Triumph all-weather motorcycle gloves

Finding perfect all-weather gloves that are warm, don’t make your hands sweat, stay dry in the rain and don’t feel like boxing gloves is difficult, but Triumph’s Tri Climate motorcycle gloves seem to work.

Triumph sent me the Chinese-made gloves after I expressed frustration on Facebook with the lining coming out with my sweaty hands from a pair of expensive BMW all-weather gloves.

Instead of a traditional loose liner with stitching in the fingertips (which had come loose in my BMW gloves), the Triumph gloves bond each layer so it feels like one glove, not several layers of glove.

Not only will the lining never come out with your sweaty hands, but it also reduces the bulky “boxing-glove” feeling so you have more sensitivity of the throttle and levers.

Ok, so problem one solved.

But I still didn’t believe a pair of gloves retailing for $149 would be better than gloves costing about 25% more.

I am also always sceptical of anything that claims to be “all-weather”. They usually aren’t.

However, I was fortunate in my test regimen to have several days of Queensland winter weather where the temperature varied from single digits to the mid-20s with some rain thrown in for good measure.

After testing in these varied conditions, I can tell you they work. I stayed warm and dry, but never sweaty.

To test for extreme weather, I tried a few home-made solutions:

• To test for excessive heat, I put my hands in a hot oven for a minute.

  

• Verdict: I don’t think they would be too comfortable when the mercury reaches 30 degrees, but fine for anything under that.
• For extreme cold, I clenched my gloved hand around some frozen bacon in the freezer for a minute.

  

• Verdict: Nice and warm and no chill off the bacon.
• For wind chill, I rode an hour at 110km/h on the M1 to the Gold Coast in 10C with one hand in a Tri Climate glove and the other in an extremely expensive German Reusch winter glove.
• Verdict: My hands felt equally warm.
• To test for heavy rain, I plunged my hands into a bucket of water for several minutes. While I wouldn’t normally dip my hands deeper than the glove itself, these have an elasticised gauntlet that forms a tight fit around your jacket to prevent rain getting in, so I also dunked deeper than the top of the gloves.

  

• Verdict: They didn’t leak until the water got over the top of the gauntlet, then it trickled in. However, in real-world rain tests, they didn’t leak at all.

As for the comfort, they are great. No bunching in the palms. They slip on and pull off easily and the stretch top isn’t difficult to put on like the drawstring top on other waterproof gloves which require a second person to help you.

Once on, the gloves feel flexible, not stiff, and there is enough sensitivity in the finger tips to operate a Bluetooth unit.

I didn’t crash test them, but Triumph assures us the SuperFabric is used by many military services around the world and resists abrasion, slashing and stains. The palms also have leather patches for extra abrasion resistance and there is soft CE armour on the knuckles.

They also say the material dries quickly and after my failed full-immersion bucket test, I can attest to that!

It’s also breathable and the combination of Thinsulate and Outlast materials used in the construction of the gloves not only make them comfortable in most temperatures, but keep them a lot thinner than some others, especially my thick Reusch gloves.

While they won’t replace mesh gloves in summer’s searing heat, I think I’ve found my perfect all-other-weather gloves.