Good leather palmed fingerless gloves

SamWise1972

I have been using a cheap (£3.50) and cheerful (not really, too stiff and inflexible) pair of string backed, leather palmed weightlifting gloves from eBay, but yesterday, I lost one. My wife, who managed to pick up a nice pair of soft leather palmed, string backed gloves with world champion stripes for under a fiver somewhere, has approved the purchase of a more satisfactory pair, but it's harder to find them than I imagined. I wanted the good old fashioned crochet back, leather palm gloves that used to be everywhere, but they're now hard to find. These:


http://www.rapha.cc/grand-tour-gloves

look wonderful but they're £100. Way out of my range. I love these:


http://www.bikeworldusa.us/ACTION-GLOVE ... e=GB&id=uk

And the price is right, but when I tried to buy them through Amazon, I couldn't enter European shipping, or indeed any shipping. Shame, as they look really nice, and would go nicely with my honey Brooks and matching elkhide bar tape on the folder.

I could spend a bit more money and have these:


http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Knog_ ... 360039647/

Or there are a variety of all leather gloves from various places at between £15 and £20.


http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/De_Ma ... e=googleps

http://www.whipperleys.co.uk/acatalog/Gloves.html

And even these from eBay at £3.75

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SOFT-PADDED-REAL- ... e5fee87a91

Does anyone have experience of any of these, or can you suggest/recommend any others?

UndercoverElephant

Funny you should mention it. I bought some reflective bar tape off eBay yesterday, and the seller had quite a few of these for sale too:

http://sports.shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_n ... m270.l1313

By the way, Cinelli reflective cork tape only a fiver! I stocked up for winter.

SamWise1972

Thanks! Not sure how my ebay-fu didn't reveal those last night! I feel like a fool.

SamWise1972

Still interested in opinions and other sources, btw.

andrewc3142

The Rapha GT mitts are, indeed, excellent. Mine are almost 4 years old. They now need repairing after unplanned contact with the road, but hardly Rapha's fault and other than that broken in rather than worn. So £25 per year, probably going down to about a tenner by the time they fall apart. So, whether they are expensive is a moot point.

The Pro Mitt is also pretty good, at £50, based on initial few hours of use. Doubt they'll last years, but seem well made.

SamWise1972

The cost per year is a good point, but of course, there will be a gatekeeper to buying £100 gloves in the shape of my wife. She would be especially hard to defeat given that I've just lost a glove. Losing a £3.50 glove, no big deal. Losing a £20 glove, bit of a blow. Losing a £100 glove, end of the world.

andrewc3142

Take your point.

For me, it's only 4 days' train fares so payback is pretty quick, which helps argue the case ...

SamWise1972

Yeah; all my train fares are paid for by the company. I've actually ordered a pair of the cheapies from eBay that I linked to, whilst I research the rest. I'm also about to spaff for a Brompton on C2W, so extra expenditure needs to be minimal. I'm very tempted to buy the Knogg ones, but if I can find a way to have the Push ones shipped to me, I'll jump on it.

daviesee

Wow!

A thread that included Rapha and managed to stay sensible.

Well done guys!

For now........

Mark Elvin

£7.79's worth of stringback

http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/p ... ts_id=7612

Brassknocker

I bought a pair of these last year for about £45, they've gone up a little, but I think they're great gloves. I wish I'd gone for the white ones though...

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Giro_ ... 360042864/

lardboy

I've used the Knog ones for a good while and like them. They tend to size a bit small, then stretch, with use, to an excellent fit. My criticisms are that they are not massively padded, so decent bar tape is a must, the white ones take on sweat marks quite badly and are impossible to clean, and that the stitching on the knuckles (the LOVE/HATE patches) has started to fray. No sign of the body of gloves themselves getting worn though, just the words on the knuckle. The velcro is a bit rubbish as well.

Hmmm. Quite a list of complaints now I look at it. However, they now fit like a dream, still grip brilliantly and look eight shades of awesome, especially the white/olive ones, IMO.

SamWise1972

Yeah, I'm very tempted by the Knogs, specially the white and red. Blingtastic, and would look nice with my chrome single speed, which has a white saddle, black and white bar tape, and white Rubinos. If I can't get hold of the Push string backed ones, I reckon they'll win out, and maybe even if I can. Spare gloves are good right? And there's nothing wrong with having gloves that go well with particular bikes, is there? Is there?

rmhodv

Whilst they are not real leather, I find these excellent value for money.

schweiz

If you only want a leather palm, rather than a full leather glove, I can recommend any of the Pearl Izumi gloves with Pittards palm.

I stacked at 40km/h in a pair of these :

http://www.argear.com/pearl-izumi-full- ... loves.html

landed on my hands and barely scuffed the leather. Sadly it looks like they're not a current product.

I also have a pair of these:

http://shop.pearlizumi.com/product.php? ... 96&outlet=

edhornby

for the non-leather more modern variety - prendas do good ones, the mountain named ones are a tenner at the moment, I got some alpe d'huez ones.

just need to ride up it to justify the gloves now, which means buying a new bike......

SamWise1972

Well, I got the eBay cheapies today, and actually, they look okish, definitely fine for backup. I ordered the Knogs today, in white and red, and I might actually plump for a third pair; the US site that had the brown string backs is supposedly getting me a shipping price, so if that comes up reasonable, I'll try those too. Gotta be careful I don't spend Rapha money on 15 pairs of cheap gloves!

the_cyclist_of_catan

schweiz wrote:

If you only want a leather palm, rather than a full leather glove, I can recommend any of the Pearl Izumi gloves with Pittards palm.

I stacked at 40km/h in a pair of these :

http://www.argear.com/pearl-izumi-full- ... loves.html

landed on my hands and barely scuffed the leather.

I'm going to resurrect this thread for two reasons. Firstly to say that I too am looking for leather-palmed mitts (ideally with string backs and Velcro wrist closure).

And secondly to say that I went over, wearing a brand-new pair of Pittards' palmed PI mitts. Not a scuff-mark on them afterwards (unlike me - and bizarrely there was a slight scuff to one hand, even though the mitt itself was completely unmarked).

Why not stick with them, then? Well, the medium size came up too small, and the larges are a bit too big for me

sketchley

Just got these £35 down to £20 in Evans. Only two sizes on line but you might find more in the shop, I did.... http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gor ... 9#features early days but seem a very nice set of gloves for £20

t4tomo

rmhodv wrote:

Whilst they are not real leather, I find these excellent value for money.

I rate these - also available in black. Evans stock them as do cycle surgery I think.

Wrath Rob

Sketchley wrote:

Just got these £35 down to £20 in Evans. Only two sizes on line but you might find more in the shop, I did.... http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gor ... 9#features early days but seem a very nice set of gloves for £20

They look nice but the leather's on the back, not the palm, which kind of defeats the object of some leather mitts. You want leather on the palm where it will protect you the most.

sketchley

Wrath Rob wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

Just got these £35 down to £20 in Evans. Only two sizes on line but you might find more in the shop, I did.... http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gor ... 9#features early days but seem a very nice set of gloves for £20

They look nice but the leather's on the back, not the palm, which kind of defeats the object of some leather mitts. You want leather on the palm where it will protect you the most.

The "padded" black part on the palm is leather, although it's not very padded which is why I brought them. I'd suggest popping in a evens for look

sketchley

I'd also say the grey bit is leather as well, it's not shiny but doesn't looked like a weaved cloth....

sketchley

I guess not http://www.goreapparel.co.uk/gore-bike- ... ype-gloves

materials

BACKHAND: 100% LEATHER
SWEAT ABSORPTION: 80% COTTON, 20% POLYESTER
PALM: 60% NYLON, 40% POLYURETHANE

graeme_s-2

I bought a pair of these recently:


http://www.elevengear.com/roadwear/elev ... loves.html

US$35 at the mo, although they were less than that when I ordered them (introductory offer I think). They're pretty nice, but the stitching has already failed on one of the fingers. Looks fine everywhere else, so I'm putting it down to bad luck at the moment and will probably just stitch it back up myself.

bails87

I've got some Mavic ones, can't remember the name of them but white leather palm, grey mesh back, they're nice.

veronese68

What you want is kangaroo hide palms, stronger than cow and softer. I had a pair of motorcycle gloves with Skippy on the palms, as I recall 1.2mm of Skippy is equivalent to 1.7mm of heifer.
No idea if anybody sells them or how much they would be but my motorcycle gloves were not expensive.

vermin

Veronese68 wrote:

What you want is kangaroo hide palms, stronger than cow and softer. I had a pair of motorcycle gloves with Skippy on the palms, as I recall 1.2mm of Skippy is equivalent to 1.7mm of heifer.
No idea if anybody sells them or how much they would be but my motorcycle gloves were not expensive.

Something like this?

http://www.pro-bike.co.uk/mitts-cycling ... 08858.html

veronese68

vermin wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

What you want is kangaroo hide palms, stronger than cow and softer. I had a pair of motorcycle gloves with Skippy on the palms, as I recall 1.2mm of Skippy is equivalent to 1.7mm of heifer.
No idea if anybody sells them or how much they would be but my motorcycle gloves were not expensive.

Something like this?

http://www.pro-bike.co.uk/mitts-cycling ... 08858.html

If they had any, yes. ;-)

Wrath Rob

Easy to find http://www.bicyclehero.com/gb/hirzl-gri ... tAodFysAtQ

Or http://www.jensonusa.com/!77sddnoERNH6Z ... tAod_1YAYw

Coach H

Dromati - La Grande?
http://www.dromarti.com/index.php?main_ ... ucts_id=27