protection for legs?

[sundial]

I *should* wear shin guards but I'm hard headed and would rather have a checkerboard of scratches to wear proudly as honor badges.

[lovelylibrarian]

Thanks! I wouldn't mind a few bruises but some of them are HUGE-- and spread out to multicolored things as they heal. I honestly think I'd scare my coworkers if I wore a skirt to the office. I imagine I'll injure myself less as I increase my MTB skills.

Would be funny to wear my pink snowboard socks though.

Karen

[MtnBikerChk]

I *should* wear shin guards but I'm hard headed and would rather have a checkerboard of scratches to wear proudly as honor badges.

Well for me it's more than the possible cosmetic damage. The first time you fall square on your knee while wearing knee/shin pad combo protection and you really don't feel it - you realize why you wear them in the first place!

[lovelylibrarian]

I'm starting to think that the shin guards wouldn't be a bad idea at all. On Saturday, I fell and got a nasty MTN bike version of road rash. What do you call it if it's on dirt/gravel? For some reason my right leg gets most of the abuse. Thanks for the suggestions for protection.

[Becky]

I'm pretty sure that it's still called road rash. Or maybe trail rash I have some awesome scars on both knees from trail rash. Heck, it was so bad at one point that the nurses at the campus health clinic knew me by name and would have wound care kits made up for me Hope that you're ok!

Anyhow, I think that shin and knee guards would be a great idea. You might feel more confident if you knew that falling wouldn't hurt as much. And more confidence leads to trying new things and developing new skills, I think.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

I can't remember the name of them but they look like something you would wear playing soccer. I bought them, wore them once and just couldn't stand em. I have a huge gash from those HUGE pedals that came with my Specialized and boy, all the pink spots from knee and elbow slides. I asked my dermatologist about how to get them to fade and he said Mederma.

Wear em with pride I say....

[atombessy]

I've done the skirt at work during the summer thing and had to field lots of questions from coworkers about the state of my legs (on this occasion i also had a few puncture wounds, in addition to the bruises and scratches). But oh well! they get over it, and they know my husband is too nice to beat me.....no other recommendations...bruises are how you know it's mt bike season!!!

[ima_bleeder]

I'm just wondering if any of you who wear guards have any advice for specifically XC riding.

Any ride in my 'neighborhood' has a lot of climbing, and the Specialized XC guards that I've tried chaffe my knee enough to make me bleed before the ride is over, and the hinge between the knee and shin portions of the guard create resistance that I totally don't need ... climbing is hard enough.

I'm not familiar with the guards mentioned here ... any advice about which guards might be the most light-weight, XC friendly?

[lovelylibrarian]

Thanks. Every time my legs are about healed, I go out and injure myself again. For some reason, it's mostly my right leg. This weekend we are backpacking so I'll have some more time to heal.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with these "issues". I could have worse problems for sure.

I like how these look but haven't ordered them yet. Scroll down to the basic series. http://www.skinzprotectivegear.com/bicycleproduct.html