I’m sensing a theme here
Yesterday the mailman brought the Lava Sox I’d ordered from dowrap.com. Today I walked out of Park Ave Bike Shop not only with the gloves I’d intended to purchase, but also with a pair of Louis Garneau Magma gloves.
When the cold weather comes, you can call me Volcano Man in my Lava Sox and Magma gloves.
The Magmas seem like real nice lobster gloves for January and February. Lobster gloves, BTW, are the mutant offspring of mittens and gloves. There are two wide fingers, sort of like lobster claws. Index and middle finger fit in one, ring and pinkie in the other. They’re supposed to deliver the warmth of mittens with a bit of extra dexterity. We’ll see. I can always fall back on the snowboarder’s mittens that have served me well for, gosh, four winters now.
Anyway, the Magma gloves have a windproof outer, plenty of thinsulate in the middle and a nize fuzzy interior. They also advertize something called “fish-grip”—apparently what their marketing department calls the rubbery gripping surfaces of the palm, thumb and first claw, which has a molded fish scale pattern. I’m not quite sure what the “Ergo-air” feature is. Near as I can tell, it seems to be a ventilated section of the palm to keep them from getting sweaty. I’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure.
I’d also tried on Cannondale’s lobster gloves. They certainly seemed nice enough, and they had a larger snot-wiping area than the Magmas, but they were $25 more. That seemed like a lot to spend for 50% more snot-wiping surface.
I also came home with the Cannondale Windfront Gloves. I think I’ll like them for these transitional months. While doubling-up my summer gloves have kept my hands warm, they leave my wrists exposed. The Windfronts don’t seem like they’ll be warm enough for the depths of Rochester’s winter, but for the 30s and lower 40s, I think they’ll do just fine.
Just a note, my summer gloves from both Specialized and Pearl Izumi are size large. In both the Cannondale and Louis Garneau winter gloves, I had to go to an extra-large.
In any event, a tip of the Donegal to Al for pointing me towards the Windfront gloves.
