Riding Gloves – Why Everyone Should Wear Them

Nowadays a lot of people wear helmets while riding a two wheeler, it doesn’t matter what sort of two wheeler it is. It could be a 100CC scooter or a 1000CC superbike. Now I’m not saying absolutely everyone wears a helmet, they don’t, but they should. The amount of people who neglect personal safety and ride two wheelers with zero head protection is still extremely massive and a large proportion of people who do wear a helmet only do it because of the fear of being fined and have poorly fitting helmets with limited protection, but that’s an entirely different topic for another day. My point is that helmets are on the verge of being accepted by the public as a mainstream riding accessory for everyone regardless of what vehicle they have. However the same cannot be said of other items of riding gear such as gloves, these are still viewed by people as specialist rider apparel which have no use for intracity commuters. Well I think this public perception is deeply flawed and I have a few good reasons why wearing riding gloves will make anyone’s two wheeler commute a lot easier.

 

The first and most obvious point is personal protection. When you fall off a vehicle during a road accident, basic instinct dictates that your hands and feet try to shield the rest of your body from the impact in one way or another, whether it’s your hands reaching out forwards to cocoon a fall or reaching upwards to shield your face, your hands are going to be in the main firing line of impact along with your feet so it’s a good idea for your hands to have a layer of their own protection if such an instance does indeed occur.

 

Gloves also play an important part in reducing a lot of handlebar pressure exerted onto your palms by providing an intermediate layer of cushioning between the two. This problem can especially be observed in heavy traffic when it’s tough to hold an ideal riding position in stop start vehicle motion and a lot of your bodyweight falls onto your palms. When this happens, the vehicle’s handle can dig into your hands which can cause quite some discomfort. Gloves can ease this discomfort to quite a good degree.

 

In addition to this, your vehicle will just feel much nicer when you’re wearing gloves. It’s an immediate effect and once you get used to it, you won’t want to go back. The handle and levers feel chunkier and more satisfying to grip and you get the feeling of being in overall better control of the vehicle. This in turn makes the whole riding process a lot more enjoyable, doesn’t matter if you’re going out of the city or just visiting a friend, the quality of your two wheeler journey will be improved greatly. Also, a lot of people are often worried about the inconvenience they’ll have to face if they need to use their phone while they’re wearing gloves but the thing is a large number of glove manufacturers have acknowledged this and now make a wide variety of gloves which work on smartphone screens flawlessly.

 

 

 

Motorcycling gear is something a lot of people stay away from because of the price. A lot of times people understand the importance of personal road safety but are hesitant to make a riding gear purchase because of how expensive everything is. Well most of the times this is quite correct. Riding gear is very expensive if you want a piece of kit that’s genuinely very protective. Because of this fact however, gloves are a great place to start. They start as low as 500 rupees and while this budget won’t give you a great deal of protection, it’ll definitely get you started on the right trajectory. Gloves of any sort are better than no gloves at all in every conceivable way. A little higher up in the budget ladder, there are all weather gloves, short gloves for everyday use, full gauntlet gloves for ultimate protection and even hot climate optimized gloves to keep your hands well ventilated without compromising protection levels.

 

There’s really all to gain and nothing to lose from wearing riding gloves. Pick up a pair and I guarantee every commute of every day will become more comfortable and a tad bit safer.

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