A Very Successful Glove

Kirby, at my local bike shop, may have said something about my lack of sartorial elegance; something involving the word "daggy."  Along with, "Is that stubby holders you've got stuck on your gloves?!"

The problem with the kind of riding I do is that your hands, wrists and shoulders hurt. Twelve hours plus, on a bike, can leave fingers stinging with 'pins and needles.'

I did a 32 hour trip last year, in November, that still had my left hand finger tips tingling in February. Coming up to a long weekend last week, I determined to try something different.

You can see I took an old stubby holder and glued it across my gloves’ palms. I also added some bar end foam. It is not pretty. Long distance endurance riding rarely looks cool, in my experience. It demands a certain practicality. Cue the very scary photo of me for the cold nights!

The gloves were a spectacular success; no numbness after 711km in three days! I’ll need to stitch them on, as the contac cement is not quite up to the job.

You can see that I have a large amount of padding over the ‘heel’ of the hands. This means that when I rest on the bar ends, I am well insulated from the road shock.

The inner gloves, by the way, are the cheapies you buy in Chemists.  They stop sunburn, and are amazingly warm at night and in rain.  If you come off they also give a surprising amount of protection to grazing. They also get filthy, and wear out fast!