saf
13-05-2009, 06:10 PM
I really value my hands and whilst looking for a new pair of gloves I splurged and bought a brand new pair of Dainese Full Metal Racers this morning and have to say they're fairly impressive, although... Read on.
Firstly, they're incredibly light-weight. It almost feels like you're not wearing anything. The leather on the underside of the fingers feels thinner as well which improves sensitivity although I'm not sure how well they'd fair in a crash despite the leather quality supposedly being higher than your average glove.
The titanium knuckles are like a huge penis extension. They're massive. They've got 'Dainese' laser etched onto them and are so mind bogglingly large they ostensibly dominate the glove's features, and lack thereof. I'll get to that point in a moment.
The stitching is very good, kevlar double stitched and it feels great to wear. The moulded fingers are done nicely and it feels like, once worn in, it is the perfect fit.
They've got some little placcy armour on the palm and just above the pinky finger with 'Distortion control' written on it. It doesn't make sense to me as I can't see what it would control. My pinky wriggles around quite freely... ?
The inside palm has a nice little section of rubber bristles just underneath the fingers for some added grip on the bars. It's a very nice touch although I didn't really notice it on my brief commute from the store.
The velcro straps are adequate however, and this is where my spiel turns a little sour, the wrist strap is unshielded meaning a surf could easily tear off the velcro strap and loosen the glove at the wrist. In contrast, the older model Alpinestar GP Plus gloves for example (I'm selling a pair that are too small for me) have a leather lip that extends over this strap, effectively shielding it from surfing and meaning the glove will remain fixed to your wrist even if you're doing a superman on your wrists across the tarmac.
And speaking of wrists, the only wrist armour to speak of is a small ~4cm circular piece of carbon fibre that sits above your wrist. It has some cushiony soft padding around the wrist but it really wouldn't do terribly much in terms of absorbing impact. Previous gloves I've owned and indeed other brands of current glove provide armour that wraps around the wrist and offers a bridge of protection between the glove and your jacket inserts whereas these gloves have virtually no substantial wrist armour and after riding with them it concerns me. So much so that I've located a pair of new Alpinestar GP Pro gloves and am going to exchange them tomorrow.
Perhaps I'm overreacting but I've only had these gloves for 10 minutes but the thought of having nothing on the wrist is daunting. Especially considering these gloves are uber-expensive.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/4448/17489035ym6.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1263/42873722mv4.jpg
Firstly, they're incredibly light-weight. It almost feels like you're not wearing anything. The leather on the underside of the fingers feels thinner as well which improves sensitivity although I'm not sure how well they'd fair in a crash despite the leather quality supposedly being higher than your average glove.
The titanium knuckles are like a huge penis extension. They're massive. They've got 'Dainese' laser etched onto them and are so mind bogglingly large they ostensibly dominate the glove's features, and lack thereof. I'll get to that point in a moment.
The stitching is very good, kevlar double stitched and it feels great to wear. The moulded fingers are done nicely and it feels like, once worn in, it is the perfect fit.
They've got some little placcy armour on the palm and just above the pinky finger with 'Distortion control' written on it. It doesn't make sense to me as I can't see what it would control. My pinky wriggles around quite freely... ?
The inside palm has a nice little section of rubber bristles just underneath the fingers for some added grip on the bars. It's a very nice touch although I didn't really notice it on my brief commute from the store.
The velcro straps are adequate however, and this is where my spiel turns a little sour, the wrist strap is unshielded meaning a surf could easily tear off the velcro strap and loosen the glove at the wrist. In contrast, the older model Alpinestar GP Plus gloves for example (I'm selling a pair that are too small for me) have a leather lip that extends over this strap, effectively shielding it from surfing and meaning the glove will remain fixed to your wrist even if you're doing a superman on your wrists across the tarmac.
And speaking of wrists, the only wrist armour to speak of is a small ~4cm circular piece of carbon fibre that sits above your wrist. It has some cushiony soft padding around the wrist but it really wouldn't do terribly much in terms of absorbing impact. Previous gloves I've owned and indeed other brands of current glove provide armour that wraps around the wrist and offers a bridge of protection between the glove and your jacket inserts whereas these gloves have virtually no substantial wrist armour and after riding with them it concerns me. So much so that I've located a pair of new Alpinestar GP Pro gloves and am going to exchange them tomorrow.
Perhaps I'm overreacting but I've only had these gloves for 10 minutes but the thought of having nothing on the wrist is daunting. Especially considering these gloves are uber-expensive.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/4448/17489035ym6.jpg
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1263/42873722mv4.jpg