Time Tested – Planet Bike Borealis Glove

Since I first wrote the Product Preview of the Planet Bike Borealis Glove back in mid-December they are just about the only glove I’ve worn for cycling and, in fact, for any other use as well. The 3-in-1 design has proven very versatile for the somewhat odd winter weather we’ve been having here in SEWI. Warmer and less snow than normal.

The outer shell is plenty tough. Aside from riding Grip-Shift and thus cranking away on the shifters pretty often I’ve used them to rub snow, sand and the odd bit of mud off the front tire while riding as well as EVERY other part of the bike and they are holding up well. I’ve used the outer shell alone about 20% of the time but I’d probably use them alone more if I had a size Small and just skipped the inner liner all together. There is a light fleece inside and they work well down to about freezing for me.

The inner liners are a simple Polarfleece-type material and they are about as durable as you’d expect them to be. I probably wore just the inner liner about 50% of the time as it has not been a typical Wisconsin winter. 35-40 or above for me and just the liner worked well. I did do some poking around in fires at various stops on rides and seem to have worn/melted the right index finger tip a bit but they still work fine.

Coupling the inner and outer gloves together accounted for about 30% of my rides and was my go-to set up for 30 degrees and below. Only one ride below 10 degrees so far but they were warm on a 2-hour fat-bike ride. Probably have to wait until next winter to see real cold again but you never know.

I’ve washed both the liner and gloves 4 times now. I just run them with my other cycling gear on the Wool Washables cycle and then low-heat dry. No problems at all and besides that little fire-induced bit, they come out looking like new.

If I had a nit to pick it would be the reinforcement between the thumb and index finger. It is hard on the nose when using the terrycloth snot wiper but other than that I can heartily recommend the Planet Bike Borealis gloves and when the cold weather comes around again next season these gloves will again be keeping my hands warm.

Get the Planet Bike Borealis Glove at your favorite IBD or go to their website at  – http://ecom1.planetbike.com/glove9004.html