Sealskinz Gloves vs Assos RainGlove

meanredspider

It's interesting to do a glove comparison when riding in shocking weather as a group of riders. Tuesday afforded us just that opportunity as we rode over the Cairngorms in torrential rain and gales. One thing that became abundantly clear is that Sealskinz gloves are total and utter cr@p! The image of at least 3 unfortunate members of our group wringing out their Sealskinz at each stop summed it up really: whatever you do, don't buy these gloves for their rain protection capabilities!

I was trying my Assos Rain Gloves for the first time (bought very cheap at the end of last season): basically a neoprene diver's glove but designed specifically for cycling (unlike the £10 pair of real diver's gloves I bought that had a painful seam across the palm)



Unfortunately they're around £47 these days but they were truly excellent for the conditions: 6-8C and pouring with rain (typical Highland summer then ) and, unlike the Sealskinz, they actually work

mudcow007

yarp i have the sealskinz extra grippy things or what ever they are called

they keep your fingers warm but are not rain proof

cookeeemonster

mudcow007 wrote:

yarp i have the sealskinz extra grippy things or what ever they are called

they keep your fingers warm but are not rain proof

these? http://www.cyclesurgery.com/sealskinz-ultra-grip-waterproof-glove/full-finger/bikes-components-bikewear/fcp-product/4315

I bought them the other week...not tested yet because too warm, but will take them back if they are useless!!

UndercoverElephant

I have the SealSkinz lobster (thermidor) gloves. They are warm, they are waterproof, but the problem comes in *really* intense rain, when the slight flappiness of the cuff means that water actually pools inside the glove, which, being waterproof never lets it escape.

With waterproof, you sometimes have to be careful what you wish for.

mudcow007

CookeeeMonster wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

yarp i have the sealskinz extra grippy things or what ever they are called

they keep your fingers warm but are not rain proof

these? http://www.cyclesurgery.com/sealskinz-ultra-grip-waterproof-glove/full-finger/bikes-components-bikewear/fcp-product/4315

I bought them the other week...not tested yet because too warm, but will take them back if they are useless!!

yep although mine are from last year so maybe they have changed them?

they hold off most of the water but after a soaking you hands start to feel damp

rolf_f

I think once the rain starts teeming down your arms it's only a matter of time before water gets inside any glove - at which point neoprene is obviously worth a punt. I'm quite tempted but it's finding some in an LBS. Evans theoretically sell the Castelli ones but I've not seen any in stock. Would be interested in the opinions of those with poor circulation as to whether neoprene is a promising solution.

As for Sealskins - there are two varieties that look similar - the Winter riding gloves are pretty good as it goes. However, the All Weather ones are by all accounts terrible. "All Weather" is meant literally - you can use them in relatively warm conditions, cold conditions, wet conditions etc. Except that they aren't up to it in any of them.

meanredspider

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I have the SealSkinz lobster (thermidor) gloves. They are warm, they are waterproof, but the problem comes in *really* intense rain, when the slight flappiness of the cuff means that water actually pools inside the glove, which, being waterproof never lets it escape.

With waterproof, you sometimes have to be careful what you wish for.

Yup - one of our riders had the lobsters but they were as useless as the rest even though he fastened his waterproof jacket over the cuffs (well, I did because he couldn't). They have an impressive capacity for soaking up rain.

Hoopdriver

For what it's worth I have written a review of four winter cycling gloves

Assos Early Winter 851
Sealskinz
Endura Deluge
Gore Fusion MBT

You can read it here:

http://my-bicycle-and-i.co.uk/2012/winter-gloves/

jonny_trousers

CookeeeMonster wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

yarp i have the sealskinz extra grippy things or what ever they are called

they keep your fingers warm but are not rain proof

these? http://www.cyclesurgery.com/sealskinz-ultra-grip-waterproof-glove/full-finger/bikes-components-bikewear/fcp-product/4315

I bought them the other week...not tested yet because too warm, but will take them back if they are useless!!

I've got them and they've done me two winters. They're far from waterproof and they aren't that great for really cold conditions either. On the coldest rides I would have to pull my fingers out of the - um - fingers and ball a fist to stop them snapping off They're nice and tight fitting for easy gear shifting, but that does mean there's no room for liners and mine even feel like they are cutting the blood supply off a bit. Have I sold them to you well enough yet? Bottom line, if you can take them back then do.

If the Assos do the job then it sounds to me like they might be a very worthwhile investment.

jimmypippa

There are a lot of bad reviews of sealsinz gloves - saying that I have a pair that is about 3-years old and which is still pretty waterproof. I have been adequately warm in them down to -14°C on th bike, with severe windchill when going downhill.

You need to make sure that they are large enough, because the size below,whilst feeling as though it fitted, restricted my circulation and made my hands cold - possibly worse than no gloves.

Check out these reviews

Positives Would Burn for longer than most gloves.

Negatives Terrible fit.
Not waterproof, there claims of waterproofness are based on 60secs under 2mm of calm water.
Cold
Difficult to put on.
Pricey seen as you could buy a cheap pair from Wal-mart that would do the job better.
Sweaty.

Everything else you could possibly think of. Waterproof? Are they heck! Breathable? May as well wear marigold gloves! Warm? May as well wear hand shaped ice packs! Hard wearing? May as well wear newspaper gloves. Cheap? NO!

Absolutely shockingly bad! These are the sort of gloves you would pay not to wear, so as to save your fingers! They take far to long to dry, when they get wet, which they do immediately. No windproof either! And all for £25? Surely a 20% score is too high! Id give them 5%!

rolf_f

jimmypippa wrote:

There are a lot of bad reviews of sealsinz gloves - saying that I have a pair that is about 3-years old and which is still pretty waterproof. I have been adequately warm in them down to -14°C on th bike, with severe windchill when going downhill.

As I said - it depends which specific gloves people are talking about - eg BR reviews

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... oves-36986
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... e-10-37533

People put bad reviews up without being specific about which glove they are reviewing which tarnishes the whole range - eg see Hoopdrivers review in which he doesn't even make any mention of which model of Sealskins glove he is referring to other than that they are a few years old! I mean, it's like saying "I bought a Vauxhall but it was too cramped - so don't buy a Vauxhall" without mentioning whether it is a Corsa or a Vectra you bought - a little detail at least is needed!

DrLex

meanredspider wrote:

[...]basically a neoprene diver's glove but designed specifically for cycling [...]

I'd be interested to know what they're like after a year of use; I had a pair of neoprene/mix shooting gloves & a pair of neoprene/mix riding (horse) gloves. Neither lasted a year without tearing at the seams or abrading the neoprene grip. Admittedly, together they cost less than the Assos.

Hoopdriver

Rolf F wrote:

jimmypippa wrote:

There are a lot of bad reviews of sealsinz gloves - saying that I have a pair that is about 3-years old and which is still pretty waterproof. I have been adequately warm in them down to -14°C on th bike, with severe windchill when going downhill.

As I said - it depends which specific gloves people are talking about - eg BR reviews

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... oves-36986
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... e-10-37533

People put bad reviews up without being specific about which glove they are reviewing which tarnishes the whole range - eg see Hoopdrivers review in which he doesn't even make any mention of which model of Sealskins glove he is referring to other than that they are a few years old! I mean, it's like saying "I bought a Vauxhall but it was too cramped - so don't buy a Vauxhall" without mentioning whether it is a Corsa or a Vectra you bought - a little detail at least is needed!

Let's be straight here. The Sealskinz I bought were their standard waterproof model of a few years ago. I do not recall the model name. I looked on their site but could not be certain of the model and so let go. I wish I had it. i had forgotten the specific name. I did mention that they had expanded their line considerably and suggested that some of their subsequent models may have been improved but that my experiences with them were so bad - and that I had heard so many bad experiences from others - that I was not interested in spending the money to find out. I will also add that since I posted my review I have heard from A LOT of other people who have found them similarly bad.

In each of the other gloves reviewed I had the specific model.

rolf_f

Hoopdriver wrote:

Let's be straight here. The Sealskinz I bought were their standard waterproof model of a few years ago. I do not recall the model name. I looked on their site but could not be certain of the model and so let go. I wish I had it. i had forgotten the specific name. I did mention that they had expanded their line considerably and suggested that some of their subsequent models may have been improved but that my experiences with them were so bad - and that I had heard so many bad experiences from others - that I was not interested in spending the money to find out. I will also add that since I posted my review I have heard from A LOT of other people who have found them similarly bad.

In each of the other gloves reviewed I had the specific model.

Point taken but it still isn't really helpful in any way to 'review' a product if you don't know what the actual product is - effectively you are reviewing an entire company based on one product! And of course you've heard from a lot of people who have found them similarly bad; a high percentage of any product sold might find plenty of dissatisfied customers in one shape or other but it doesn't imply anything at all about the proportion of people who don't find them bad. And of course, Sealskins own mis-naming of the 'All Weather Gloves', a name which gives completely the wrong impression of what they are for, doesn't help. Hence why I posted two BR reviews of two different gloves - one being positive and one not - yet most don't make a distinction between the two when commenting on them.

You'd be better off binning that part of the review as it just doesn't mean anything. The rest seemed more useful than the average BR review though. Mind, it would help if you expanded on your comment about metabolism. eg do you tend to suffer from the cold yourself? Do you find most gloves do the job or not? I get fed up with being told that gloves are guaranteed toasty warm to minus 30 when my fingers are freezing in them at zero.

SimonAH

So what are the Assos gloves like? And are they the best available?

meanredspider

SimonAH wrote:

So what are the Assos gloves like? And are they the best available?

They a very good in my opinion. Wore them for 5.5 hours in a variety of conditions and they were very comfortable. They don't seem to collect much water so don't get heavy. As they are neoprene, they do smell of neoprene. They do seem to be great in wet weather. Basically they do exactly what it says on the tin though I can't vouch for their durability.

Hoopdriver

SimonAH wrote:

So what are the Assos gloves like? And are they the best available?

I think so, yes. In my opinion, anyway

crossborderreiver

The problem I had with Sealskinz was the lining was loose kept twizzling up making it difficult to put the gloves on. Once the gloves were on the linings got slightly damp so if for any reason I had to take them off, the lining tended to pull out and they were even harder to put back on. I always carried a spare cheap pair for that situation. In torrential rain the Sealskinz were ok for about 8 miles, after that water started to seep in through the seams. By the time I got to work they were saturated and needed to be wrung out. I gave up wearing the Sealskinz in disgust and vowed to never again spend a lot of money on gloves.
I don't know which particular glove I had but they were definatley sold as being waterproof. I also recently read a review of a new Sealskinz glove (probably Cycle magazine) and was interested to note that the reviewer commented it was difficult to take the glove off without the liner coming out.