SEALSKINZ Waterproof All Weather Cycle Glove

Product Information

We couldn't help but highly rate these brilliant winter cycling gloves from Endura. They aren't quite as finessed as the higher end brands, but with both impressive wind and water proof characteristics, they could easily fit in to both categories. 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. You will want to mostly save these for drier days though. Pearl Izumi uses a technology called PI dry to apply DWR at the fibre level. It won't ever wash off but it's still a durable water repellent and that only goes so far. After enough time these will soak through and it becomes hard to get your hands out when they are wet. Put the Sealskinz gloves into the highest heat setting and your hands will be ready to handle whatever riding you want them to. The heat radiates down the fingers almost all the way to the tips. If it's not bitterly cold, you will have sweaty hands in not much time.

The answer depends on the timeframe we are talking about. A good pair of gloves with a waterproof membrane, or even a DWR coating, will keep your hands dry for a while. Ride long enough though and they all saturate. The only option that is actually waterproof is a shell. Sportful makes a shell I included here but there are some others out there. They are truly waterproof but they also require another glove for warmth and that second glove will eventually get wet also. When you leave the house on a bitterly cold day, you might make it through a ride with only a single pair of gloves. If you leave the house and it's raining you will need a change of gloves if you ride longer than about three hours. How many winter gloves do you need?In case you need to wipe your face, or maybe not, since you can't throw these in the wash (Image credit: Josh Ross) I didn't phrase the question asking "do you need more than one pair of gloves for winter riding?" That's because you absolutely do, the question is only how many do you need? You could think about it from the point of view of changing conditions. The longer you ride in the winter the more gloves you are going to add to your collection. Throughout the winter the temperature changes a lot and there are gloves available for very small differences. From this point of view, most people will want something from the early season section plus something from the all-around section. Rain and deep winter gloves are more specialised, so you’ll have to decide if you are willing to ride in that kind of weather. 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. The other useful thing to remember is that you should bring more than one pair of gloves. In some ways, this is the counter to my first piece of advice. Not everyone is as cold as me and having another option solves that challenge. It's not always about options though, changing gloves mid-ride is the only way to manage a long winter ride if it's raining. I promise you will not mind the extra bulk of a second set of gloves when you change into them. Is there such a thing as waterproof gloves?

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. The technology at work here is well disguised. This is a simple looking glove that will be appreciated by any minimalist. However the three-layered fabric, which almost has the look and feel of a knit glove, blends an durable outer with a waterproof membrane and a hypoallergenic lining. And it works very well indeed. 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?In milder weather it's not actually necessary to have completely waterproof gloves. Your skin is waterproof after all, so as long as you have gloves that keep your hands warm, they don't necessarily need to keep you dry. Options such as a wet weather neoprene glove can work well in cool not cold conditions. They're often basic in style, with no padding or additional features, such as cuff adjustment. When I took these out to test, I initially thought I'd run them on low for as long as they'd last. The first ride, that's what I did. The battery held out for the promised five hours but the heat was so low it was pretty much imperceptible compared to the warmth of the glove. Read more details in our full Sportful Lobster gloves review . How to choose the best winter cycling gloves The first thing I tend to tell people about finding the right winter cycling gloves is to go warmer than you think you need. If you are someone who tends to run warm and constantly has warm hands, you probably know this and you can choose appropriately. For everyone else, go warmer. Your hands sit without moving much for long periods of time and at least for me, when it's cold my hands are cold. I don't think I've ever been on a long cold ride and felt like my hands were too warm. At the wrist is a hook and loop closure to keep the wind out. It does a great job but it’s so good that it ends up being the only mis-step in the design and will sometimes require using your teeth to get it open.

Gore invented the idea of a breathable membrane. Many of the other options on this list use either a Gore-branded membrane or a duplicate of the same concept. Not every membrane Gore makes is waterproof, but the membrane in the Gore C5 Gore-Tex gloves is absolutely and completely waterproof and guaranteed to be so. 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. We really rated these Specialized Prime Series Thermal gloves for a more of a mild winter option, ideal for the late autumn and early spring riding in changeable conditions.

Men’s Sealskinz Gloves

Knit gloves are a staple of winter riding in the cold and wet and there is a somewhat endless range of choices for them. Lots of companies make them and I've yet to find a particular advantage to one brand. The Giro Xnetic H20 gets the nod because they have a high visibility colour and some of the best pricing. There are lovers of these style gloves that manage to make them work through an entire winter. I run cold though and I find that in the US Pacific Northwest, these are strictly an option for milder days. When the weather is dry, then running cuffs over sleeves is by far an easier option, especially if you have to remove your gloves to use a touchscreen. 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. 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. One of the most popular fabrics for this is Gore's Windstopper fabric, or Infinium as it's also known as. It's used in lots of the best winter cycling gloves across many brands aside from Gore itself. There are other options made by different manufactures too that can work just as well.