Tour Master Road Race Elite Gloves
Tour Master Road Race Elite Gloves
Roadrace gloves worthy of the name
ROADRACING, FOR ALL ITS BALLETIC grace, can be downright violent. And hands often bear the brunt of injury. Why? Two reasons: 1) People naturally tend to put their hands out in front of them to break a fall; and 2) a fallen rider's hand can get trapped beneath a handlebar. When it all goes wrong at triple-digit speeds, you need all the protection you can get.
But while many gloves are touted as "roadracing" models, only a small percentage actually are suited to the task. Thus, we were surprised to find that the Road Race Elite gloves from Tour Mas ter, of all peo ple, actually live up to their name.
What makes these gloves so good? Attention to detail. Consider the palms: In addition to the requisite double layers of leather and metal studs, there's a layer of energyabsorbing closed-cell foam padding and another of heatand tear-resistant keviar. There's more foam padding on the backs of the fingers and hands, and on both sides of the wrists, to protect the ends of the radius and ulna, the two bones in your forearm. Elastic at the wrists and a fat velcro closure on the long gauntlets keep the gloves on in a crash.
We've been wearing Road Race Elites for five years, and are truly impressed. Though roadracing crashes have writ ten off two pairs, the gloves did their job, and protected us from in jury. Complaints are few: The seams at the fingertips tend to come h apart if the gloves are worn in hot, sweaty weather; and sizing is inconsistent-one tester originally fit size XL, but now wears size L because the later XLs are too big.
Otherwise, the Road Race Elites are as good as anything on the market. Made in Korea using Japanese drum dyed leather, they're available in five different color combinations, in men's sizes XS-XXL, for $110. Expensive, yes, but the best often is.
ROAD RACE ELITE GLOVES Helmet House, Inc. 26855 Malibu Hills Rd. Calabasas Hills, CA 91301 800/421-7247 Price $110 A Protective enough for roadracing A Comfortable enough for street riding owns V Inconsistent sizing V Sweat rots seams
