Friend showed me an article this week that showed a repair being done on a bike. My question to him and his reply to me matters more than what the repair was that was shown.

Mechanic in the photo was wearing what looked like nitrile gloves. I asked the friend if he wears gloves while working on his bikes. He said he tries but they either tear or he takes them off because he can’t feel threads and such. Which are exactly the same reasons I rarely wear gloves except when doing brute force or cleaning jobs.

My question: do you wear gloves? Do any brands/ models work better than others? My older skin and nails are becoming less tolerant of grease, oil, and such than they once were.

I've had really good luck with these. They're tough, relatively comfortable, fit me well, and I can wear them for days. I can pick up tiny parts (eg, paper thin washers from caliper brakes) easily while wearing them.

But if I know I won't be working with any kind of chemicals -- rare -- I also have this kind and this kind. I love them, and they almost zero out the (non-winter) tendency toward sweaty hands, but they really aren't that protective from chemicals.

Much to the chagrin of my doctor father-in-law, I do not wear work gloves. I find it impossible to feel what I need to be feeling.

I have learned to correct my technique after a few too many chainring-knuckle collisions while removing pedals that required a trip to Urgent care, but I have finally learned my lesson on that front.

Since having a baby, I now keep a box of nitrile gloves in my garage. Most of my wrenching happens at night when my son is asleep, but I have had too many occurrences of hands covered in grease and grime when the baby wakes up and my wife needs me to bounce him, so to keep everyone happier I always don the gloves when doing anything with the drivetrain or bearings. As much as I hate disposable plastics, it may become a permanent habit because it's so much easier than scrubbing chain grime or bearing grease off the hands later.

Sure, they tear, but not always and it still saves a lot of cleanup time.

I prefer the type that has the rubber like coating covering palms and fingers, with mesh material got back of the hand and wrist area. If using nitrile gloves, get thicker material or double up. Some things are easier to do without gloves, the coated/ mesh are a lot more convenient for removal and reuse.

I find myself wearing gloves a lot more often. Doing automotive work I've found these to be pretty decent for holding up longer than 10 minutes. I used to get the cheap ones and might go through a dozen at a time. I still use the thin ones for doing things like greasing bearings where they don't need to be tough. The 9 mil I can take on & off as well and use a few times. Sometimes you need to just have bare hands for feel or dexterity.

​​​​​​https://www.harborfreight.com/9-mil-...ack-68511.html

Cheap, random, washable, touch-screen capable nitrile for me:
https://a.co/d/craWvgA

Similar to the guy with a baby, I rarely get more than ten minutes before I have to help with my three year old around here. No time to spend another ten minutes scrubbing grease off my hands. She may have peed her pants by then.

Sometimes. I often forget. I prefer thicker nitriles, the challenge for me is I have long palms and fingers but XL gloves are rare to unobtanium and the tension of the large size gets uncomfortable after a while.

Sometimes I wear standard exam glove-type gloves (latex, I'm pretty sure) but moist of the time I don't. As has been mentioned, they tear. They also do not fit very well. But the biggest problem with them is that my hands sweat - a lot - and I get tired of having little water balloons at the ends of my arms.

I wear nitrile gloves more often than not these days. Bike, car, and house repairs. I mostly use 7 mil ones from Amazon. No problem getting the XL size. I use 9 mil for tougher jobs. I was a reluctant glove user but converted now.

Yes. I usually wear a nitrile dipped glove. Especially lately doing volunteering at the bike co-op.

For pretty much everything bike related. As someone who cooks and touches their eyes without thinking, gloves are a literal life saver. You can call me “soft” but I’d rather not have deadly chemicals on my skin.

I buy from harbor freight. The 7 mil and up are really good! The 5 mil gloves tear.

If you get the right size they can be very dexterous. Think surgeons. The key is having them a little small but thick enough not to tear. Simple but I see a lot of people buying the wrong size and wrong thickness and then having a bad time.

I have used gloves since the 80's. I used to have to handle used auto parts daily plus keep my hands clean. I use 4 mil nitrile gloves. I find that they are thin enough to have dexterity yet durable enough for use. I typically use I mineral spirits with a brass brush or copper cleaning pad to clean rust off polished parts and the gloves hold up well enough for that. If a glove starts to disintegrate or tear I simply replace it. They are cheap enough.

The harbor freight have XL and XXL in stock at my location

Thanks, I'm pretty sure that's where I got my last supply.

Thanks for the replies. Heavier gloves seem like the answer. I’ll pick some up this week. Being able to shift from bikes to some other activity without a deep scrub seems well worth the cost. And exposure to chemicals? Yeah, I got plenty of that using epoxies in a ski shop years back. Our work shop was a twofer: contact and inhalation.

I do have a box of nitrile gloves on my work bench and wear them when I know I'll be doing something particularly messy (e.g., overhauling a bottom bracket). Years back, we had this product in the bike shop:

https://pr88gamp.com/

You slather a marble-sized ball on your hands, and then grease and grime magically wash off with water once you're done wrenching.

I also use a set of heavy-duty gloves like these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/G-F-Prod...5L-6/202710241

That's after severely gouging my thumb on a chain ring while trying to remove a rusted bit. They also work really well when I want more leverage to undo something stubbornly affixed.

I do for the messy work. I wore them for work for decades so used to the sweaty hands, etc. I’ll get a few uses out of them before they tear. Last year I was on a ride and found an almost completely full box on the side of the road. That’s what I’m using now.

Fast Orange for the post job hand cleaning if I don’t wear the gloves.

I second the use of pr88. Neal sent a tub my way awhile back. It works great if you rub it into fingernails. It feels kinda moist for 10-20 seconds then dries to an unnoticeable film. 10-20 seconds under warm water and both grime and film are gone.

I tried using disposable gloves, but they always tear on me. I use non-disposable gloves sometimes, but I find I have to take them off a lot to, for example, pick up a small washer off the floor.
Whereas when I am riding the bike, I always have gloves on.

These are a must in my workshop. I wear them when using the polishing wheel and when stress-relieving spokes during a wheel build.

I've had problems with gloves tearing. I also don't like the loss of feel and the water collection in warm weather. I haven't tried the 9mil gloves in XL so that may be the thing that works for me. The other problem is I have a habit of diving into the work and then think, "I should have taken "before" pictures" and "I should have put on gloves".

I use Fast Orange and a hand scrub brush afterwards to clean my hands and it works good, except under the finger nails. Preventing dirt is better than removing it once it is there. Work smarter not harder. I gotta work on that.

Thanks for the recommendations. They are in the cart now. One step closer. I just need to remember to put them on.

I try to remember to wear them especially when dealing with the chain, derailleurs and bearings. The the 5mil at **** Freight work well for me and I really like the new "Grinch Green" color


I drive a dump truck for and pretty much every time I get out of the truck I put work gloves on.

Yup, wait until they have a "good" sale then get a box or two.

Intriguing, so I googled it. Home Depot sells something similar and I thought the photo was highly relevant for this discussion.

Sad to report -- rarely. Even used paint stripper with bare hands. ("Do not attempt this at home")