I just started cycling (that is as a sport, I rode bike for transportation years ago), am a casual kind of rider, which you can tell by the fact my bike is a walmart brand.
I rode for the second time last Saturday morning and already had an accident. It happened when I tried to pass someone on the left. I went a little to close to the edge of the concrete trail and ended up went off of it. It was very close, so I think I wasn't sure I was going off and tried to turn back in, and that was a wrong move.
I lost some skin on my knee and palm. My bike had some scratches. It nothing serious but was unpleasant enough, as of now I'm still trying to do everything with my left hand only
This made me think maybe I should wear some protective gears, like knee, elbow protection and a pair of gloves. That is way I started reading this forum and checking out what other people are doing. But after looking at pictures of you guys cycling on road I find nobody wear them, or may be only gloves. Is it that for you guys these protective gears are not that useful? I can see if I had worn them, I would have avoided the abrasions on my hand and knee. I do realize that my mistake was totally avoidable, so probably for an experienced person they will be useless most of the times?