Gloves or No Gloves that is the question!

I normally don't ride with gloves, but I'm thinking about getting a pair to try it out as I've recently had some slippage due to sweaty palms.
 
Someone like Romain Bardet takes his gloves off when approaching a mountain to climb (ascending):

- save weight?
- style?
- shows he means business, wants to attack the hill?
- less likely to have a hard fall when ascending a big mountain due to slower speed (where as descending a mountain pro cyclists go very fast)?

That's my theory for pro's

There is a beauty of course being able to ride a bike with no change of clothes at all, no helmet, lycra etc or gloves. That can give a wonderful sense of freedom, that at anypoint one can hop on a bike, ride it, and off and do another activity.

As a young boy I was taught gloves are more important than a helmet, because you naturally protect your head in an accident with your hands. Now this isn't carte blanche, but there is some truth in it I think

Non-sweaty palmers - what protects your hands when you come off then?
 
Re:

Mostly gloves ......and sometimes even clothes....haha

Winters a definate yes, some of the bikes have big soft spongy grips so when out cruising I dont always feel the need to. Proper days out I ride with them all the time. Got given some pink tiger stripped carrati ones at mayhem a few years ago, dead comfy but cold on the finger tips
 
Pro's often have, um.. idiosyncratic ways. Bardet might have had a good result when he was 12 in a race when he forgot/removed his gloves, for all we know. Or he likes being seen as "the brave Bardet who rides sans gloves" (Ditto)..
Anyway, you make some good points. I did a 400 mile cycle camping trip in the Netherlands in the 90's, and wore a helmet. How many other cyclists did I see with helmets? A grand total of zero. The Dutch don't dress up for cycling.
But yes, I think gloves are a better safety item than a helmet too.
 
Hmmm....

I have white finger and carpal tunnel syndrome from all the thrashing my hands have had cycling off road for 25 years. Oh...and brambles and nettles. Which can ruin a good piece of singletrack. So.....

Gloves. Always. Now feels weird without them, like driving without a seatbelt.

In Thetford at the weekend - the Grom and I had full length POC Resistance gloves.
In the wood digging jumps the previous weekend - full length gardening gloves which look exactly like the POCs and cost a tenth of the price. Weird
On the road - Cannondale full finger and then mitts when the temp went up.

We’re a pretty glovey bunch.....
 
Glovely to hear that! It seems the full gamut (gauntlet) are represented on this thread from those who wear welding gloves for nipping to the shops to those who shave the flesh off their palms. Ain't life grand?
 

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