I also wear pants with knee and hip pads and material made to withstand abrasion and at least ankle length substantial leather boots

I think back on the 20 or so years that I rode and raced both road bikes and mountain bikes and thought about the many times i have been going really fast downhill and what kind of injury I could have had say if a tire had blown, or I had hit something and not been able to save it. You know, mountain passes at somewhere around 50 mph or above at least once; or just around 40 toodling down the local mountain after a hillclimb on Thursday night. I am just wearing lycra shorts, jersey, short fingered gloves and of course a bitty bicycle helmet.

I think what we forget is that we as cyclist because of the reality of the heat and energy expended on a bike do not wear as much gear as perhaps we really should be for protective reasons.

Anyway, this gentleman may be a bit odd to you, but I don't see any problem if he feels more comfortable with more protective gear than the normal cyclist in the US. Actually, I can kind of understand it, but of course, I would get too hot and would probably never wear that gear on a bike either!

[Kiwi Stoker]

After my accident I was told I shouldn't ride for 6 months in case I fell on my shoulder again and would punch the metal plate through the bone. No way I was going to not ride my bike for that long.
I seriously considered getting some BMX/Downhilling protection gear just in case. Hey I got road rash on my chest/breast when I went over the handlebars!
In the end I didn't and they only time I did fall was due to DH trying to u-turn the tandem on a narrow road- I fell onto that side but caught myself on my knee. Really frightened me and DH got yelled at big time. But it was a slow-mo fall so not really so bad.

Also crashes are often not the rider's fault- someone else behind him could touch his wheel, drop a bottle in front. I would say he could be recovering from a serious break or simply is fed up with injuries. And yes that gear does work.

[Crankin]

Yea, I am pretty sure he has a reason; I only heard snitches of the conversation about "a crash," but I don't think the other person was asking him about why he was wearing the gear.
I am such a downhill weenie, that the thought has not crossed my mind. DH, on the other hand, routinely reaches 40 mph on local downhills and has hit 50+ on mountain passes in Europe. While he has superb handling skills, anything could happen. I guess we don't think about that stuff, or we would never ride.

[Aggie_Ama]

It is odd on a road ride. I know a lot of mountain bikers who were them on the trails around here. We don't have downhill courses but tons of rocks and those can bruise pretty dang bad. I know several mountain bikers riding with ribs still healing from crashes.