motorcycle gloves

Riding gloves are another very important safety item to wear while riding your motorcycle. Gloves protect your hands, wrists, and sometimes forearms from the elements (temperature, wind, rain, etc) to help you concentrate on riding by increasing your comfort level. Gloves are also very protective in an event of an accident. When we fall, unless we are trained otherwise (martial arts, gymnastics, etc), we push our hands forward as this is the body's natural reaction to protect the head. Unfortunately, one downfall of that is that our hands can take a substantial beating as a result. A rider without proper protective gloves can loose a lot of blood from their hands and palms if they were to crash (think about how quickly a person looses blood by slitting their wrists and you can understand just how bad it can get!). Therefore gloves should be considered an essential riding gear item.

When purchasing gloves there a few blanket rules that always apply:

• Fit. Make sure you can use all your fingers without binding, and you can use the handlebar controls effectively
• Gloves that were designed to meet or exceed what you are going to be using them for
• Good stitching, especially in areas that will absorb any impact
• Armor/Padding in areas that will absorb any impact, especially the palm area
• Glove length. Too short of a glove will not provide adequate wrist protect from impact, bugs, wind, rain etc.

There are different types of gloves, but more importantly there are different types of glove MATERIAL. Below is a listing of glove types ordered from least to greatest protection level:

leather gloves:

Leather gloves have been around as long (or seems that way) as motorcycles have been. They are made from cow hide and are available in different grain leather (short, long) and different thickness' (measure in millimeters). Quality and protection of leather gloves vary from cheap cosmetic stuff to serious pro racing standards. Protection is not only in the thickness of the leather but also in the stitching as well since thick leather pieces will do you no good if that's what they turn into because the stitching didn't hold up. Leather gloves offer the best mix of cost and protection over Textile gloves, they are also softer, easier to fix and Can last longer. Today, you Can find roughly a 50/50 mix of Textile and Leather gloves for sale at retailers. Every year the Textile process improves making the materials softer, less bulky and offering better protection than the year before so leather is facing some serious competition.

Positives:

• Leather is inexpensive and commonly available in many different forms.
• Easy to patch and repair a hole or worn out area. Can be soft, comfortable, well fitting and still provide adequate protection.
• Naturally warmer than textile and wind resistant.
• High abrasion resistance.

Negatives:

• Not water-resistant and can easily shrink when wet.
• Poor puncture resistance.

textile gloves:

Textile gloves are a recent invention (10 years) in motorcycling and were designed to offer the wearer leather like protection, warmth and to remove some of the leather disadvantages as well. They are made from state of the art Man-made materials such as Kevlar, Ballistic Nylon, and other exotic materials to do this. Today, you can find roughly a 50/50 mix of Textile and Leather gloves for sale at retailers. Every year the Textile process improves making the materials softer, less bulky and offering better protection than the year before. Textile gloves generally appeal to those who wish the highest technology protecting their hands and a high tech look to go along with it. While the "cruiser" image doesn't fit all that well with textile gloves, both textile and leather gloves can easily be found in the "sport" rider area. No matter what bike you ride, do yourself a favor and buy what you like and believe will protect you the best for what you are going to be doing.

Positives:

• The material allows for other types of armor protection to be sewn in like Kevlar, hard plastic, and metal more easily (and cheaply) than leather.
• Can also be designed in more colors, patterns, styles and offer almost complete protection in heavy rain and wind.
• Offers more protection than leather since more textile gloves also include different types of armor.
• Will not shrink or color bleed when they get wet like leather does so no worries about carrying another pair of gloves to cover them in case of rain.
• Good abrasion and high puncture resistance.

Negatives:

• Textile gloves tend to be higher in cost.
• Not as "soft" and pliable as leather and can be more bulky.
• Textile is also much harder to patch up any holes or damage in the material.