My convenient bike shop has no gloves. Amazon.com has very little highly rated gloves. Amazon.co.jp doesn't even list ones rated highly in US so I bought wind proof gloves (which weren't that warm in mildly cold condition) from a convenience store and undergloves for 100 yen shop. How can modify gloves to work best?
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1What are you trying to achieve? Warmth while riding is a different goal to being waterproof.– Criggie ♦Oct 27, 2021 at 8:54
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3It’s not necessary to get cycling-specific winter gloves. Just visit an outdoor or skiing shop. Be aware that some gloves don’t allow independent movement of all fingers which can be a problem with some shifters and brake levers. Apart from that most good outdoor gloves are at least wind proof and allow proper grip of skiing/hiking poles or ice axes which means they also work nicely for cycling.– MichaelOct 27, 2021 at 9:58
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Even fewer of those type of shops here.– user2617804Oct 27, 2021 at 10:08
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1Modifying existing gloves is going to be unsatisfactory because gloves need to fit, well, like a glove. Better to get the right thing in the first places. There are places to shop other than Amazon and your LBS. Jinbocho is full of ski shops.– Adam RiceOct 27, 2021 at 16:42
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@AdamRice OTOH some of us can't find gloves that fit well (my hands are 2 sizes longer than they are wide). I'm seriously considering seeing if I can make some 2XLs narrower, especially as my wrists are thin even for the width of my hands.– Chris HNov 3, 2021 at 11:58
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5 Answers
What about buying neoprene gloves instead? You can find them in nearly any dive shop, they come in various thicknesses and are not really hugely expensive. They might feel slightly funny, but will definitely work.
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I have done this in the past (actually "windsurfing" gloves that I bought for kayaking). It was OK when wet and just above freezing, but I wouldn't want to use them for long days.– Chris HNov 3, 2021 at 12:00
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@Sherwood they get very sweaty except in a narrow range of temperatures. They also don't fit brilliantly because my hands are longer and thinner than they (and most gloves) are designed for. This means they get uncomfortable after a while. This is a particularly grippy pair. A different pair were useless on a road bike for more than a couple of hours as they tried to slide forwards against the hoods so I got tired hands from having to hold tighter than normal– Chris HNov 8, 2021 at 11:13
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I see... Well gloves are very individual thing. If you don't want to spend quite a lot of money on gloves, you can basically choose between breathability or waterproofness. I also have one "emergency" trick - when it's raining hard and i only have some light gloves, I carry a pair of nitrile/latex and put them under my normal gloves. It feels slightly funny and your hands are going to sweat, but you are warm. And also you can carry such gloves on every ride - if you need to work on something mechanical, your hands won't be dirty.– SherwoodNov 13, 2021 at 11:59
Gloves are a personal thing and your experience will vary.
I prefer a full-fingered padded cycling glove most of the year. Even when its raining, I'm okay to have wet gloves.
When it is really cold, I prefer a wind-proof outer gauntlet made from leather, that has had beeswax massaged into it. They come up the arm a bit and cover the sleeve's cuff. I'll wear thin merino wool undergloves for warmth. Downside, they're thick and awkward.
On hot days I still prefer full-coverage gloves, to minimise sun exposure. So I have some "ninja lite" gloves with no padding.
On one bike I fitted some motorbike grip heaters under the bartape, but they weren't very effective. Most of the heat was lost to the aluminium bars or the airflow, so I made some "Bar Mitts" or "Poggs" from fleecy lambskin, something like below.
for drop bars or
for flat bars.
Example of the heater pads I used.
This combination worked really well, the only downside is the 2x 18650 batteries would go flat in about 15 minutes, so I had to run them for a few minutes at a time. Which was workable.
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1Those pogies look more suitable on flat bars than drop bars - you lose the advantage of multiple hand positions and braking would be tricky if you tried to use the drops outside them. I've seen some in use recently, and it's still over 10°C every day here– Chris HOct 27, 2021 at 10:57
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1@ChrisH yes - that is a known downside. You can push into them a bit more to reach the drops (think like a veterinarian ?!) but they're really not usable from the tops. Also they require withdrawing a hand to change gear if you use vintage shifters, while brifters work from inside the warmed space. Note the dropbar and flatbar styles are quite different and not interchangable, they have differnet angles. You'd still want light undergloves or normal padded cycling gloves for those times when your hands are out of the pogs. But my effort was made of fleeced lambskin and it was so WARM.– Criggie ♦Oct 27, 2021 at 11:01
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1I sometimes wonder about something far bigger, covering the hoods and drops with one aperture, lined with something warm and with a wind-/water-proof shell. If I ever do something along those lines it will probably be shaped like a fairing and take a huge amount of effort, so it probably won't happen.– Chris HOct 27, 2021 at 11:05
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1Doesn't this have problems with water running down your arms/sleeves and into the mitts? From my experience, I always wanted water proof cuffs on my gloves that I could tug under the cuffs of my rain jacket, precisely to avoid this issue. Oct 27, 2021 at 11:36
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2Generally you'd only use pogies when it's cold enough that it doesnt rain which eliminates the water running down issue. Although given how bad most waterproof gloves on the market are i think Chris's idea of a windproof bar cover has some merit for long wet rides.– Andy POct 27, 2021 at 11:49
Windproof gloves, perhaps over liners, can work well. Even if you get wet hands, reduced wind chill means they don't get so cold as they would without gloves
You can also wear track mitts (fingerless cycling gloves) over the top of windproof or thin waterproof gloves if you want padding. For almost complete waterproofing you could wear disposable (surgical) gloves under track mitts. You could still wear something warm under the disposable gloves, which would make them easier to reuse as well. This is plan B for me if I'm caught out away from home with insufficient gloves (e.g. lost my warm ones), as I've got disposable ones in my first aid kit.
Another fully waterproof (and windproof) option is PVC-dipped cotton. Because the cuff is cotton, you'd need good overlap with your jacket sleeve to stop water soaking down. The pair I have aren't a good enough fit for on the bike, but if they were, they'd be worth trying, over fleece or knitted warm gloves.
My rides are too long for battery solutions, but you can wear heated motorbike gloves (sadly mainly 12V) or add 5V heater pads to the inside of gloves that otherwise work well. The motorbike gloves would be bulky, so a test would be a good idea - I can ride in big ski gloves without a problem but some people struggle (I'd struggle in the only pair of motorbike gloves I have, but they're very bulky and short in the fingers).
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Have you tried those saturated salt heat pads with a clicker in them? They're faffy to "recharge" and I really don't like the idea of the disposable one-time use chemical ones.– Criggie ♦Oct 27, 2021 at 12:12
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1@Criggie many years ago. A combination of running hot and being enough of a pack rat to carry extra layers means neither particularly appeal to me. I'd be more likely to carry the disposable ones in my emergency kit than plan on using the rechargeable ones. The single use ones can get rather too hot if fixed in place under insulation, so for riding gloves I don't recommend them. Battery heating pads OTOH (which again I don't have) have the advantages of stop-start operation and easy recharging.– Chris HOct 27, 2021 at 12:21
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1...Ski-type gloves will do me for below freezing all day, even going slowly for fear of ice, silk liners or thin touchscreen gloves in reserve to go underneath as well as nitrile– Chris HOct 27, 2021 at 12:22
Leather gloves works well in a wide range of temperatures and also protects well if the case of fall.
They are not "waterproof" in the sense that they do get wet in the longer rain and must be dried with care, not just left on the bicycle.
answered Nov 10, 2021 at 13:29
Another possible source: I wear my motorcycle gloves in cold or very wet weather, anti vibration work gloves from the workshop in cold dry weather, and no gloves otherwise (because I hate wearing gloves). Motorcycle gloves are big and bulky, but ubiquitous (at least in the uk), and I already have them. Work gloves with vibration pads are actually a pretty good substitute for proper cycling gloves. As noted above non synthetic motorcycle gloves need a bit of care, but not that much. The worst thing is drying them before riding home if you don't have enough time.
Cold here means down to a few below 0 C occasionally (yes, it does happen even in England). Wet means wet. I ride between fifteen minutes and an hour on paved roads.
