A general rant about winter gloves
Hello there,
I own quite a few pairs of gloves, I don't have a pair of winter gloves that I actually like.
They seem to be too thick and awkward (BBBs).
Or they become impossible to take off and put on when wet, with the inner lining getting twisted and catching. (Endura)
Or they don't keep my hands warm enough (Castelli).
Or they don't keep my hands warm in the rain (more or less, all of the above).
Has anyone cracked the code, and figured out a decent set of gloves for winter riding?
Ray K
Comments
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I've had good success this winter with cheap thermal work gloves from Amazon/Ebay. They're super warm, waterproof and cheap. Something like the ones below, although I got an even cheaper pair (6.99)
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This might sound daft, but I’ve ended up turning my cycling gloves inside-out and carefully cutting out all the linings, leaving just the shell.
This is the good bit, use thermal workwear gloves (knitted) or lightweight fleece cycle gloves as a liner and pop the shell glove over the top. The liner gloves are cheap, quick drying and get washed often. Liners of different thicknesses are useful for varying temps.
You do lose the waterproof membrane, but they tend to leave hands sweaty and wet anyway.
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These are the 6.99 jobs, Argon Skytec
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Used to have some decathlon softshell ones that we're brilliant till I wore them out. Use so called generic winter gloves with liner glove, works for me.
Too many bikes according to Mrs O.1 -
Ski gloves. And keep your body warm.
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I bought some Hestra Goretex Windstopper gloves about 18 months ago and am seriously impressed. If you haven't heard of Hestra they have a very good reputation for ski gloves. The fit and construction are much better than anything I've ever tried from the cycling brands. They are very breathable so my hands stay dry and they are no problem to get back on after the cafe stop.
Everbody is different so it is difficult to be specific about temperatures, but I find them good down to 0°C. Below that I am using a pair of Pearl Izumi gloves which are very bulky but do the job..
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I seem to get better results with Roubaix gloves plus a separate set of silk liners than I do bulky winter gloves. I have had the same issue as the OP with the liners getting twisted which is really difficult to sort out on the road. I still have a couple of pairs of deep winter gloves (including Carnac Crab claws) but the conditions I would pick those for are very similar to the ones I would stay indoors on the turbo...
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I also have had many over the years. And never been completely happy.
I suffer cold hands. With the lowest temperature, I actually wear TWO pairs of gloves: the inner pair is very thin, running gloves in fact, the other is lobster GribGrab.
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Mrs Wakemalcolm who suffers from Raynaud's used to swear by cygloves and a pair of liners. I used to swear at them as it meant that her bar ends had to be taken off.
Not a solution for drop bars either.
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Cake is just weakness entering the body1 -
Hestra's top end gloves are the best ski gloves there are, but you would not want a downhill skiing glove for cycling as they would be too bulky.
I imagine you have a pair of their cross country ski gloves.
The most important aspect fir a glove to keep you warm is for it to cut out the wind, so you need either full goretex or goretex windstopper (or equivalent).
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No, they are cycling gloves. I am pretty sure that when I bought them there was only the one model (in 3 colours), but if you look at their website now they have several different designs so it would seem that they are serious about moving into cycling.
Back in the day I used to buy ski gloves from the bargain bin at Ellis Brigham. They were bulky for sure, but they did the job. We had downtube shifters in those days too.
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When I was kayaking I used pogies in the winter which are a similar idea, they are attached to the paddle shaft and you slide your hands in and out. Way warmer than gloves.
They are available for drop bars, but they would restrict the ability to change position which is the main reason for having drop bars in the first place.
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Interesting as when I looked a few months ago on the Hestra site I couldn't see any cycling specific stuff, and thought it an obvious market for them to move into.
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Bike-specific mittens are the warmest, your fingers will keep each other warm whereas with fingered gloves your fingers are isolated and will be colder. Look for mittens that are waterproof...word of caution with that word waterproof; while Gore products are very good, they do breathe to a degree, but no fabric is truly waterproof if the company claims it breathes, if too much water gets on them, they will leak water through, this is true with rain jackets too as well as tents. If the fabric was waterproof 100% then you would sweat from the inside, and that moisture would eventually make your hands cold. So, it's a catch-22.
The only truly waterproof tent is made of Dyneema fabric; however, the biggest complaint is that it doesn't allow a person's breathing moisture to escape, or with large swings in temperature the resulting condensation won't escape, thus there is a lot of condensation inside. That gives you an idea of what you would be facing inside your gloves if they were truly waterproof, your hands would be a sweaty mess, and the inside of the gloves would be very wet.
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