Good Warm/Windproof MTB/XC Gloves

Equipment
4

I fight with gloves constantly. A problem with cardio is that you sweat, the gloves “breathe” but they really don’t clear the sweat, and then you just wet-out all your insulation. I’ve had good luck with unlined windstopper gloves between 50-65f-ish. Beyond that oversized shell gloves over textured fleece liners

A few solutions here:

  1. Get gloves with good breathabilty, not just windblocking you need convection. Total windblockage means no breathability. partial windstopper / polartec neoshell > full wind blocking
    Something like this - Blaze 2.0 Glove | Giro
    Sportful Fiandre Light Glove Black - Large [K1119546002-4] at BikeTiresDirect

In some cases, a non-wind blocking glove with a tight weave works well.

  1. Gloves fit super tight, you lose a lot of heat with the conductive chilling. Getting something that can just push the wind layer off your skin, it helps a lot. Don’t be afraid to buy gloves that are too large. Think of them as wearable bar mitts.

  2. Insulation wets out. We insulation has zero R factor. Wear layers. Separate wind blocking from insulation. Similarly, crushed insulation has zero R factor. What I’ve been doing is buying fleece gloves and them buying a shellglove 2 sizes bigger (XC skiing gloves).

  3. there are meaty parts of your hands and bony/tendon parts of your hand. Bone and tendons don’t get much blood and are usually sitting in compressed insulation. You need to get the hot parts to the heat the cold parts. Most insulation prevents the hot from heating the cool. Some air movement inside the glove is good. Buying bigger helps here, but textured fleece like Polartec Grid helps here (specifically Black Diamond Grid fleece).

Another strategy that works here is putting the insulation OVER your wind layer. The fleece stays dry, the wind hitting the wind layer is reduced, you can sweat your hands off. Same with neoprene gloves, just cover your hands with foam insulation.

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