Giro Monaco II Gel mitts review

The Giro Monaco II mitts are loaded with features to make long summer rides more comfortable. This starts off with the underside of the glove, which is made of top-notch Pittards sheep leather. It’s comfortable and soft and moulds well to the hand. There are also a series of small venting holes over the centre of the palm.

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Around the palm’s edges are a series of pads of Giro’s Technogel padding. Giro says that Technogel is a spin-off from medical use, that provides good pressure distribution, impact absorption and durability.

The pads are in three areas which take bar pressure when riding: the underside of the thumb, across the inside of the knuckles, and the outside of the hand. Giro has double stitched around the pads, so they should cope with plenty of wear and tear.

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The back of the mitts is made of a lightweight mesh fabric. It doesn’t have perforations, but it provides good airflow and stretches well to accommodate the hand. The back of the thumb includes a large, effective microfibre wipe.

The mitts are closed with a Velcro strap with reflective dots and there’s no tendency to slip around when riding. The flip side of this is that they’re not too easy to get on and off. Giro includes a leather tab at the cuff that helps to pull them on.

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There are a couple of doubled-over fabric tabs on the middle fingers to help pull the mitts off again, but it still takes a bit of coercion to get them from your fingers. Fit is accurate to size, with a Medium fitting me closely but comfortably.

The Monaco II mitts are comfortable for long rides and do give very good pressure distribution. But on the downside, the white leather does soon look a bit grey from road grime picked up from the bar tape. The leather soon looks a bit scuffed and creased too. Giro does make an all-black variant, for which this shouldn’t be a problem.

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You also need to be careful when washing the Monaco II mitts as the leather can shrink and harden if not washed on a delicate cycle, while the Velcro straps tend to stick to other clothing.