Bicycle Touring 101: Selecting the right gloves for you

Three styles of gloves that I currently use depending on current weather conditions. In this case all three are made by the same company but many different brands are available for purchase.
Click to enlarge.

I rode my bicycle quite well back when I was a kid and I never had gloves! In fact it wasn't until I was much older that I realized how useful gloves can be.

Gloves can be used to warm or cool your hands. More importantly they also provide some real protection from road shock and road rash caused by a bad crash on your bike. Granted that I haven't had a bad road crash for years but the problem is that you can never seem to schedule these things in advance.

In the event of a bad crash your hands are very likely to come into contact with the ground. The resulting damage, often called road rash, is unlikely to make it very pleasant to do things for at least the next few days. When wearing gloves you reduce the risk of serious damage by preventing the rough ground from touching your hands as much as possible. Instead you allow the gloves to take most of the force. Sure you may end up with wrecked and badly damaged gloves but that's much better then extremely sore hands that might be so badly damaged that you are prevented from continuing your tour.

This comment about gloves is contradictory. Depending on the design of the glove they could be designed to shred heat even through they are full fingered. Some gloves are designed to be worn while downhill biking in the summer. For this application you want full protection but not a lot of heat.

Other gloves are shaped like lobster claws and include lots of insulation to provide warmth for your hands during extremely cold conditions. While these gloves are definately nice to have during the winter you are unlikely to want to wear them in the middle of summer.

Another type of glove has half finger-length coverage so that you get protection for the majority of your hand while also keeping heat build-up to a minimum.

Even when riding on brand new pavement some vibration is transferred to your hands via the handbars. Since it's a good idea to hang on to the handlebars it is difficult to avoid this. When you ride on rougher roads for hours a day and for days at a time your hands can actually become sore.

Gloves can dampen the vibration for you. Some gloves have special padding built in to really help with this.

Sometimes on tour the weather can turn cold and if you don't have appropriate gear then you have to buy it. Unfortunately this can really limit your selection.

If you have a choice then try to pick something that provides the level of protection that you think you need with the level of warmth that's required. In the winter I tend to wear lobster mitts. Summertime has me wearing half-gloves whether I am bicycle touring, offroad biking or bicycle commuting.

Last summer while going around Lake Huron the weather turned wet and cold when I reached Saulte Ste. Marie. I was lucky enough to find a well stocked bicycle shop that not only cleaned the chain for me (the original purpose of the visit) but also sold me a pair of full fingered gloves that helped reduce the early morning chill during the next few days.

The picture of the gloves on this page showcase three types of gloves that I currently use. All three gloves are made by the same company although many other brands of gloves are available.

The lobster mitt is the left most item shown in the picture. I use this glove in cold temperatures when riding during the winter months with snow and ice all around me. My hands stay warm and usually dry!

The middle item is my short half-length glove. This glove provides me with protection while also helping to keep my hands cool and free from the effects of vibration.

The rightmost item is the full fingered glove that I picked up during my Round Lake Huron tour. These gloves seem to be designed to help release heat in the summer so while I appreciated their ability to eliminate some wind chill during the cool mornings I am unlikely to use these as winter gloves.

All three gloves have the same padding shown in the middle item. This padding helps remove pressure from your hands and largely eliminate vibration.

There are many different types of gloves out there and they all tend to fit a bit differently so if you have the luxury of time and selection then take your time and find a good pair of gloves that suits your needs.