“Skin is slow”
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For me, I’ve been in a club for several years and at this point I don’t have a single jersey that is not club/team kit issue. Its just cheaper and easier to get my kit that way plus i need team kit when I race and that means sleeves because of the rules (no idea why its a rule but it is). Our club, like most, does not offer a sleeveless jersey even for the non racers because there is not much demand and its easier for our clothing volunteer and meeting item minimums if we keep the choices down.
So, all my jerseys have sleeves. Its just easier for all involved. I assume the rest of you unaffiliated roadies, despite your clothing freedom, are just trying to look like us racers, hence few sleeveless jerseys 
While I’m reading every thought with keen interest this definitely stands above the rest at this point 
No, I can’t agree with your logical extensions here…is there a “trend” in people not wearing gloves? I suppose, but the vast majority of riders still wear gloves. Nor is anyone telling us to “not wear” gloves. And anyone who chooses not to is kinda stupid, but that is another thread…
As for your knee analogy, it is not a “fashion” issue but a practicality issue. Wearing knee warmers when it is warm / hot out is uncomfortable. People aren’t doing it out of “fashion conformity”.
While I have crashed a few times and been quite thankful I had a sleeved jersey (did you know modern jersey fabric melts if you slide it on pavement fast enough?), I doubt the sleeve rule is safety based. Other then helmets, there are no other rules addressing safety clothing and even the helmet rule is relatively new when looked at in the long history of cycling.
My hunch is the sleeve rule is simply about appearance. Long ago the cycling powers that be decided they did not want folks racing in the show wearing wife beaters. Sleeves are more civilized looking. They made a rule and it became the cycling fashion. And no one thought twice about it for decades then triathletes showed up (and triathletes go sleeveless not for fashion/getting sun/cooling reasons but so they can swim and run in their top - a non issue for cyclists).
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For MTB where I frequently bounce off of trees while carrying some speed, I appreciate having sleeves on my shoulders. On the road, I like sleeves to help mitigate some sunburn, but tan lines on my arms look silly since most of my jersey sleeves ride up more on one side than the other, leaving me with uneven lines.
Why do others wear sleeveless jerseys? It’s primarily a fashion choice either way
I hear you but the USAC rulebook explicitly disallows sleeveless jerseys:
1J5. Jerseys must be worn in all races and shall cover the shoulders.
All for fashion? 
It looks very trashy.
yep. Coming to a group ride near you.
Popular reasons are:
1.) Tan lines.
2.) More aero
3.) Less weight
But those are all just confabulations. If you can get the fastest guys in the area to not wear gloves…everybody else will make up a reason to also not wear them. It’s not good or bad. It’s just human.
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I don’t wear gloves because I don’t like the feel of having gloves on, and the seams chafe my palms. Don’t wear them on road or trail either.
I hope that I get your approval, I need it desperately
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I agree. It’s down to fashion. I’m just saying, if you want to wear a sleeveless jersey, that’s Ok. I’ll still ride with you.
As cyclists we can’t afford to pick and choose based on fashion. I once showed a line up of a commuter, a mountain biker, a triathlete, and a road racer on bikes to a 13 year old and asked her to identify the dork. She said, ‘Pfft. Dorkdorkdorkdork.’ 99.5% of the population can’t tell the difference between a roadie in a sleeved jersey and a roadie in a sleeveless jersey.
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approve.
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I’ll ride with people in sleeveless jerseys but I will definitely judge them. Sometimes to myself, sometimes to others. Not the right thing to do, but it is so deeply ingrained
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Epic
I’d argue that for your average roadi in a baggy team kit would be more aero with a sleeveless jersey 
My tan lines are crisp. You might not even be able to tell I didn’t have sleeves.
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Since I’m looping a test program…perhaps an anecdote. I was racing gravel outside Lawrence, KS once and one of the competitors actually told me he didn’t like to ride with ‘some masters dude with arm warmers on’. 
I told him he was gonna have to unless he could drop me.
He dropped me lickety split and I think soloed 80 some miles to victory on a windy day.
I think that guy set a world record at some later date.
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Hang on…you quoted me incorrectly. You make it sound like I was asking if there was a trend. I wasn’t…My whole response clearly showed that I acknowledge that there is a “trend” in not wearing gloves, but that it is not even close to being the majority of riders.
And there have always been riders who eschewed gloves…the most prominent reason the feeling of being hot.
Do we feel like we could muster enough momentum from this thread to cause a paradigm shift?
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