Riding gloves are integral part of any riding gear and riding in cold weather makes it even more important. There are many products available in the market, indigenous and imported. Indian companies like Studds have also now jumped into the business of riding apparels along with their existing product lineup of headgear. BikesIndia got a chance to review one of the latest offerings from STUDDS accessories, which claims to offer you protection against the cold and mist, because they are waterproof and thermally insulated. The gloves are identical to the winter gloves of Scoyco. Scoyco is an well-known international riding gear manufacturer. So yes, we can expect a quality and fitting of international level. Now, coming directly to the point, how these gloves look and how well they perform.
Looks & Features:We got a pair of red-color SMG-4 winter riding gloves from Studds, the overall built quality is really good, offers high stands of fit and finish. These are the full gauntlets gloves, covering up your watch and bracelets.
The little finger is done with a reflective patch, while knuckles bear an intersection of reflective piping. The majority of the material used externally is Nylon(cordura), there’s soft high density fabric is used with rubber patches on the left-over parts. Although, we aren't actually aware of the particular denier count, but we believe that it’ll resist fair bit of abrasion at the time of calamity.
The edges of the fingers come with rubber patches to provide resistance from cold wind. The inner part of the thumb portion is done with a bigger rubber patch. The joints of fingers have various plates of the cordura fabric to add flexibility and padding. The logo of Studds is prominently placed on the gauntlets and the Velcro strap.
On the palm side of the gloves, it is whole done with cloth fabric, the stitching is done with a really impressive level of quality and thus the grip on the handlebar you’ll get will be nothing less than impressive.
On inside it is all done with a black thermal fabric, to make your hands feel warmer. You get a thumb strap also to pull-up the gauntlets on your wrist.
Performance:Coming on to the point, how well do they perform in the heavy cold? It was in Delhi, we used these gloves for the first time heading from the city of Dil-walas to Murthal for very infamous Paranthas of the Dhabas located there. These gloves turned out to be a real weapon for riding in the winter, though the chilling weather of Delhi is proved to be little too much for these gloves. And an extra lining of thermal would have been very helpful.
Moreover, if you don’t use these gloves properly you will feel cold in your hands. And the proper way to use these pair of gloves is; wear them keeping the sleeves of your jacket inside the gauntlets. The adjustable Velcro strap is provided for the wrist arrangements while you get a pull-lock system at the gauntlets to ensure there isn’t any way left for the air to enter in.
Though in heavy mist we found the surface of the gloves and our jacket a little wet but there wasn’t any seepage of moisture inside. The outer portion of your palm do get a strengthened padding in the gloves to bear stress in case of an accident. The gloves aren’t fluffy at all, so it is really easy to get the desired amount of grip on the handlebar. The knuckles have a fiber padding and that can add as a shield in case of any accident, though it would have been better if high quality fiber used on the knuckles.
Verdict:The gloves offered from Studds are really good and it's great seeing home-grown manufacturers expanding their product portfolio with some beautiful product like these. These gloves offer good protection against winter and water. Though we haven’t tested them under the rain-fall but will surely update you on this when we test the other apparels in rainy season. The Studds SMG-4 gloves are priced at 1600 INR and what we feel that they are a little overpriced.
So, if Studds market them in a good way and revise pricing by adding good knuckle protection probably from their SMG-2 gloves, that will make this worthy product a wee-bit more user-friendly and a better buy over other products in the market.
By: Mohit Bhardwaj