The Best Cycling Gloves for Your Biking Adventures

Whether you’re taking to the trails for some extreme mountain biking or hitting the tarmac for a long road trip, a great pair of cycling gloves can enhance your adventures. They’re a key piece of kit for an enjoyable ride, as their padded palms and no-slip grips help to reduce the impact of shocks and bumps and keep your hands firmly on your handlebars.

While cycling gloves are primarily designed to prevent blisters and keep your joints healthy, they’re also great for seasonal use. Some great winter options utilize extended cuffs and insulation, along with summer choices that make the most of their breathable fabrics and fingerless designs to help keep you cool despite the heat.

Whatever type of cyclist you are, and wherever you’ll be hitting the road, you’ll find a pair of gloves to suit your needs on this comprehensive list. And if you’re looking for something specific, check out the top picks below.

The Castelli Arenberg Gel 2 cycling gloves are built for rough terrain both on and off the road. Designed to take on the bumpy cobbles of the Forest of Arenberg, these gloves reduce vibration and subsequent blistering, with gel padding incorporated into their palms to protect your hands from shocks and bumps. They use a simple hook and loop closure and come in a wide variety of highly visible colorways.

Renowned for their comfortable and close fit, these fingerless cycling gloves from Giro are the perfect choice for mountain biking and long road journeys. They’re padded with EVA foam and sport a breathable mesh over much of their surface, making them comfortable and sweat-free even during extended rides. They include a sweat cloth on the thumb, along with handy pull tabs that make them easy to slip on and off.

Giro’s Monica IIs are a great pair of women’s cycling gloves with padded palms and a fingerless construction. They use technical 3mm Technogel padding for a soft feel that provides plenty of protection, along with a simple hook and loop closure at the wrist. The palm has a final outer layer of leather, making them super sturdy, and there’s a microfiber coating on the thumb for when you need to wipe the sweat from your brow.

The men’s cycling gloves variant of the Monica’s, the Monaco IIs, are essentially the same leather cycling gloves as the above, only this time they come in men’s sizes small to XXL. These gloves once again utilize a synthetic mesh upper for breathability, a microfiber thumb for wicking sweat, and a leather palm for supreme durability, most of which is padded with that all-important Technogel layer.

100%’s SLING biking gloves may look simple, but their smart design, coupled with their high-quality synthetic construction, makes for a durable, comfortable glove. The glove’s surface contains many small vents to allow for maximum breathability, including venting within the finger gussets themselves. The SLING gloves are touchscreen friendly too, and they also include a reflective logo for visibility on the ridge of the knuckle-line. They’re a great pair of fingerless cycling gloves for mountain biking and road riding alike.

The Louis Garneau Biogel gloves stand out for their style above all else, with a designer look extending even to the palm detailing. They include a classic Louis Garneau emblem in red mesh at the center of the palm, around which you’ll find several pockets of bio gel padding strategically placed to keep your hands comfy on long, rough rides. They come in men’s sizes XS-XL, and you can choose from a range of flashy or subtle two-tone colorways, depending on your preference.

These summer cycling gloves from Pearl iZUMi incorporate strong 3D padding within an overall minimalist design. They’re available in Fog or Screaming Yellow colorways and use a simple hook and loop closure to make adjusting them on the go a piece of cake. The Screaming Yellow colorway is highly reflective and great for night-time rides, while the polyester construction of the glove means it’s easy to throw in the wash when it needs sprucing up.

This women’s variant of the Pearl iZUMi Elite Gel glove is essentially the same as the men’s option, with its geometry adjusted for slightly smaller hands. Once again, you’ll find a thick layer of 3D gel padding in key areas on the glove’s palm, along with reflective detailing at the wrist and across the upper mesh. This time around, you’ve got Beach Glass, Black, and Atomic Red colorways to choose from, all of which make for a great-looking two-tone effect.

These full-finger winter cycling gloves from HANDUP are a great unisex option available in sizes small to large. Its upper and finger gussets are emblazoned with a flashy lightning bolt design in the glove’s stock colorway, while alternative sunset and camo colorways are also available. They’re great for winter wear thanks to their extended cuffs, but they’re nice and breathable, too, all thanks to their vented palms with 4-way stretch.

TASCO’s Pathfinder MTB gloves are another great pair of full-finger men’s cycling gloves with a bevy of smart features under the hood. They use medical-grade TPR protection across the knuckles and cuffs to keep your hands stable no matter how bumpy the trail may be, and the palm is equipped with a sturdy silicone grip to help you hang on tight on even the steepest of downhill slaloms. A layer of synthetic leather across the palm makes them nice and durable, while the moulded neoprene knuckles ensure maximum flexibility without losing any of that all-important impact protection.

These full-finger gauntlets from iZUMi are a great pair of road cycling gloves for cold and rainy conditions. They have a long-sleeve design that overlaps with a jacket for complete weather protection, along with a 3-layer construction that provides great resistance to wind and water alike. On top of this, they’re nice and comfortable, thanks to their 4-way stretch fabric and a squashy layer of protective gel padding.

Sealskinz brings another fantastic pair of waterproof cycling gloves to the table with these All-Weather gauntlets. These full-fingered men’s cycling gloves cleverly implement a removable waterproof insert for use in bad weather conditions, so if it’s sunny out, you can slip out the insert to gain some breathability. This gauntlet comes in a Neon colorway that’s perfect for low-light conditions, making it a great glove for rides in stormy weather.

These versatile fingerless gloves from Bontrager are a great pair of all-rounders built for mixed on and off-road usage. They’re designed primarily to reduce pressure around your hands while riding, with gel and memory foam inserts that redistribute the energy from shocks and bumps to prevent wrist injury or finger blistering. They use a simple hook and loop closure, along with handy pull-tabs, making them easy to pull off at the end of a long day’s riding.

Giro has produced a great pair of road cycling gloves in the form of their Giro Bravo Gel LFs. They’re a padded pair of long-fingered gloves with a cushioned overall design and thick palm and finger protection, all of which come at a very reasonable price. Reviews speak highly of their flexible microfiber palm, and the unisex sizes on offer make them a great pair of cycling gloves for men and women alike.

Pearl iZUMi’s Ride Pro gloves are their take on a full-fingered cycling gauntlet, and they’re a decent pick at a mid-range price. They’re constructed from polyester, with minimal padding for a lightweight overall feel, and synthetic leather fabric for a sturdy, durable finish. They come in a dazzling Rogue Red colorway, and touchscreen-friendly fingers add a nice bit of convenience to the package.

If you’re looking for something good on a budget, you won’t do much better than INBIKE’s fingerless cycling gloves. At just $16, they’re one of the cheapest pairs of gloves on this list, and yet they’re also one of the most highly spoken of across thousands of reviews. It’s easy to see why; for this budget price, you get 5mm of gel padding, sturdy terry cloth fingers, and low-profile Velcro closure with handy pull-tabs. They’re some of the best summer cycling gloves out there, and you can get them in men’s sizes medium to XXL.

While INBIKE’s gloves are a great pick for men, ROVOS has women covered with their non-slip MTB gloves. Once again, you’re getting a great pair of gloves here at a true budget price of just $19, and while there are many more expensive variants out there, you’ll only find a few as well-reviewed as these. They’re a great pair of simple fingerless gloves, with soft foam padding across their palms and fingertip pull buckles to help you get a snug fit. Despite their low price, they’re some of the best women’s cycling gloves around.

Giro’s Jag cycling gloves are another pair of cheap, well-built summer cycling gloves, and they’re an excellent price for picking up a pair or two to alternate between. This time around, you’ve got EVA padding in the palms for shock absorption, along with welded pull buckles that can stand up to a good tug or two without tearing their stitching. They’re made from a blend of microfiber and lycra and come in unisex sizes small to XXL.

You may know Fox for their world-renowned mountain bike forks, but they also make some great cycling apparel. Take these Ranger MTB gloves, for instance. They’re a fantastic pair of MTB gloves with gel padding and a flexible polyester build, available for a mid-range $30 – $40 price. They come in 9 colorways and use a simple hook and loop closure, making them a great pair of subtle, sturdy biking gloves.

DeFeet’s ET wool gloves may have a bizarre name, but they’re a brilliant pair of winter cycling gloves. They have an extremely simple design that combines nylon and merino wool with no-slip rubber palm grips for a warm, grippy glove. The natural wool layer lends them antimicrobial properties so that sweat can’t work up a stink, and the Lycra element gives them plenty of stretch. They’re made right at home in the USA, and they’re available in unisex sizes small to extra-large.

While some might consider heated gloves the best way to keep your hands warm during winter rides, the fact is that a good heat-retention glove can do the job just fine, if not better. Widely considered some of the best winter cycling gloves out there, the Stormtrackers from Outdoor Research use a Gore-Tex outer and polyester build to create a supremely insulative glove. Zippered wrists give you the ability to slip the gloves under your jacket sleeves, and a tricot lining helps to retain as much heat as possible when out in icy weather.

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