Summer, is, of course, riding season. The warm weather brings clear skies and ideal roads: perfect conditions to hop on your motorcycle and go for a long ride to nowhere in particular. But while a little warmth is nice, when the temperature starts to climb, it’s tempting to start shedding layers.
Avoid this temptation. The last thing you should do is completely forgo a proper motorcycle jacket or riding pants, no matter how warm it is. There are plenty of options out there with ventilation in all the right places.
If you’re still struggling for ventilation, take a look at your gloves. Your hands are the first part of your body that hit the wind, so thick, solid gloves not only block air from cooling off your hands, they can stop air from flowing through your jacket for even more ventilation. What you need is a pair of gloves designed with hot weather in mind so you can keep cool, but still stay safe out on the road.
Roland Sands Wellington Gloves
Made from cowhide leather and featuring a touch screen-compatible index finger, the Wellington from Roland Sands offers genuine protection with an old-school work glove look. Crucially, the top of the glove — from the fingertips to the wrist — is perforated for maximum ventilation.
Icon Overlord Gloves
The Overlord Gloves by Icon are on the more tactical-looking side with carbon fiber knuckle guards, touchscreen-sensitive finger tips and a poly-mesh construction. However, it’s the mesh build that lets the airflow in to help cool you off.
Dainese Corbin Air Gloves
The Corban Air is definitely a classically styled glove, but underneath the oh-so-soft perforated goatskin are polyurethane protection guards on the knuckles and reinforced palms for modern abrasion resistance.
Alpinestars Crazy Eight Glove
Alpinestars struck a unique balance with the Crazy Eight Glove. Instead of bulky, hard plastics for protection, the neo-retro gloves use premium leather, a poly blend on the thumb and palm, and padding on the knuckles and the side of the palm. Accordion-style stitching and an ergonomic stretch insert between palm and thumb also mean the Crazy Eight is one of the most flexible gloves on the list.
Rev’It Sand 3 Gloves
Rev’It upped the level of protection for the Sand 3 glove, but didn’t compromise on cooling by any means. The outer shell is a combination of air stretch mesh, drum-dyed goatskin, PWR shell 500D and TPR flexible ventilated knuckle guards. So you can still get maximum airflow when bombing through dunes and navigating desert rocks, but rest easy when you get back up to speed on the highway.