Hand Protection and avoiding hand injuries

@ReductiMat  - for some reason the picture of that helmet was not showing up on my phone.  Now that I see it on computer that's crazy!  How's your head??

@Bull_Dozer - fortunately so far my wrists have been holding up okay. (Knocks on wood).

I tried on the Dainese 4 stroke Evo motorcycle gloves and they are just too much glove for mountain biking.  Also, even with all their protection, the pinkie finger was still not super well protected.   I was also between the large and XL so the fit was poor.

Next up I want to see if I can find anyone who carries Alpinestars Motorcycle gloves.  Both the Celer (https://www.alpinestars.com/celer-glove) and GPX (https://www.alpinestars.com/gpx-glove) gloves look promising and have a leather bridge between the 3 and 4th fingers.  The are both still pricey but way more reasonable than the Dainese glove I was looking at and the Celer at least also looks less bulky.

from someone who rides sport bikes hard and rides mtb I can tell you that any glove with the protection your seeking is going to be too cumbersome for mtb'ing. motorcycle gloves give you good protection on the top of the hand and on the heel but won't do much for finger tip impact type of protection you're looking for. this is one of those things that's simply the cost of doing business.

Posted by: Xorrox

@ReductiMat  - for some reason the picture of that helmet was not showing up on my phone.  Now that I see it on computer that's crazy!  How's your head??

That accident was six years ago, near the time when I started riding.  Besides turning me into an asshole at times, I'm A-OK :D

I still have the helmet beside me to this day though.  Not sure why.

My wife kept trying to throw away the full face I broke my back in...somehow I can't let that thing go.  Somehow it seems like an important reminder of something.

You mentioned in your OP that you once did practise a martial art, what about slowly revitalizing your tumbling skills and getting rid of that habit of stretching the hand/fingers? 

The crashes I had this year where not as bad as yours but I really practised not stretching out my hands but trying to make fists. 

It does not always work but so far I could either roll or take the slam with my whole body. I wore armour tho.

This could be good advice - I got clipped by a car once, flew over the hood, did a perfect Aikido roll and stood up with my hands in a defensive position - zero injury, and I was ready to fight the trucker that came after me!

Posted by: tashi

This could be good advice - I got clipped by a car once, flew over the hood, did a perfect Aikido roll and stood up with my hands in a defensive position - zero injury, and I was ready to fight the trucker that came after me!

Sounds like a scene from a movie.

Well after nearly 6 weeks down time I'm back on the bike.  With the awesome fall weather this weekend, I couldn't wait any longer.  I even managed to hit the optional little log drop near the top of Corkscrew on Seymour where I broke my finger this last time.  I almost chickened out, but managed to let off the brakes just in time and landed it, albeit not the most smoothly I've ever done it.  It's nice to get that out of the way on the first run.

I'm trying the Alpinestars Celer Motorcycle glove (https://www.alpinestars.com/celer-glove) that I mentioned earlier.  As 'Syncro' mentioned, its a lot of glove for mountain biking but I am getting use to it.  Even though it has the 3 and 4th finger bridge below the knuckle, I still taped the two fingers together further down so they are basically one unit but still allow for enough flexibility to grab the grips.  I don't like the smooth leather palm of these gloves though; it does not grip very well and they will likely suck in the rain.  I'm also considering trying one or more of the gloves below, again with the 3rd and 4th fingers taped together:

Fox Bomber Gloves: (https://www.foxracing.com/store/product/_/A-product-03009..catalog10001.enUS.plist20002plist20001.016)

Mechanix M Pact 2 Covert (http://www.mechanixwear.ca/tactical/m-pact-2-covert-heavy-duty-tactical-gloves)

Mechanix M Pact 3 Covert (http://www.mechanixwear.ca/tactical/m-pact-3-covert-combat-gloves)

Then again, maybe I'll just tape the  3rd and 4th fingers on my existing M Pact gloves (http://www.mechanixwear.ca/automotive/m-pact-impact-gloves) and hope I'm done with bad luck for a while.  These fit me so well and have been super comfortable.