Blisters and tearing while riding or racing your dirt bike sucks. These products and tips are here to help you prevent blisters, so you can enjoy #GettingSeattime more!
Blisters form due to friction. To prevent blisters from forming, which then leads to our skin tearing, we need to reduce friction at the hands. Repeated friction can cause calluses to grow, which is the body protecting itself by building up a hardening of dead skin. Calluses can be a deterrent to future blisters, but left unchecked, they can also be a cause of tearing.
To make sure your calluses don’t become a hindrance, you need to trim them down as they get too tall. Using a callus shaver is a simple, and effective, way to maintain your rough skin, but also keep future hot spots from forming. Another tool I found during this video creation was the Calicure Callus Remover. I haven’t tried it yet, but I added one to my cart!
There is a lot of talk of “manning up” or “toughening up your hands”. There is something to that, we need to use our hands in the way they’re going to be worn down, to get used to the work. But every human is a bit different, meaning their skin may not function the same as others. As a rider, we need to learn our own limits, and plan for them.
Athletic Tape for Blister Prevention
Athletic tape is a great option because it is a tough material, while not being too thick. Leveraging a pre-tape spray to make our hands tacky before application helps sweaty riders, or for long days on the bike.
Athletic tape can be wrapped around the base of the thumb for grip wear. There are also a few different ways to wrap the palm of the hands to help prevent blisters. A direct wrap of the hand isn’t the best option due to pinching and the tape rolling. Randy Hawkins has been seen showing a technique he learned at the ISDE that’s the best way to use athletic tape if that’s the route you want to go.
If you want to try out a few different techniques, athletic tape on amazon is fairly cheap. Grab a few rolls and get crazy. Then let us know what works best for you and your hands.
Wod & Done in lieu of Athletic tape
Wod & Done is a company that came about in the CrossFit space to help athletes from tearing their hands. As we mentioned in the video, athletic tape can work, but it can also fail. WOD & DONE Hand Grips were made for athletes who wanted the thinness of athletic tape, but the security of a gymnastics grip.
If you’re going to try their hand grips, we recommend dirt bikers use a pre-tape adhesive. A pre-tape adhesive helps their grips stay on for longer rides, and it’ll help riders that enjoy as many water crossings as they can find.
You’ll need to get a few packs from Amazon, or their site, because as the name states, they’re one and done.
Palm Protectors
Palm protectors create a friction barrier between your hands and your gloves. Some riders have issues with these due to the thickness, but with ODI half-waffle grips, and my Leatt gloves, they work just fine.
The palm protectors I have been using for years now are made by Risk Racing. I grab a few pairs at the beginning of the year, and I go through them by the end. Even with all the hand care I do, I know I need these.
Another palm protector on the market is the PalmSaver by SealSavers. I have tried these, but I didn’t like the minimal amount of finger holes. I found they bunched up in my gloves.
Undergloves
This option is the most robust option, as it’s a literal extra glove to wear under your riding glove. The reason these aren’t used as much anymore is because of the growth of palm protector products.
If you’re going to use under gloves, ¾ finger or full finger, you’re probably going to need to go up a size in your riding gloves.
These glove liners will help prevent blisters, but they’ll also create extra heat in your hands. This could be great during the winter, or if you need this level of protection.
Wrapping It up
There is no one size fits all product for a dirt biker to prevent blisters. Some of us need to ride more to toughen up our skin. Some of us need to take better care of our hands so we don’t have hot spots waiting to form. Some of us need to use a product that gives us a friction layer between our skin and a glove. As with most things in life, take this advice and apply it to your life in the best way it works for you.
“Toughening up” is a thing, but it’s not the only thing to force a rider to figure out. All of these products could be helpful or useful at different times or a riders riding journey. Stay attentive to your hands, figure out what you need, and go ride your dirt bike!
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