When it comes to gloves, it tends to be pretty personal, hence why there are so many varieties on the market. For Summer riding, I prefer a well-ventilated glove and have appreciated the extra-thick gel padding afforded by the Pearl Izumi Select Gel full-finger gloves.
Pearl Izumi Select Gel Full-finger gloves features:
- Soft, durable Clarino leather palm for maximum comfort
- 100% gel padding for comfort
- U-Bridge design to alleviate pressure on the ulnar nerve for long ride comfort
- Direct-Vent mesh panel on back-of-hand for optimized ventilation
- Anti-microbial, moisture-wicking bamboo mesh palm lining
- Hook and loop closure
- MSRP: $35
Pearl Izumi Select Gel FF Glove Review
Like many riders, my hands suffer from numbness on long climbs and occasionally feel dead after long descents. To reduce the dead-hand experience, I’ve turned to a combination of Ergon grips and the Pearl Izumi Select gloves. I use the full-finger variety while mountain biking and the fingerless variety on the road. Both provide huge amounts of gel padding to reduce vibration and maintain blood flow.
When you first get the gloves, the gel pads seem way to huge. Well, they are a bit big if you have large diameter grips, but with the right grip diameter, these gloves provide extra comfort and relief from numbness. While these gloves alone don’t eliminate numbness, I believe they do help a ton. Having ridden several other gloves, I keep coming back to these.
On top of the excellent cushioning, these gloves breathe extremely well — thanks to the 100% mesh tops. Even on Africa-hot days, I never get sweaty hands. The Select’s have held up to more than a year of abuse and are still hanging in there. I don’t have a single tear or hole in these gloves. The only real signs of wear are apparent in the worn-off rubberized grip pads on the braking fingers which has minimal effect on brake feel.
Good Select Gel
- Lightweight and breathable
- Nice looking
- Extra gel padding adds to ride comfort
- Dries quickly
- In spite of so much mesh, they have been durable
Bad Select Gel
- Gel inserts may be a tad thick for some
Bottom Line: Pearl Izumi Select Gel Full-finger MTB Gloves
The Pearl Izumi Select Gel FF gloves are grippy and comfortable. With all that gel, you’ll be isolated from vibration and experience increased blood flow to reduce numbness and fatigue over the course of a long ride. Some might think the gel is too thick, but with the right grip combo, it becomes natural.
Buy Now: Search for Pearl Izumi Gloves at CompetitiveCyclist.com
3 Comments
I found the “gel” to compress and migrate far to easily with the Pearl Izumi gloves.
So, have you used these gloves then? Did your gel pads actually move in their location or you mean that under use, they deflected or moved around too much?
Yes these gloves. The gel kind of compressed and migrated (moved). I had a pair of specialized “gel” gloves that fell apart before the gel moved about.
Love the Pearl shorts range though!