How to choose your MTB gloves
The MTB gloves are an essential accessory for any rider, whether he's practicing for leisure or looking for thrills.
The MTB glove is primordial in the rider's gear that ensures good hand grip, minimises vibration, evacuates perspiration, keeps your hands warm in winter and especially protects your hands in the event of a fall or improvised repairs. For more extreme practices such as descent (DH), they are part of the mandatory protections like the back protector or the knee pads.
You need to consider several things when choosing your MTB gloves, among which are practice and weather conditions.
Your practice
- Rando and Cross-Country (XC): you need lightweight short gloves to help you maintain a comfortable position, absorb vibrations and allow a good regulation of perspiration. Most models incorporate a sponge part on top of the glove to wipe away sweat. If your course includes a lot of vegetation, you can opt for long gloves that will protect all of your hands.
- Enduro and All-Moutain: your should opt for long gloves with gel inserts on the palm to provide optimal protection. Breathable, the Enduro mountain bike gloves are a good compromise between protection and lightness.
- Downhill (DH) : as for the Enduro, they are long but they also benefit from additional protections of molded plastic or carbon fibre at the joints to meet the needs of downhill practitioners.
- The special case of children gloves: with the same attributes as adult MTB gloves, children gloves or mittens are all the more essential to protect them from small scratches in case of a fall.
The weather conditions
The MTB gloves adapt to your practice according to the seasons. Thanks to synthetic materials, or a mixture of these, your gloves will meet your expectations whatever the climatic conditions or the time of year. You can choose between:
- Lightweight and airy mittens let your hands breathe in summer during the hot weather. Mesh (or polyester) is ideal for this season because it's breathable but not very effective against difficult climatic conditions.
- Long and light gloves for the offseason or extreme practices. Breathable and covering your entire hand, they are lightweight and are not very effective against the cold.
- Long, warm and waterproof winter gloves: the extremities are the first part of your body to suffer from the cold, so it's important to protect your hands well during the winter. A windproof membrane is sufficient if the cold isn't intense and if you don't ride in the rain; but in case of extreme cold weather, prefer a fleece lining that will be warm and insulating. However, the main defect of this microfibre is poor ventilation.
Finally, don't forget that your gloves must be like a second skin: they must be adjusted to the size of your hands, but not tight to the point of limiting your movements.
If you're looking for the top MTB clothing brands, take a look at Troy Lee Designs, Fox or 100% where you'll find a wide range of MTB gloves.
