SEALSKINZ Waterproof All Weather Cycle Glove

Product Information

The Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Smart heated gloves aren't a cycling specific pair. Don't let that dissuade you though. The Guide Pro Smart heated glove is a serious deep winter option even without the heating elements so there's a good amount of padding on your hand anyway. I do wonder if these were designed by cyclists if someone might have tried to slim them down a bit but it’s not a terrible trade off given the use. More importantly, these gloves work better than any other set of heated gloves I've tested. We loved the minimal padding on these, and found them the perfect winter cycling glove for it's excellent grip in all weather. with zero dexterity compromises, including both navigating a touch screen and unwrapping a mid ride energy bar. They're certainly a performance pair and we found them to be the best winter cycling glove to pull on for winter league racing. The Xnetic's low weight also means that once on you barely notice that you're wearing them. This can also be attributed to the high level of stretch, which sees the glove forming to your hand shape with ease. It also creates a good seal at the wrist, stopping any unwanted drafts from entering.

Flip the gloves to the palm side and you'll find a luxurious expanse of goat skin leather. The feel of this is seriously impressive and it curves up from the palm so that the polyester membrane is only the top surface. At the base of each finger, and the base of the palm, there are a series of seven pads designed to relieve pressure. Pearl Izumi calls the Summit WxB glove a mountain bike glove. Don't worry, they work great on a road bike. Many of the best unpadded long finger gloves carry the mountain bike tag and this is yet another one. In the mountain bike world they are often summer specific but the Summit WxB is a bit more robust than that. Of course there is also the ultra-grippy palm carried over from the lighter Sportful designs. The only spots where there are no silicone dots are on the tip of the forefinger and thumb where there's touchscreen compatibility. The rest of the construction builds on the palm by first wrapping the same faux suede from the palm over the whole thumb and into the forefinger. From there, it gives way to a tight knit external fabric with a windproof membrane and a DWR coating. I'm hardly breaking new ground here by recommending the Pearl Izumi AmFib Lobster Glove. Talk to most cyclists who've been riding in seriously cold weather for a long time and these will come up. The reason they are so well known and loved comes down to what it takes to keep you warm. You can make exceptionally warm five-finger gloves but after a certain point, the price starts to really jump. The first layer of protection on the best winter cycling gloves should be an impermeable windproof layer designed, as you can guess from the name, to keep cold air and wind away from your hands.Unlike traditional neoprene gloves the Xnetic gloves offer far greater breathability. On test, our hands never got overly sweaty. Surprisingly for a glove that allows this degree of moisture management they also did a stellar job of keeping our hands warm, working well in temperatures in the low single digits celsius, and keeping them dry through persistent showers and the occasional heavier downpour.

Neoprene gloves seem like the perfect solution to riding in the rain. In reality, that is true but only when the rain is reasonably warm. As long as the air isn't too cold your hands will get wet then warm the water in the neoprene and you'll be toasty warm. If that's your riding environment then neoprene gloves are a great option and there are a ton to choose from. Like any windproof outer layer, a waterproof layer on the best winter cycling gloves should be impermeable to the outside elements to keep your hands dry, but should also be breathable to prevent your hands overheating, particularly over the course of long rides. Castelli often makes use of Gore-tex fabrics and then builds products that are similar to Gore Cycling but with a performance twist. That is the case here as well and the Castelli Espresso GT gloves use a traditional waterproof Gore membrane just like the Gore C5 gloves. The two gloves also share similarities in weight and use but Castelli focuses on hard and fast performance riding.At a certain point it becomes too cold to effectively warm up. You can't generate enough body heat either because you are riding slower, because your body has trouble keeping extremities warm, or just because it's too cold. When that happens, it's time to turn to a heated glove; the question is which one? Inside the Velocio Alpha gloves you will find Polartec Alpha. Basically this is the newest wonder material. It's incredibly warm for the weight and it breathes better than any other modern synthetic insulation. Velocio wraps a stylish outer with plenty of colours available around Polartec Alpha and makes a glove that covers a huge range of temperatures while keeping the bulk low. There's another thing to consider about these gloves though. If you ride where it rains and it's near freezing, like it is most of the winter in the US Pacific Northwest, then the Castelli Diluvio gloves are the other half of your winter riding system. Pair these with one of the shell options here and you can happily ride all day in heavy rain and temperatures just above freezing. With the shell protecting these from the wind and cold air, your body can heat up the water exactly the way neoprene gloves work in warmer weather. You'll be wet but warm and you won't need to change gloves every few hours. It's a serious game changing option. Just so I'm clear though, the Sportful lobster gloves still leak. For some reason Sportful didn't tape all the seams and water will work its way through. The advantage is that even when water comes through, there's no insulation to hold that water. Of course that also points to the other negative of the Sportful Lobster gloves, you will need another layer inside of them. Instead of a hook and loop closure, Castelli uses a zippered closure. The Espresso GT also uses a longer cut at the wrist, a squared-off fingertip shape, and lots of silicone grip material on the palm. The overall effect is a less bulky feeling that is faster to get on and off and has a better connection with your bars than the Gore glove.