member tested
PRoductreviews
Black Diamond Guide Gloves By Ken Hall #169423
OKAY, SO THIS WAS A WEIRD WIN- ter. The northwest never really got cold. Go to the southeast and their ski areas had a banner year. Messy, sloppy weather in the hills of north Georgia, great gobs of snow and sledding fun in the central and Midwest, and here it is May and it’s still snowing in Colorado—go figure! Somehow I managed to miss fall riding and just went from late summer to winter riding. And some- how it just felt like I needed insulated riding gloves more this year than I have in the past. If you are like me, you
have several sets of gloves: lightweight gloves for riding in the heat, medium weight gloves, deerskin gloves lined with sheep’s wool, and cold weather gloves. It gets interesting when the weather forecast for your ride is a mixed bag; you can give up a whole tank bag just to carry the extra gloves you need. Last fall, as I motored south out of the north Georgia mountains, the weather warmed along my route, and my cold weather gloves got warm and damp inside. Then, when the sun set, my hands got cold. It was time to search for a better mousetrap. Some of the things I like to do in
the winter are downhill ski, snow- shoe, cross country ski—anything outdoors in the snow. This led me to several outdoor and mountaineering equipment websites to read glove reviews. One glove lots of winter mountaineer and ice climbers really raved about was the Black Diamond
24 BMW OWNERS NEWS September 2015
Guide Glove. When I looked at it, the first thing that struck me was that it was shaped just like a riding glove. Of course we grab the throttle and grips, skiers grab ski poles, and climbers grab an ice ax. Nothing ven- tured, nothing gained, so I grabbed myself a pair of these gloves to try out.
degree rides. When the weather warms up, you can wear the fleece glove liners to keep the chill off or wear the rugged goat skin shell and still have
protection for your
hands. The glove is so well constructed that it
does take a little longer to break in than the average motorcycle glove, but once broken in, it softened up and was very comfortable. Having purchased several gloves and mittens for both men and women, my experi- ence with the fitment guide on the Black Diamond web- site is that it runs just a bit snug of true to size. I’ve used the gloves through three sea- sons now: the fall that felt like winter, winter in cold weather down to 34 degrees, and spring riding. I have been as happy as could be expected wearing finger gloves, and the Black Diamond Guide Gloves are warmer than most other winter riding gloves I’ve tried. Prices vary on the web with suggested retail at $169. The gloves are available in all black or tan and black. Black Diamond also makes a
The gloves were exactly what I had read
about. The Black Diamonds are extremely well made, with goat leather palms and a reinforced, double leather palm patch. The back of the knuckles are goat’s leather pad- ded with EVA foam for impact protection. The rest of the glove shell is double stretch nylon. The high cuff can be cinched tight to your jacket sleeve. One of the other unique features was the removable fleece inner glove. This liner is made of 142g Pri- maloft and boiled wool with a 100g fleece palm lining all inside a GORE-TEX® water- proof and breathable shell. Altogether, the glove was very warm, even on some 34
mittens using the same technology, and as we all know, mittens are always much warmer than gloves, but when it gets that cold even I am smart enough to park the bike and enjoy a mega grande caramel trip- ple half caf double pump mocha soy latte with whip at my favorite coffee and free wifi corner place!
Pros: Extremely well made, removable insulated liner, high cuff
Cons: Slightly longer break in time.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140