Colorado Kid

Every company says its glove is the warmest on the market. Who is right and wrong? What are the winners and losers in these categories?

Wanderer

The warmest gloves I have, are Polartech, with 40gr thinsulate insulation.

erig007

40g thinsulate insulation is not much, my snowmobile gloves had 200g thinsulate insulation originally before i improved them.
The warmest gloves on the market (fur excluded) should be among trigger lobster gloves and electric gloves.
Gloves are usually not as warm as mitten and not as practical for the same amount of warmth (bulky fingers and hard to remove)

Juha

I have a pair of Sinisalo lobster gloves for extremely cold weather and have seldom had the need to use them. I use XC ski gloves for normal winter riding. There's more to choose from and also more options in regards to how warm you want the glove to be. Wool is excellent (mittens), but you need some kind of wind barrier on top of wool when cycling.

--J

robert schlatte

I purchased a pair of lobster gloves at Performance cycle last winter. I am sure it is not the warmest or most highly rated, but they work very well in the zero to 10 degree F weather we've been having lately. On super cold days I wear wool glove liners underneath for added protection. I found the lobster gloves in the clearance bin and paid only $10 for them!

bikemig 

I just picked up a pair of black diamond jupiter mittens on clearance. They're pretty awesome. They have a waterproof insert and 200 g of insulation. They are also nicely oversized so I can use a liner glove. My hands really suffer from the cold and these work. An overmitt with a waterproof liner and insulation is a good solution.

Leebo

Buy some plain windproof fleece gloves. Put them in some pogies/barmitts on your bike. Warm hands follow.

erig007

A probable winner here. Should allow you to ride anywhere cold on Earth.....and beyond...

Wanderer

I've been wearing gloves for 60+ years, in the Chicago area, and these polartech (inside and outside) with 40gr of thinsulate sandwiched between them - are still the warmest GLOVES I have ever worn. The only ones warmer are my Gerbing electric glove that I use on my motorcycle.

I've worn warmer mittens, but never warmer gloves - and I've had scads of snowmobile gloves.

kaisersling

I am not a big pearl izumi guy, but for one item. I have the Pearl Izumi Pro soft shell Lobster Claw gloves. They are amazing for cold and wind. They really cant be used in temps over 30 or 35f degrees.... unless you like sweaty hands. My hands have never been cold in them and I have poor circulation

Daniel4

Whatever you choose don't make the mistake of setting up your bike barehanded. Yesterday I went to visit a store after work. When I came out it was already dark and around -20C. I suited up inside. Outside when I fastened my bag, unlocked my bike and put on my helmet I did it all barehanded. It only took a few minutes for my fingers to start hurting. It got better as I put the gloves on and rode home but the tingling remained. When I got home I made the mistake again of taking the gloves completely off instead of just the shell.

From now on I'll have to remember to keep the wool liners on if I have to remove the leather shell.

fietsbob

Mittens .. the 4 fingers cooperate and share the heat.

auldgeunquers

Have to agree with the promoters of mittens here. For cold nothing beats them. I found an cheap and unused pair of mittens I bought for my wife at the bottom of her cold weather basket. They have been my go-to hand covers for cold the last couple of weeks. If the temperature is below about -20 celcius I wear thin wool blend gloves under them so I can pull the mitts off to deal with locks and panniers and etc. without handling said items with bare hands.

These mitts are not particularly thick (I think they are cheap copies of good gloves made for XC Skiing) and I have no trouble opperating the triggger shifters or the brakes on my winter bike.

It was -32 celcius (-25 F) this morning when made the ride to Stuff-mart for some stuff. Hands were warm and comfy.

Carbonfiberboy 

Almost anything with decent insulation works in the dry. The problem area is 32°-40° in steady rain.

auldgeunquers

Yes - have to agree this is problem combination. 20 below (either one) and dry is much more comfortable than just above freezing in the rain. I think I would be looking at barmitts to solve that one.

erig007

Diving gloves do it for me when it is raining around freezing.

vol

So cute! Where did you get these? I'd love to get them. I remember you posted another cute pair of gloves last year. This pair is even cuter. Bear paws.

GravelMN

My solution for those conditions is a pair of thick neoprene ice fishing gloves with wool glove liners.

When temps are well below freezing, I've got Ice Armor Extreme gloves that are one size larger so they will accommodate the wool liners as well. My wife bought me some Bar Mitts this Christmas and they let me get by with my mid-weight gloves even when it is below zero F.

79pmooney

Mitttens. Down to about 10 degrees: leather chopper mitts with wool or fleece liner mitts work really well and have the side benefits of super grip to the HBs (deerskin leather; it doesn't get better) and really easy on-off so you can pull one off while riding, get a snack out your pocket, eat it and put the mitt back on while riding. Treat them with Snoeshoe beeswax dressing once or twice per winter and they will last you years. And it the day warms up? Stuff the inners in your pocket. The leather outers double as cycling gloves up to 60 degrees plus.

I say this with more than a dozen winters using them. If I rode regularly below 20, I would find an easy way to block air going down the cuffs. I think my parka of my days as a youth did that. I don't recall major issues commuting the week of -5F every morning with a downhill start. I will claim to belong to that elite group of "young and stupid" so any recollections might have been tainted.

Google chopper mitts.

Ben

erig007

Those are from wigens which seems not to make them anymore.

MattoftheRocks

I use big ol snowboarding mitts- the sort that come with a removable fleece glove inside. With or without the glove, they're worthless above 15f, sweat city.

Motolegs

Your warmest glove is a mitten.

Bought a fine pair of cycling gloves from a big name manufacturer. They are slick looking, reflective, and cook breakfast.

But under about 20 degrees I start to feel like that Iceman dude they found buried with arrows and stuff.

The mittens I found in a thrift store. Stuffed with feathery down, they work to well below zero. Good stuff.

fotooutdoors

Pogies/bar mits for the win. Earlier this winter, when I first made the pogies, I rode for an hour in -5*F weather wearing a light insulated glove (ones I wear between 30 & 40 by themselves), and my hands drenched the gloves. Since then, I have switched to using single layer polartec gloves. I rode for 25 minutes this morning at roughly -10F with no issues. Also, they vent way better than the heavy gloves I used before, so sweat isn't an issue. On the way home, it was 20F, and I didn't have sweat buildup in them (my back was a different story).

Mitts are my second choice for real cold, but they really don't hold a candle to pogies.