GripGrab Ride Waterproof Winter gloves review

Danish company GripGrab makes a range of riding accessories which are well suited for UK conditions. The GripGrab Ride Waterproof Winter gloves include a breathable membrane to help retain heat when riding in cold conditions. They are windproof and water repellent as well as being well insulated.

Getting the right weight for a winter glove can be tricky: too much padding and it’s difficult to use your gears and brakes; too little and you can end up with cold fingers. The GripGrab Ride Waterproof Winter gloves hit the middle ground and are effective, without being too warm. Waterproofing is good too, keeping the hands dry, with little tendency to sweatiness.

The GripGrab Ride Waterproof Winter gloves include a pad of the company’s DoctorGel in the heel of the palm. It does help provide some cushioning, although its position isn’t quite where I tend to put most pressure when riding a drop bar bike. It’s only really effective when riding on the hoods.

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The rest of the palm relies on the insulating padding to relieve pressure. This is effective. The palm is also covered in silicone Gs to provide plenty of grip on damp, cold bars. There’s more silicone lettering on the forefinger and middle finger tips, to make using the brakes and gears secure. The thumb has a touch screen tip. It’s not the best positioning – I usually use my index finger to operate screens – and I didn’t find it worked too well on some computers.

The back of the gloves features a reflective dot pattern along its bottom half. This provides quite a large area for enhanced low light visibility. You also get a terry back to the thumb, to wipe your glasses or your brow or nose clean and dry.

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The GripGrab Ride Waterproof Winter gloves are quite close fitting. This is good to prevent the hands slipping around in them. But you might need to size up to get a comfortable fit.

The cuff is long enough to extend some way over the wrist. It’s closed by a Velcro tab and close enough to keep out draughts, although this means that it works better under some jacket cuffs than over them. It might get tricky with some jackets with more bulky or tight wrist closures.