Bad Gloves, Good Gloves
Top row from left: gauntlets, lined gauntlets, heated, fingerless, the bad gloves from Robert. Bottom row: waterproof mittens, scuba gloves, two good pair from Robert.
Gloves, gloves, we got gloves. Boy, do we have gloves.
If you’ve been riding motorcycles for any good length of time you probably do, too. As with helmets, eye protection, and so many other things, many years ago gloves were not considered essential riding gear. Nowadays, I don’t know about you, but I usually wouldn’t think of riding without them.
But just as my three bikes are each best suited to particular niches, gloves are as well. Which is why I have three motorcycles and a whole bunch of gloves.
In the beginning, I bought a pair of doe-skin gauntlets, which is to say, gloves with deep, flaring cuffs that allow room for your jacket sleeve as they extend back beyond the wrists of the jacket. A very good all-around riding glove. In warmer weather these are still my go-to gloves.
But those gloves aren’t lined or insulated so it wasn’t long before I bought a very similar pair, except that the new ones are lined with Thinsulate™. When the weather turns cooler I turn to these gloves. It’s kind of how I mark the turning of the seasons.
Thinsulate alone doesn’t cut it though when it gets really cold. So next I bought some heated gloves. Now we’re really cookin’! (Yeah, pun intended.) Now it doesn’t matter how cold it is, if I’m riding I’ve got warm hands (as long as I have the heated gloves with me–I sometimes don’t).
But I have a GoPro camera and while I’ve shot some video, where I set it to record and just go ride, I really have more use for individual still photos. To do that, I need to use a remote controller that connects via Bluetooth, and I need to press the button each time I want to take a shot. Well, I can do that with gloves on but it’s hit or miss; the gloves make it hard for me to feel the slight click as I successfully press the shutter button. So I’ve ridden at times with no glove on my left hand. That can get cold.
The answer: fingerless gloves. Judy had given me a pair of fingerless gloves a long time ago but I never wore them because they were really stiff and not at all comfortable. I wondered if treating them with oil, the way you do a baseball mitt, would soften them up and make them usable, but I couldn’t find them. I probably (discreetly) got rid of them a long time ago. So I went and bought some new ones. This is definitely the type of thing you need to pick out for yourself, not allow someone else to choose them for you when they have no idea of what makes a good product and what does not.
What else could I possibly need? Well, what about when it rains?
OK, so somewhere along the way I bought some waterproof mittens that are large and can be pulled on over regular gloves when it rains. They work great but one time I was up in Eagle heading home and it was wet, and I did not have the mittens with me. Jungle gave me a pair of scuba gloves. They not only are waterproof, they are also insulated. Nice.
And then Robert moved to Panama, and gave away everything he wasn’t taking with him. I got the top bag that I now have on my Concours and I also got . . . drum roll . . . several more pair of gloves.
One pair is made by Icon and has some armor on the knuckles. Another is made by Rev-It! and has a lot more armor in a variety of places. Both are nice and I wear them at times.
That sharp-angled seam is in just the wrong place for comfort.
So yeah, I’ve got gloves. And did I ever tell you how I came to have five riding jackets? Or five helmets? Those are other stories for other times.
Biker Quote for Today
Harley-Davidson has invented a flying motorcycle. The old bikes will henceforth be known as ground Hogs.
Tags: motorcycle gloves
