Wondering why you need a pair of fingerless cycle gloves other than seeing other riders wearing them?  Are you often overwhelmed with the choice of fingerless cycle gloves at the local bike shop and just grab-and-go with the cheapest you can find?

First, let’s get clear why every cyclist should wear a set of good quality fingerless cycle gloves for summer cycling:

1. To protect your palms:  you should wear fingerless cycle gloves on all rides in case you fall.  If you do fall, your palms are usually the first the slide along the tarmac and cause an incredibly painful road rash injury.  Road rash is painful enough on the side of your legs, but when it happens to the palms, you’ll find you’ll be disabled in using your hands for weeks – perhaps even keeping you off work and such like.

2. To help stop you falling off your bike: it’s not only your body that sweats buckets – it’s your palms.  If you don’t wear cycle gloves, you can easily slip on the bars when getting out the saddle.  Your hands can easily slip off the bars if you hit a road bump or such like.  Gloves work in conjunction with handlebar tape and give you the best grip when the going gets tough.

3. Better power to the pedals: surprisingly with better hand grip on the handlebars, you can also get better leverage from the pedals – with peace of mind!  There is nothing worse than cycling up a steep long climb and finding you have to grip harder in case you slip, using up needless energy in the process and slowing down your power to the pedals, or not get out the saddle ‘just in case’ …Put your worries to rest and wear a set of good quality bike gloves!

3. To help shock absorption:  over the course of a long bike ride you’ll find there is plenty jarring from the road.  The jarring can hit the bones in your writst and send shock waves up your arms which at times can be incredibly painful!  As well as the problem of jarring, you can also experience painful shoulder ache about an hour into the ride.  This is usually due to not riding with adequate cycle gloves that help support your upper body weight sufficiently onto the bars.

4. Protect you from sunburn:  You might not think this is important, but riding with a pair of fingerless cycle gloves can do a great job of protecting your hands from painful sunburn. If you think about it, the backs of your hands get the most sun exposure, so look to protect them. Remember also, the skin on the back of the hand is thin and is therefore a common place for skin cancer to develop.  As well as using a sunscreen, wearing gloves will keep this vulnerable area fully protected.

What constitutes a good quality pair of fingerless cycle gloves?

With all this in mind, you set off to the bike shop, or you look online.  You see there are lists of fingerless bike gloves and don’t know which would be best.  Here’s a rundown of what I look for in a good quality fingerless bike glove:

1. Leather vs synthetic leather palm:  for accident protection pure leather is best for a bike glove.  However, as you’ll quickly find out, or already know, pure leather gloves are incredibly difficult to keep soft.  With velcro fastenings, you’ll find bike gloves stick to clothing and with all best intentions, end up in the washing machine.  Pure leather are usually ruined if washed, yet as you are sweating, your gloves will need to washed after every ride.  Look for synthetic leather gloves instead.  This material gives you the softness and road slideabiiity if you fall, plus you can wash them without them being ruined.

2. Good quality padding:  now this is critical to rider comfort as mentioned above. You need to look for a thick pad in three areas.  One across the top of your palm, one at the bottom of the thumb palm area and one on the far side of the palm.  You need these pads split up so you can bend your hands round the handlebars.  Thickness is key, as is breathability.  Think cat paddy paws…!

3. Shock absorption gel:  now this is where most gloves fall down and fail miserably.  If a bike glove says ‘gel’ on them, make sure the ‘gel’ is a harder or thicker form of material.  You are ideally looking for a thicker area of padding, or even better plastic gel that covers at the foot of the thumb area.  This small patch of thicker material or plastic can make a huge difference to rider shoulder aching.

4. Backs of hands fully covered:  Look for gloves that fully cover the backs of your hands.  Nothing worse than wearing a pair of cycle gloves with a gap or hole, only to find you get a painful sunburn patch!  Remember to think about full hand protection from the sun at all times.  A thin covering like lycra is best as it is more flexible over the backs of the hands, and more lightweight than other materials.  You are also looking for towelling material over the thumb area to help wipe sweat away.

5. Finger pull-off tabs:  look for a little tab between fingers to pull off the gloves.  Without this, you’ll be tugging to get your bike gloves off and then they come off annoyingly inside out!  Look for just one or two tabs only.  Some gloves come with multiple tabs linking each finger which personally I think is overkill and might have the added disadvantage of getting caught on something.

6. The Fit:  I couldn’t leave this post without mentioning getting the fit Right!  Get bike gloves too big and they won’t serve their purpose.  Get them too small and they will squeeze your fingers too tight and feel uncomfortable. Ideally you need to try them but for online shopping that isn’t always possible.  They need to feel snug, but not overly tight, or too loose.  I find that gloves tend to be a smaller size than what they advertise…so bear this all in mind if buying online.  Read the reviews to see how the fit is generally working for other cyclists.

My recommendations of the top 4 fingerless cycle gloves out there:

Here is a picture of my gloves made by Chiba – a bike glove manufacturer from Germany, which I have found to be the best gloves I’ve ever worn and I have had them for 4 years.  The reason they are so good is not only do they fit well and have excellent durable padding, but the bio-cell plastic patch has eliminated much shoulder ache I used to get on long bike rides AND they have lasted the washing machine test, which is rare for a cheap summer bike glove that usually falls apart by the end of summer:

The only problem is I can’t find a 2013 version of the same glove shown here with the plastic gel (bio cell) which is a shame.

If you visit the site you’ll see a superb  range of gloves and I’m sure if you ask them you might find the originals or get them custom made!

Other bike gloves which I think warrant a mention are the following.  They have most of the attributes above to qualify as a good quality summer cycling glove – and should help you whittle down your buying selection:

• Tenn Fingerless Bike Gloves
• Outdoor Alliance Special Wicking Shockproof Mountain Reflex Gel Bike Half Finger Glove
• Elite Cycling Gloves Gel Fingerless Short Racing Cycle Gloves

I hope this post has been able to help you get clearer on why you should invest in a good pair of summer fingerless cycle gloves, and what makes up a good quality pair!  If you’ve used a good pair of cycling gloves, then do share with others below the link and where you found them!  Also, if this post was useful, do share it amongst your friends!

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