In Praise of Leather Gloves
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In Praise of Leather Gloves
I've been having great rides lately with a cheap pair of suede (split cowhide underlayer) work gloves.
Not the usual ones that are half fabric and leather only on the contact surfaces, but all leather - got them for $3 on closeout at Walmart a while back.
They've been great for rides at or a little below freezing, They're very effective at blocking wind, and unlike a lot of other things like neoprene they don't respond negatively at all to sweat on your hands - if anything, I feel like that's helping to personalize them.
I usually head out also carrying a pair of serious rag wool mittens with crude fabric covers for wind block, but so far haven't needed to resort to those - I'll maybe get cold fingertips briefly early in a ride, but once I'm really warmed up and charging along, my hands are quite happy.
Unfortunately just before really getting into riding in these, I used them for some bike repair projects in unheated space, so they're now a bit grease stained, but that counts as "experienced" I guess.
Have been thinking about digging out some thicker suede split I have and trying to stitch a pad of it to each palm for some longer term reinforcement and padding, but even without, I'm really liking them as a default solution once the amount of wind through my even-in-summer fabric gloves would be too much.
Not the usual ones that are half fabric and leather only on the contact surfaces, but all leather - got them for $3 on closeout at Walmart a while back.
They've been great for rides at or a little below freezing, They're very effective at blocking wind, and unlike a lot of other things like neoprene they don't respond negatively at all to sweat on your hands - if anything, I feel like that's helping to personalize them.
I usually head out also carrying a pair of serious rag wool mittens with crude fabric covers for wind block, but so far haven't needed to resort to those - I'll maybe get cold fingertips briefly early in a ride, but once I'm really warmed up and charging along, my hands are quite happy.
Unfortunately just before really getting into riding in these, I used them for some bike repair projects in unheated space, so they're now a bit grease stained, but that counts as "experienced" I guess.
Have been thinking about digging out some thicker suede split I have and trying to stitch a pad of it to each palm for some longer term reinforcement and padding, but even without, I'm really liking them as a default solution once the amount of wind through my even-in-summer fabric gloves would be too much.
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I'm assuming you're wearing liners?
I've had the same experience. Cheap, heavy work gloves with good liners make some of the warmest gloves you can get. I have a set of thin goretex ski gloves that make great liners.
I've had the same experience. Cheap, heavy work gloves with good liners make some of the warmest gloves you can get. I have a set of thin goretex ski gloves that make great liners.
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to clean gloves, I sometimes put them on my hands, then wash my hands, with something like Dawn dish soap. wring them out, maybe use some paper towels on them & hang them near our home heating ducts to air dry for a cpl days