review 2 & 3

so, i've put the gloves through their cold weather paces.

on saturday i was on a rather long term ride. we had to take the car in for it's annual inspection and we pretty much knew it wasn't going to pass, so i was the backup for transportation. that also meant that i was doing a lot of running around chasing joey while she tried to find a place to take the car in (not to mention me taking directions wrong and going to the opposite end of the city).

the temperatures hovered between 2 and 10 degrees celsius with light winds. i ended up being on bike from around 11am to 7pm (or so). mind you, this wasn't all straight riding, there were the occasional stops at stores and getting food (Wendy's spicy chicken burger with chili...mmm...warm).

before i say anything about the gloves, i'll say this: my hands are hardly ever warm. i have a problem with circulation and no matter what i do, i can't keep my hands warm when i'm outside (barring warm weather). back in my hometown i would spend a lot of time on ski-doo and there was nothing that would keep my hands warm. i tried every pair of winter gloves and nothing would work. i just gave in and suffered.

all that being said, i think the gloves worked pretty well. they did a fine job at keeping my hands from freezing for the entire day. after an hour or so, i did notice the tips of my fingers getting cold, but they weren't numb and they didn't get numb the whole day. this is a vast improvement over my winter gloves and my regular riding gloves.

the comfort is top notch as well. from the get-go they are very flexible and nothing pushes uncomfortably against your hands. i can easily grip the handle bars and reach the levers with no problems. they are a bulky glove though. if you are looking for something that you can easily pick a key out of your pocket...forget it. i can only do that if there is only one thing in my pocket...with luck. there is no way i can differentiate between objects in my pocket with three layers of material over my hands. that being said, i can use a key with no problems and i can zip up my jacket. I can't unbuckle my helmet though and it's kind of comical when i try.

review number three comes from this mornings ride to work. it takes me about 30 minutes to get to work with a quick stop at the local Java Moose outlet for my mocha-cino (yeah, i'm the big mean biker...lol). this mornings temperature was around -3 degrees celsius. in that cold my hands were numb in my regular gloves and with my winter gloves my fingers were numb. the new gloves performed great. i don't expect my hands to be toasty warm when i get to work, but i do expect to be able to use my hands and for them not to ache. these gloves did that for me. lets face it, in freezing temperatures, there isn't much that's going to keep you warm for extended periods of time. add to that the fact that i'm creating my own wind chill and i don't want it to look like my mom dressed me for a snowstorm.

so, in my books, the gloves were well worth the money spent. the last test i'll need to perform is a water proof test. that will most likely happen on my next few days off.