My impression when I first started to use these gloves was that they were well made with quality materials, though this made them feel stiff and difficult to get on.
I had a sneaky feeling they would bed in and the initial stiffness would quickly turn into a comfortable and supple glove. I was hoping so, as I set off on a 2500-mile trip into Spain and Portugal.
Thankfully I was right and that’s exactly what happened. After a few hundred miles the gloves were easy to get on and felt very comfortable. Congratulations Held - despite many different materials and panels, somehow you get them to feel comfortable with no awkward seams.
The gloves are made from a mixture of leather and textile, which includes a piece of stretchy material at the junction of the wrist and the back of the hand.
The gloves are unlined on the front, palm side, then lined on the back and under the knuckle padding.
These are gloves for warm and dry weather, which is why I chose them for the trip to Southern Europe. I took another pair of gloves with me for wet or colder days.
Photography: Joel Blevins
My hands are small so a pair of gloves that are available in short and long finger lengths are going to attract my attention.
I reviewed a pair with regular-length fingers, though, and there was no excess material in the fingers.
There’s hard plastic armour protecting the knuckles and various other bits of rubber and padding on the fingers, thumb and palm, which give increased protection should the worst happen.
The ventilation in these gloves is fairly good and perfectly adequate for warm days in Spain and Portugal. Inlets sit in the knuckle armour and the fabric on the back of the hands lets some air in, while there is a good stretchy bit of fabric between each finger, which channels air onto the palms.
The palm section is made from kangaroo leather, which is known for being very flexible and having high abrasion-resistance. I agree it is very flexible. As for abrasion, I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.
Held have provided a pull tab on each wrist. In my view this needs to be bigger, particularly when using a gloved hand to put on the second glove.
Each glove has a tab sewn into the inner so they can be linked together with press studs, which is a good idea. Now I don’t have to worry about the nuisance of losing just one glove - I can lose both at the same time.
The Velcro wrist strap isn’t long enough in my opinion. My wrists aren’t that big and the hook and eye parts of the wrist strap don’t overlap enough to connect properly.
Held say the gloves have ‘special leather’ that allows smartphone operation. Not with my iPhone it doesn’t; it did work with my GPS, but all my gloves do.
In conclusion, these are good lightweight short summer gloves, which feel well made and I would expect many years of service from them.
After breaking them in they were comfortable for a long day’s riding. My only niggle was the short Velcro wrist fastener.