Glove Love!!!

[SpikeC]

 I recently bought a pair of Lee Parks deerskin PCi touring gloves. These things really work! The phase change material lining these gloves does a great job distributing the heat from my grip heaters, and without the heaters on they are very comfy as well. When my sisters found out what they cost, one said "eek!" and the other one said "I can feel the quality". The second sister has been running a bicycle shop and knows what good stuff costs!

[Triple J]

Lee Parks gloves are insanely comfortable. If only they would put some armor or padding in them. They're definitely a well built and comfy glove though...$200 for a pair of gloves isn't bad IMO.

[ab]

I am not familiar with it.  How does it compare to helimot gloves?  I really like my helimot glove and is very comfy.

[Triple J]

The Lee Parks are a lot more comfy than my Helimot H20s, but have no padding, other than thick leather in a couple spots. I'll let you know how they compare to my custom B-11s when I get them in a couple weeks. I remember the Lee Parks stuff being very comfy.

[Drjones]

See Thermocules thread below.

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=64332.0

[Skybarney]

Loved the technology in the Lee Parks gloves.  No armor is a deal breaker for me.  I once went down in cheap Fieldsheer gloves that only had an extra layer of leather on the top of the knuckles and broke my hand when my knuckles slapped the pavement.

Comfort is nice but now it is all about the armor. 

[DesmoDiva]

Lee (parks) has a specific line of reasoning as to why there is no hard armour on his gloves.

Unfortunately I can't recall and could not find it on his website.  I just remember discussing it with him.

[Triple J]

I've spoken with him about it too, at the IMS show a few years ago. I can't remember the reasoning either, but I also don't like hard armor. I don't get why he doesn't use soft armor though, similar to Helimot. I'm pretty sure I would have broken my hand a couple times without Helimot's padding.

Probably not as important for street gloves though, where comfort may be king.

[Howie]

As I remember he says hard armor can shatter, causing damage to your hand.  IMO, hard pavement can shatter your hand.   

[abby normal]

I had a conversation with an orthopedic surgeon a while back.
His opinion was that armored gloves were the most significant
Improvement in motorcycle gear in decades.

[Skybarney]

Now if we could just find a set of armored gloves that have the Thermocule action going on like the Lee Parks. 

The true test of glove armor vs. non armored gloves could be as simple as seeing which one hurts your hand more when attempting to bust a Range Rovers window.....   

[SpikeC]

 Everyone is different, butt my experience is from 46 years of riding year round, when younger constantly exploring the edge. In that time I have gone down probably 8 or 9 times at good rates of speed, only one of which was on the track.
I have friends who have spent many years racing, one of which at the national level. In all of that time none of us have needed armor in our gloves. Abrasion resistance, you betcha! I have ground down a few pairs.
The Lee Parks gloves are made of deer hide which is very abrasion resistant, with extra layers on the palm and over the knuckles. I'm sure that there are instances where a hard shell will protect from something, butt the possibility that fragments of the shell could lacerate the hand is there as well.
As with so many other things, YMMV and you pays yer money and takes yer chances!

[Drjones]

As I remember he says hard armor can shatter, causing damage to your hand.  IMO, hard pavement can shatter your hand.   

For impacts you want something that disipates energy inside of the material and transfers as little as possible to you.  i.e. thin layer of carbon fiber for puncture resistance over a much thicker layer of tempurpedic type material.