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Hein Gericke 'Air' Summer Gloves - Bob Pickett elects to keep his hands cool in hot weather with these lightweight, ventilated bike gloves

Hein Gericke Air gloves - little perforations keep your hands cool and comfortable For far too long, I'd been using the same gloves all year round. Whilst this isn't a major issue, it does mean a compromise; any glove that is warm enough to handle Winter has to, by it's very nature, have a certain thickness to it. And that means a loss of feel at the fingertips and a reduction in your fine control. Also, this means that on hot days, your hands sweat - and sweaty hands are uncomfortable hands… which plays on your mind and distracts from your concentration.

I also wanted a pair of gloves that would be compatible with my Hein-Gericke Air jacket, so I decided to go with the Air gloves from the same manufacturer.

In terms of ensuring your hands stay cool and dry, it is hard to beat the Air gloves. They have a mesh fabric on the back of the hands and thumb to allow a free flow of air, along with small ventilation holes on the finger leather and also two additional vents on the knuckle protectors on the index and middle finger.

The cuff is narrow, allowing the gloves to easily fit inside your jacket's sleeve - allowing air to flow up the sleeve and assist the cooling effect. The gloves secure by means of a simple velcro panel on the cuff, which is enough as they hug your hands anyway.

Of course, a Summer glove still has to provide protection, so the Air glove has - as I said above - knuckle protectors for the index and middle fingers, along with thin, goatskin leather strips on all fingers and the thumb. This leather extends along the back of the hand onto the cuff. The whole underside of the glove is made from the same thin leather, but is reinforced on the palms as this is the most likely impact area in a slide.

Taking protection, the Air gloves feature a Scotchlite 3M reflective strip along the knuckles to help the rider show up in the night.

The gloves also feature a suede strip on the inside of the thumb and along the base of the fingers for better grip on the handlebars. Not so much of an issue on a lovely, dry day - but if it rains, that thin leather doesn't feel like it will aide grip, so the suede will ensure you remain in full control.

Rain, with a glove as ventilated as these, is going to be the enemy. So far I've been lucky and not experienced a downpour while wearing them, but I'm guessing that as with the Air jacket, I'm going to get wet as and when it happens.

So what are they like to wear? When you first put them on, they just glue themselves to your hands. First off, this does feel like it is going to be really uncomfortable - and for the first 20 or so miles it did seem like they were going to chafe against my knuckles. But they soon soften up a touch and after a few rides, they feel like they're part of your hands. I also find myself able to exercise fine control with fingertip precision - not something an all-season glove allows.

Verdict:

Wearing the Air gloves and jacket combination on a hot day is a dream - as long as you're moving, you stay cool and perspiration-free… which means you feel comfortable. And comfortable means you're enjoying the ride, rather than suffering as you get hot and sweaty.

Just hope it doesn't rain.

For details of your local Hein-Gericke stockist, click on Hein Gericke's UK site

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