Why We Recommend Full Finger Gloves for Mountain Biking
When we send out our recommended list of what to wear to our clinics, clients frequently ask “Why do I need full-fingered gloves?” The answer is fairly simple.
Gloves can help protect your fingers and hands when you crash, clip trees or shrubs, or simply ride a trail with overgrown plants. Why full-fingered? If you crash, you don’t want your fingernails to catch on rocks, roots, or plants that could potentially rip them off (see video below). This is a really painful injury that you definitely want to avoid!
Even on the hottest days, we still ride full-finger gloves, that’s why we opt for lightweight gloves most of the time.
Here are some of our favorite full-fingered gloves:
POC Savant Unisex Gloves
Wild Rye Galena Bike Gloves
Dakine Syncline Gel Gloves
Locally made Gripit Gloves
You will notice that none of the gloves we recommended have velcro on them. That’s because velcro can snag your jersey and when the velcro wears out, the gloves don’t work as well.