- Nice venting on back of hand
- Intelligent design of palm pads
- Easy on and off
- Deep, snug fit between fingers
- Lots of ventilation and light fit helps keep your hands cool.
- Multilayer coated silicone palm puts cushioning where you need it without being bulky, varying 2 mm and 3 mm gel padding
- Wrist pull tab helps with quick slip-on. Reflective ergonomic fastener.
- Excellent air-flow and moisture wicking properties.
Bike gloves are designed to give you comfort on long rides, help maintain your grip on the bike, and protect your hands if you fall. The XR Air Gel Bike Gloves by Louis Garneau does all of these and more quite well, and at a reasonable price.
By varying the thickness of the gel pads throughout the palm of the glove, the XR gloves provide appropriate distribution of cushion and comfort. Cushioning pads are thickest along the top of the palm, just below the fingers, where you typically grip the handlebars with most of your weight and pressure. Thinner padding along the first two fingers and base of the thumb provide comfort without bulkiness, allowing for better grip and control of the bike. The most rugged pads are located at the base of the palm, and are designed to absorb the brunt of the shock and bear the abuse of skidding across the pavement (instead of your hands being shredded) if you fall.
There are some rather nice but subtle features built-in too, that you're likely to miss though you'll appreciate the comfort they offer. Moisture wicking material and mesh fabric wherever possible on the front side allows air flow to keep your hands cool, and on the back of the hand, a Lycra construction helps too with moisture and temperature control.
The depth of the cut-outs between the fingers in the only thing that I might have done differently with these gloves. I found on longer rides (i.e. 60 or 80 miles into a century) some minor irritation between my fingers due to the way the material used to create the finger separation went far down, and the fact that the gloves fit so snugly. But there is much variety to hand sizes and shapes and this is likely something that will not bother many people. In any event it is a minor observation and one that certainly would not cause me to reverse my recommendation to you.
