Used: Held RS-1000 race gloves

I have several pairs of bike gloves. Thick warm ones for days when you have to wipe frost off your bike before sitting on it and then a great pair of Hein Gericke's X-Trafit that get used for most of the year. But after praying for warm weather for what seemed like the longest winter ever, it's now that magical time of year. Hot, sunny days with bright blue skies. And when the weather is like this, only summer gloves will do. After all, no-one likes sweaty hands do they? 

I actually received these high-end Held RS-1000 race gloves back in December. Apart from wearing them around the flat for the evening they didn't get much use until a few months ago. But having worn them for a 1000 miles now, how do they hold up?

The first thing I noticed about the gloves was the amount of protection on them. As you would expect there's hard protection over the knuckles. But hiding under that plastic is 'D30', a material that's soft and flexible but hardens to a solid when subjected to a high impact whilst repelling the force energy across its surface area. 

A large hard plastic protector is located on the side to protect the wrist and has a plush soft backing. Further protection includes 3 plastic sliders on the little finger to prevent roll in an accident along with an abrasion resistant stingray panel on the underside.

If all this protection wasn't enough, there's a generous amount of kevlar lining on the inside.

The thin gloves are made of supple kangaroo leather and as you would expect from a race glove, let you feel what your hands are doing. 

The gloves are certainly comfortable and as long as your travelling at a decent pace, the many vents help keep your hands cool which is a godsend in this hot weather. The left hand gloves features a soft rubber wiper to keep your visor clear but I've never felt the need to use it.

Overall I'm really impressed with the RS-1000 gloves. They've broken in well and should continue to feel better and better over time. My only thoughts are that although the BOA lacing works well, it does feel unnecessarily complicated. The small velcro wrist strap is also near its maximum adjustment, but having said that perhaps I have large hands and small wrists.

If your in the market for a new pair of gloves and have the budget, then I'd certainly recommend trying on a pair of RS-1000 gloves. The only problem for me though, is that now whenever I wear my everyday X-Trafit gloves, they feel massively unprotected in comparison.

Model: Held RS-1000 gloves
Price: £164.99, found online for £154.98