Keys dangerous on the ride?

[RoadRaven]

Only injury I have sustained from my keys is when I forget they are sitting loose in my back pocket and I sit in a chair or lean against a door before I get changed.

I do have my keys wrapped in a plastic bag with my money card and swipe card, so they are a little bit "insulated" I suppose...

[OakLeaf]

I insulate my key just because I keep it in the same ziploc bag as my credit card, insurance card and ID. A key would definitely tear those up, just riding. I took a piece of closed-cell foam packing material (not EPS, the slightly more flexible stuff, I don't know what it's called) about 1 cm thick, cut it into a rectangle about 1 cm longer and 1 cm wider than the key, then put a slit in the center to hold the key.

That's my house key. Depending on where I'm riding from, I carry only a house key or a car key, not both. My car key is an RFID key - that, I have wrapped tightly in plastic cling wrap (one of the few things I use that stuff for!) so I don't corrode the electronics with sweat when I put it in my running shorts pocket, or if my cycling ziploc bag isn't completely watertight.

[Andrea]

I use my key hider when I ride from my house or stick my car key in my seat bag when I go to a ride someplace. I did get a really bad bruise on time when I wrecked in a crit and had my inhaler in my back pocket. I landed right on it & it left a goose-egg on my backbone.

[Tuckervill]

Ouch.

I don't carry a house key, because we changed our front door lock to a combination lock with multiple users. My middle son thinks I can tell who's coming in and when. shhh, don't tell him.

Yesterday my car key saved my hand from a burn--but I was walking, not riding. I was making my way around a drunk guy who had accosted me earlier, and I didn't see the little curb that outlines the wheelchair ramp from sidewalk to street (you know the part that should have been painted yellow?) I twisted my ankle down the curb, fell off my shoes, hit the pavement with my left hand, which happened to be holding my car keys. Then I rolled over on my back, laughing very hard. The key took the brunt of what would have been a pretty bad road rash had it not been there. The key got a pretty bad rash, too. It was embarrassing, but also very funny. Until I got mad because they didn't paint the curbs yellow. What if I were elderly?

Falling on the car keys in the jersey pocket reminds me of Wil Smith in I Am Legend, when he falls on the knife after cutting himself out of a trap. ::shudder:::

Karen