Gloves

I never found a pair of gloves that could hold up to a full Messenger Winter.

This time of year you start off with a liner, or the 3 dollar models the street vendor sells. They’re disposable, you won’t feel bad if you lose them.

New York street vendors had some fingerless models that were nice for the days it starts out at 40F and goes up to a sunny 54F. There’s also the freedom of having fingertips.

Feeling Rugged and Real in the Fall? Go for the construction gloves available at any hardware store. (they look best when you have a chain around your waist plus you can personalize the crossbars with your crew name.)

Then it starts to sleet, rain, ice and snow all over your life and you need something more.

I would bust through gloves sometimes twice in a month. Forget road bike stuff that is made for 3 hour rides a couple times a week. I tried to get into MTB gloves with no success. These fox polar paws sucked. If your hands are wet you can’t get them on and once it starts raining you’re riding around with freezing wet sponges wrapped around your fingers. Good luck getting them off when they’re soaked. After that the palms decay and the gloves are completely useless.

(Hell is getting a flat on an ice storm day and your fingers are to wet, cold and numb to change the tire. Slip and smash your hand against the spokes for maximum fun! Sometimes I’d cheese out and go to a shop and have them change my tire while I bought a pair of new gloves to ruin. Then I’d walk down the block and get some fresh rice and beans from the Dominican spot and tell the dispatcher to chill.)

You can move into some EMS/REI or North Face skiing/climbing gloves after you’ve tired of substandard cycling specific models. Its probably the best bet. They are not stylish or waterproof, but they’ll hold up to lots.

In terms of quality but not full functionality I had these Pearl Izumi lobster claws for the coldest of days, I got them in the late 90’s and they’ve stayed perfect. They are not good for day to day work, just sub freezing temperatures and snow storms. These particular models kept me out of jail once, but that’s a story for another day.

Which takes me to this next thing-

We are never going to accept advertising on this blog, it would kill the whole spirit of the endeavor. When we tell you something is good or cool here it’s because it is, not because you’re reading a glorified advertising sheet.

Oakland Andrew suggested we start reviewing things here. I think I’m with the idea. We tried before, I was happy with results at least. But maybe things will work better for everyone this time.

I like the Consumer Reports model.

If you think you can produce some gloves (cycling or other) that are going to hold up December-March on the streets send two pairs in. We’ll give one to a messenger and I’ll wear a set recreationally and report how they actually hold up.

I don’t think anyone is going to come up with a working product.

Ideally they’d have to be waterproof (not water resistant), thermal but not to hot, and durable, especially around the thumb web and palms. You also need to be able to take them on and off with ease. No one wants to bite their glove fingers to pull them off every time they need to get a signature.

Does this winter cycling glove exist?

I doubt it honestly.

But if you think your product can do it contact me:
timothyw01@gmail.com

I guess you could consider this a challenge. We’ll see if anyone is up to it. I don’t think so, everyone has sucky gloves.

curious what I’m wearing recreationally now?

More GS Guccilife Clobber. These vintage Cinelli early winter gloves are great for sunny, chilly days and they resemble gardening gloves.

I’m scared to wash them and I’m fairly sure they’d be ruined if I wore them in the rain. But they look good to profile in. I’m doing my best to keep them nice.

I would have liked to rock them as a messenger, but they’d be done in a week.

(BTW if you were a rugged 80’s Rasta Messenger you wouldn’t need gloves at all. Jah Power and PMA keep your hands warm.)

((Maybe I’ll send out some emails to some manufacturers and see if anyone bites. This is a heavy challenge, I’m not sure who is up to it. It will be fun to see if we get anyone at all to respond, I always like that kind of thing. Good blog reading.))