Bicycling USA – July 2019

I

UNLESS, OF COURSE, IT MATTERS TO

YOU. BY JOHN BRADLEY

IT

DOESN’T

MATTER

W H E T H E R

YOU WEAR

CYCLING

GLOVES

I prefer to be as unencumbered as pos-

sible in my active pursuits. I’d rather f lirt

with hypothermia than wear an extra

ounce of clothing in the winter. I will not

have extra food for you if we ride long.

I don’t even like to wear helmets. I do

wear them, for the most part. But I learned to ride

in the 1970s and started racing in the ’80s. I lived

enough of the wind-in-your-hair era to truly miss

it. Even now, when my wife isn’t watching, I’ll leave

my helmet behind for shopping trips on my townie.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I avoided gloves

for most of my years as a cyclist. There were situa-

tions for which I needed them: winters in the Rocky

Mountains, several muggy years in Japan, most

mountain bike rides. Otherwise, I rode barehanded.

Good bars and thick tape were enough for me. But

for the past seven years, since the first time I wore

a pair of Giro’s pro-style Zero CS gloves, I can’t

remember the last time I rode gloveless.

There’s nothing particularly special about the

Zeros. That’s exactly why I like them: They don’t

have any excess material to foul up the connection

between my hands and the bars. What they do have

is a very thin, perforated, synthetic-leather palm

that can hold up to thousands of miles and several

trips through the washing machine. The sensation

is almost as good as riding barehanded, and I get

improved grip and a microfiber patch for wiping

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