I bought these gloves to replace a 12 year old pair of similar gloves from Specialized that I'd been wearing. Those had gotten gross and the padding was ceasing to exist.
These Pearl Izumi Elite gloves are good, but have plenty of room for improvement. The good first:
Comfort. These gloves are comfortable, even during very long rides. They pretty much stay in place, and feel good on the grips. With a couple small exceptions that I'll get to below, they feel good on your hands.
Fit. I have large hands and bought the XL size. There isn't much room to spare, and they don't fit as loosely as my 12 year stretched gloves, but overall, these fit well though snug. Because they breath so well, the snugness isn't a problem. Although short, the fingers don't 'ride up' too badly.
Temperature. These gloves are well ventilated and are cool. The fabric, holes, and design allow them to keep your hands cool. Although I think the fingers are too short, there shortness also contributes to this coolness.
Padding. These gloves are well padded and the padding seems to be in exactly the right places for where I hold my mountain bike handlebar grips. It is thick enough to cushion, but no so thick that it affects your grip on the bike.
Durability. I've only used these for one long ride so far, and they seem to be pretty durable. I'm concerned about some of the stitches around the fingers coming undone, because they aren't finished very cleanly, but so far, it isn't a problem. The materials and stitching, over-all, seems to be very durable.
The bad:
Tags. Whoever decided to put two huge and itchy tags inside these gloves should be fired or demoted. If a tag or two is needed, why couldn't a single small, soft, fabric tag that my old gloves had, accomplish the purpose. If I rip these tags out, the seems that hold them in may be damaged, and if I cut them, it will make the itchiness even worse. The tags, and the itchiness and discomfort they cause would have caused me not to buy these gloves if I knew about them ahead of time. If they weren't the only serious flaw in these gloves, I'd probably return them over it.
Build quality. Around some of the finger ends, their is thread from the seams dangling out about half an inch. This doesn't present a problem now, but looks like it could be a source of future unraveling. By itself these aren't a huge issue, but I'm concerned that it may be indicative of less then ideal build quality and future problems. I'll update this review if they cause the gloves to fall apart prematurely. A premium priced product like these should be made better.
Finger length. I think that the fingers on these are as long as they need to be for their purpose, and are probably so short to allow them to be cool. My personal preference would be for them to be a little bit longer, to make removing the gloves easier and to eliminate the feeling of the fingers 'riding-up'. This is a minor personal preference sort of thing though, and I don't hold the finger length against this product at all.
Over-all, I recommend these gloves. In hindsight, I probably should have spent the gas to shop for them in a specialty sport retailer, but I don't regret the purchase.
3 Stars. I seem to be the lowest rating on these gloves and I hope that people don't hold that against me too much. I am usually very liberal with my ratings of products, and don't feel like I'm being unfairly harsh about these gloves. In my opinion, the discomfort from the tags is worth a full star or more, and the build quality issues with the strings sticking out is also worth a full star or more. If it wasn't for all 10 other reviewers giving these gloves such glowing reviews, I would have given them 2 stars.
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These gloves are great. I ordered them through another website, and when they arrived I thought they wouldn't have enough padding. I couldn't have been more wrong. Despite the fact that the padding is not thick, they provide the right amount of cushion to keep my hands comfortable. The comfort bridge feature also helps in this regard, as it takes a lot of the pressure off of the ulnar and median nerves (if your hands hurt or go numb following longer rides, you're probably putting too much pressure on those nerves).
As far as keeping my hands a good temperature, they seem to work great. Although it is a little early in the season to tell how they handle extreme heat (it hasn't broke 75 on any of my rides since buying the gloves). I've ridden in relatively cool weather (50 degrees f) and they still worked great.
I ordered one size larger than I would normally get in a glove, as I have found that my hands tend to expand a little bit on some of my longer rides.
If you're a relative newbie to the cycling world (like I am) you'll find these are well worth the money. But be sure to work on having good hand posture while riding as that may help resolve a lot of the pain and numbness associated with riding.
UPDATE: I've had several 1-2 hour rides in the summer heat and these gloves have kept my hands cool and dry despite the 95+ degree (f) temperatures. Definitely well worth the money.
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I just did a 150 mile ride this past week and experienced much less hand cramping. And the ride was in the Florida heat and my hands were kept cool and dry. Worth every penny.
Honest reviews on Pearl Izumi Men's Elite Gel Vent Glove
Stitching at the end of each finger opening began to unravel almost immediately. Reflective "Pearl Izumi" lettering peeled off the glove after 1 ride. Similar to another reviewer, a piece of the material used for the finger openings actually came off between my fingers as I removed the glove from my hand. I ride almost exclusively in Pearl Izumi clothing but this is the second pair of >$40 gloves where the quality was really poor.
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I never wore gloves for riding before I owned this set. I recently went from a mountain bike a road bike earlier this year. I would typically spend ninety minutes in the saddle on my old mountain bike. I find myself spending between 2 4 hours in the saddle the on my road bike. I noticed some hand cramping starting to occur as I reached the two hour mark and it would get progressively worse as time went on after that point. My LBS recommended padded cycling gloves to cure this issue. I opted to purchase this pair of gloves from Amazon because they were considerably less expensive than my LBS or other online retailers.
The gloves have made a huge difference in ride comfort and over grip. I was surprised that these gloves actually improved my grip and also eliminated sweaty hands. I was very concerned about my hands overheating and sweating because I tend to run hot. These actually reduced the sweat and my hands do not feel warm or hot wearing them. I have put about 600 miles on this set and they are showing no signs of wear. FYI... I watch them once a week as well.
I highly recommend these gloves to any road cyclist. They are comfortable, durable, and enhance your grip.
