Wednesday 13 May 2009

GamJams Reviews: Summer Gloves

I am publishing this too early and I'm too dumb to figure out how to time publish it. All of the electric stuff in my house thinks it's perpetually noon on January 1.

Mike is a master of Google optimization. The way he has us write the titles for these has resulted in my continued dominance in search results for both the Bell Volt helmet (still in love with it) and Michelin Pro Race tires (I got one flat too many and am currently having a torrid affair with Continental 4000s). I tried to think of some search that would be funny to be the top result for but I've got a lot going on and my twisted sense of humor has the day off.

In a development that should shock absolutely no one, I bring a decidedly non cycling glove into my glove mix. For crits and some road races, as well as chilly spring riding, I use these laborer's gloves. We buy them by the truckload for work, the guys go through about a pair every two days. I've almost never actually worn them at work (although I framed a freaking sweet wall today, I rarely DO anything except for make phone calls, play with budgets and schedules and scratch my ass), but they are great on the bike. The magic is in the red latex grip. It's like having SpiderMan hands. There's no way you're losing your grip with these, yet changing hand positions is cake. They're sort of cotton so while they do get warm your hands don't just roast in them. If you like a little cheap in your diet these can't be beat at about $.60 a pair. Yes, that's right, you can buy 100 pairs of these for the price of the snazzy Assos summer gloves. The ones currently in rotation have been there since sometime in February or March (I train sans gloves whenever it's warm enough to do so) so they last plenty long enough.

I was accused of being a Lance Lacy wannabe while wearing these the other day at Ft. Richie. He's a heck of a guy, but tats ain't my bag.

The other gloves I have for summer are the Descente CSC team ones. I bought them last year from someplace that still had closeouts from after CSC switched from Descente. These have the big Descente logo thing made out of some sticky stuff right in the middle of the palm, and almost no padding. They have a hole in one palm from my close inspection of the pavement at Walkersville last month. They are slip on, which I like a lot, and have a big snot pad near the thumb. Those of you who have ridden with me can appreciate how this would be a big feature for me. I can't remember which of my team mates it was but someone on Saturday said I damn near covered him in boogers. I am like the Peter North of nose blowing. Don't touch the hair.

Anyone who doesn't do my race is an idiot. You Got Dropped - you are going to need about 30 photographers and a Cray supercomputer to get all the droppage that will happen that weekend.

Speaking of You Got Dropped, they had some skinsuit photos recently. I recently inherited a skinsuit and it was with some considerable trepidation that I tried it on. You ain't hidin' nothin' in one of them things. Anyhow, I like look Captain America in it. I mean I am one sexy freaking beast.

5 comments:

Jim said...

>>>The magic is in the red latex grip. It's like having SpiderMan hands.

Which makes me wonder why you don't just get a can of red latex dip for tools, and dunk your hands. You'd save a shit ton of money on gloves, plus you'd never, ever drop tools or small parts.

I don't see how you could possibly go wrong doing this.

x said...

i think i left my seatpost bag on top of your car. did you buy any chance grab it? if not, it's ok.
-chris

Kyle Jones said...

You could have just said, "I saw Kyle in a skin suit and man that guys been eating too much ice cream and man I look good compared that guy." hahaha.

Lance Lacy said...

those gloves rock,i use them everyday for work,they are cheap but do the job,they grip like hell..good call on the gloves...i train and race with long finger gloves.i had crashed 2 years ago and was wearing short fingered gloves and chewed up my fingers on the asphalt,so i switched i like the extra protection,its not like we are racing for 5-7 hours in the sun

Sigberto Garcia said...

these gloves go very well with the rope, trash bags, and muddy shovel in the trunk of dave's car