Full Body Armor?

[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, 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. 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!