I get really cold hands. Even when I’m driving a car. Add to this the fact that my hands aren’t much bigger than a child’s and I can’t tell you how difficult it is to find a pair of gloves thick enough to keep my hands warm while still offering enough movement and feel to control a motorcycle at speed.
Many years ago, when FIVE was finding its feet in the Australian marketplace, I was given a pair of mid-length so-called winter gloves. I say so-called because at the time I couldn’t see that they’d be warm enough for my frog fingers. But it turned out they boasted 150g of Thinsulate insulation, which is up the toasty-warm end of the scale. Less than 60g is sorta-warm, between 60g and 140g is where a lot of winter gloves sit, and anything more than that is, I reckon, wonderful.
FIVE only makes gloves, so all of its research and development goes into one line of products and, because of this, it makes a bloody good glove. My old WFX Skins still have plenty of years left in them, the outsides are robust and tear-free and, while they have started to leak in a really big ol’ downpour, they’re still warm and (mostly) dry when I need them to be.
Today’s equivalent
Good news! The latest FIVE WFX Skin gloves just lobbed at my place and I’m about to leave for a 1600km round trip through the Snowy Mountains. Where the old gloves had 150g of insulation, the tag says these new ones have 141g and I’m interested to see what a difference nine grams makes. They’re full-length, as opposed to the mid-length affairs of yesteryear, but protection and initial comfort levels seem on par. Stay tuned to see if FIVE has managed to improve what have been the best winter gloves for me to date. The new ones retail for $129.95.
Available from Moto National Accessories
By Kellie Buckley
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