Part of what I like is that they are warm and comfortable. I love the way Sportful adds so much silicone grip to the palms of their gloves. A big consideration though is that all gloves fail. Coming home with four or five pairs of bulky gloves that are soaking wet is a hassle. You also have to own them and good gloves aren't cheap.

Lobster gloves, first made popular by Pearl Izumi, are designed to keep your hands warm in cold temperatures without limiting your dexterity like mittens do. Lobster gloves can be thought of as a cross between regular gloves and mittens. To give them the full test, though, plunging my right hand into some icy cold canal water confirmed that they're not waterproof in the submersible sense. Okay, that might be expecting a bit much, but I have worn gloves that have resisted my plunge test, and to describe these as waterproof is a little misleading. Water resistant, I'd say. Padding and control If you have too tight gloves you can restrict the blood circulation in your hands and might end up with numb and cold hands. The low-density padding also gave rise to tingling, numbness and similar discomfort much past the hour mark. Even so, my hands remained perfectly dry. Assos is second to market with a game changing product for those who ride in cold rain. Given that no glove is truly waterproof, the best you can hope for is warm and wet. Neoprene gloves will keep you warm even when wet but if the outside air is too cold then they need protection. A shell glove provides that protection but keep in mind, you won't be able to use a shell on its own. Not only would it not provide much warmth but the Assos RSR Thermo rain shell gloves use a five finger (standard glove) design that's sized perfectly to fit over the top of standard gloves in the same size. Without something as a liner, you'll swim in these gloves.I first heard about 180s when they came out with neat ear muffs, so I was excited to see them doing a nice glove. I’d call this a winter glove for running, hiking, XC skiing, and even cycling. Multi-purpose, if you will. Overall it’s a very cool and innovative glove. Meaning that when hands get too hot or cold it’s just a matter of slipping on or off an overglove (waterproof or windproof?). Inside the Velocio Alpha gloves you will find Polartec Alpha. Basically this is the newest wonder material. It's incredibly warm for the weight and it breathes better than any other modern synthetic insulation. Velocio wraps a stylish outer with plenty of colours available around Polartec Alpha and makes a glove that covers a huge range of temperatures while keeping the bulk low. The inside of the gloves is a Primaloft Gold Active+ material that's reassuringly fluffy to slip your hand into before heading out into the elements. Using a lobster design and bunching fingers together so they can cosy up for warmth is a common winter glove tactic, but while the outer three fingers are grouped together in a fat claw, they each get to snuggle into their own little compartment within that broader part of the glove. 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.

The more I investigated this problem, the more I heard that the best option would be a shell without any ability to absorb water. The only problem was that there wasn't a good option available, then the Sportful Lobster glove hit the market. These gloves are the solution you need if you want to ride long distances in cold rain. There's another thing to consider about these gloves though. If you ride where it rains and it's near freezing, like it is most of the winter in the US Pacific Northwest, then the Castelli Diluvio gloves are the other half of your winter riding system. Pair these with one of the shell options here and you can happily ride all day in heavy rain and temperatures just above freezing. With the shell protecting these from the wind and cold air, your body can heat up the water exactly the way neoprene gloves work in warmer weather. You'll be wet but warm and you won't need to change gloves every few hours. It's a serious game changing option. Despite all the competition, the Castelli Diluvio gloves stand out from the crowd of neoprene gloves in a few ways. The biggest differentiator is that there is touchscreen compatibility on the thumb and forefinger. It doesn't work great but given that other options have nothing, this is a big upgrade. Castelli has also really nailed the fit between the thumb and first finger where many of these gloves are unreasonably tight. The abundance of silicone on the palm is also a nice feature that makes grabbing the controls feel great. We've reviewed plenty of winter gloves on road.cc, but the lobster design is a little rarer, so there aren't many to compare these GripGrabs against. Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) is Canada’s leading supplier of quality outdoor gear and clothing. The company sells a complete line of outdoor gear and apparel, including a large selection of gloves. They even have cycling gloves for summer and winter!There are details beyond just cold-weather performance that make these attractive, too. One of those details is smartphone compatibility. Pearl Izumi makes sure you can use your smartphone without removing your gloves although realistically you'll be using your thumbs not your finger. There is a touchscreen point on the forefinger but given the lobster design it's almost completely unusable. Mittens are known to be much warmer rather than gloves because they do not allow wind inside. However, the warmth edition comes with the price of dexterity. However, with the right gloves, you really can make numb fingers a thing of the past. Here’s are our top 5 glove recommendations… Castelli Diluvio Deluxe Gloves – here When it comes to fit, Sportful offers three sizes. Instead of labelling them small, medium, and large there is S/M, L/XL, and XXL. It's further complicated with no specific sizing in the guide that matches. Typically, I fall right between small and medium and tend to choose small for Sportful. For these, the smallest option is a perfect fit with enough room for layering while still retaining as much dexterity as expected. Liner gloves are thin, lightweight layers that you wear underneath full gloves. They don’t need to be super swanky, and they certainly don’t need to be expensive.

The choice then varies depending on the type of winter in which you ride your bike, more or less cold, more or less humid, and so on.

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These are my number one recommendation if you find you get cold fingers, but want a glove that is flexible, and allows free movement. I wore them on Tuesday and at the end my hands were really wet, not that it was raining but because they don't appear to be breathable.

When I'm in the drops I'm definitely a two fingers on the bars, two fingers tugging the brakes kinda guy, and asking around, I'm not alone, so if you're the same then transitioning to using just an index finger might be a stretch. 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? Too loose or too tight gloves can be uncomfortable and the material can bunch up. This can cause your problems while riding and will change the feel of wearing a glove. It was out last week in just over 0 – and my Specialized (non lobster) ‘Element 1.5’ gloves were plenty warm with thin silk liners (although as you’d expect, felt a bit distanced from the bars for any tech riding). For how unique the experience is though, it mostly disappears. The app is set and forget and everything just works seamlessly to add heat all the way to the end of the fingers. It would be great to have the same tech in a less bulky glove but if you need help to stay warm these are the best heated gloves I've tried. The only thing you need to be careful of is keeping them clean as you can’t toss them in the washer.Neoprene gloves work by holding water close to your skin and allowing it to work as insulation. The problem is that they don't work when the outside air is near freezing. The outside air overcomes your body's ability to warm the water and you have both wet and cold hands. You have to keep the outside air away from the neoprene and if you put them inside of a shell glove it solves everything. The shell will leak but the water that comes through will become a part of your insulation. You can remain warm and comfortable for hours with a pair of neoprene gloves inside a shell. What are the warmest winter cycling gloves? These gloves are insulated and are ready to face any wet weather conditions in the winter riding. This is Endura's one of the best glove designs that offers everything along with breathable fabric. Temperatures dropped this week, and whilst riding past drivers de-icing their cars is always a bit of a giggle, frozen fingers are less enjoyable. Wind and Waterproof fabric are designed with a perforated internal membrane that keeps the elements on the edge. Windproof fabrics are designed according to the volume of air passing through 1spm of the fabric.