A brief review of fingerless sim gloves: Work, cycling, and driving gloves

Shovas

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driving-gloves.JPG


[Apologies if this isn't considered hardware. Please move to the appropriate forum if needed.]

Ever since I ruined an alcantara rim some years ago, slicking it down over time by driving with bare hands, I've been trying to find the right gloves with the right balance of convenience, feel, grip, robustness, and quality of make. I chose fingerless because I still want the ease of typing while wearing the gloves. I'm not sure I've found the perfect pair yet but I think I've found some good ones and at good prices, too.

I'm mostly covering budget gloves here. I know there are sim gloves and real racing gloves but I wanted to exhaust some budget options before moving up to them.

The Wheel I Use With the Gloves

simxperience-accuforce-duramold-wheel-rim-r1.jpg

While I started out on the SimXperience Alcantara Wheel, after the alcantara went I switched to the SimXperience Duramold Wheel. I thought it would be cheap but it's actually very good for its price point, durability, grip, and feel in the hands. I still use the duramold wheel even after switching to a Simucube 2 Pro.

Note that when I talk about glove grip it may differ depending on the material of your wheel. I can only talk about the grip of the gloves against a duramold / semi-rubbery wheel.


#5 Milwaukee Fingerless Work Gloves

Medium Fingerless Work Gloves-r1.JPG
I barely used these gloves for sim driving. They were just too slippery against the wheel. The padded parts of the palm are just a fabric material and don't provide the grip I need. Quality was decent. Breathability on the low end.

At around $20 where I am, they're just not a great option for my purpose, although I'm sure for work purposes they're great.

#4 Firm Grip Pro Fingerless Work Gloves

Large Pro Fingerless Glove.JPG

I liked these gloves in particular for the rough, semi-grippy palm patches. They weren't grippy enough, unfortunately, though it may be a great deal for somebody. Quality is decent. Breathability is good.

At $10-$12 they may be a great option for someone, perhaps with a different wheel material.

#3 Gorilla Grip Fingerless Work Gloves

Gorilla Grip Fingerless Glove.JPG

These were the first gloves I tried just happening to find them at Home Depot. They don't look like much but actually they're one of my top pairs, still. The only drawback is the grippy patches on the palm tend to start shredding apart after a month or so. Grip is very good, though, and the materials and quality otherwise are very satisfactory. Breathability was adequate.

At $10-$15 you can't go too wrong even if you have to buy them again and again. If these were more robust, I think I would actually just stick with these.

#2 HUANLANG Fingerless Cycling Gloves

HUANLANG Half Finger Cycling Gloves.JPG

I figured cyclists must know a thing or two about gloves so I figured I'd pick up a pair that didn't break the bank. First thing I noticed is that these were very minimal, very thin material. It's breathable, and the quality looks okay, I'm just not sure how well it would stand up to sim driving. The one great thing was grip. There are large rubbery patches on the palm that grip my duramold wheel excellently. The patches are very padded and it's noticeable which may be an issue since your hands move a little bit more with the raised space.

At $22 for me, they're reasonable if they last. They're my second favourite pair so far.

#1 HOMBURY Leather Driving & Dressing Fingerless Gloves

HOMBURY Leather Driving & Dressing Gloves.JPG

Surprise, surprise, my #1 gloves are actual, real-life driving gloves. The leather material feels nice, there are holes to allow for breathing, the leather grips well. They're a little loose on my hands but not enough to stop enjoying them. Not sure about robustness as I've only had them a week. The leather feels thin so it might wear through in a month or two. Quality feels decent, otherwise.

At $24, it's a nice luxurious feel compared to the other gloves. Maybe it would be good more for relaxed drives instead of racing sessions, though, as I feel the material may wear quickly.

Update 2022: These were fine but I re-ordered Medium instead of Large and they feel much better.

What do you think?

Do you drive with gloves? Do you use regular or fingerless? Anyone using purpose-made sim gloves or real racing gloves?

I hope this has been helpful and informative to some that have never thought of using gloves or are also looking for decent options.
 
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Recent thread on a similar subject https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/grippy-gloves-for-leather-rims.203920/
How well half gloves protect wheel from still exposed sweaty fingers? I only use half gloves in gym and depending on design taking them off can be a bitch. For driving it's full Karting gloves from Sparco for me.
I had already ruined my alcantara at that point but I was still running that wheel with the Gorilla Grip gloves for a while and they performed well and it didn't seem to get worse. I suspect most of the issue is your palms.

Thanks for the heads up on the other topic.
 
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Never been driving with gloves. Had low bum Logitech wheels for years with their normal rubbery rim surface, and now use a Momo Prototipo with a leather rim.

But I did try a friends alcantara rims, and agree that those sorta only "work" with gloves, not just in regards to destroying the alcantara, but also the grip. For precise driving I don't actually like the additional cushioning that soft material plus gloves add. But probably just a matter of habit. I use grippy work gloves for work ~8 hours a day.
 
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Always with gloves. I want my Sparco Champion to last many years like new, so I (nor anyone else) will spread sweat on its beautiful perforated leather. I could also damage it with my nails, so fingerless gloves are discarded. Finally, grip is also a very important reason. I have tried many types of gloves such as cycling gloves with suede palm (confortable but no grip at all), vintage full leather driving gloves (bad grip and very uncomfortable), golf gloves (good grip and comfortable) and now karting gloves with silicon inserts on the palm (extreme grip, very comfortable and outstanding looks).
 
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Went from Sparco's sim racing gloves that are a real pain to put on and take off to Sparco's Karting gloves which are extremely easy to put on and take off.

I've shed some of the white silicone on the palms of the karting gloves but I can't tell it by looking at them.
 
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Currently use alpine radar gloves . Really comfortable and lots of grip.

Im thinking of trying out some sparco rush karting gloves as an alternative as the velcro on the wrist of the alpine stars can be a little annoying at times .
 
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Lots of people like full-fingered gloves over finglerless. I'm kind of surprised given how much we probably use our keyboards while racing or at least before and after.
 
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I love my sparco karting gloves... It feels weird if I test something and dont put them on.

I race in VR so already everything I might need is mapped to a button, I am curious what you use your keyboard for that there is not an easy alternative?
 
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Agreed about not using a keyboard. I do have a joystick mapped to my arrow keys and an Enter, Cancel, ESC button For Dirt Rally 2.0. Of course I use those controls when I'm not driving. My 3D printed button box has a lot of very easy to find keys mapped for everything I need and many things that are just conveniences like my replay binnacle with everything I need to easily watch replay's.
 
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I love my sparco karting gloves... It feels weird if I test something and dont put them on.

I race in VR so already everything I might need is mapped to a button, I am curious what you use your keyboard for that there is not an easy alternative?
Where possible I don't use the keyboard while racing. Sometimes with old games that have a device or button limit I can't do that so I map some things to the keyboard.

But the reason I want fingerless is so I can leave the gloves on and still feel comfortable typing when I'm in-between race sessions.
 
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Just got back from a couple hours of mountain biking with my wife. I've never actually thought about using cycling gloves for sim racing.

I think the issue is that I would want full fingered gloves and I only use full fingered gloves for mountain biking and they have additional padding and armor on the backs of my hands for brushing various plants on the trail. Didn't protect my arm today. Something with thorns grabbed me while I was going pretty fast.

Road gloves could work, but I only run fingerless road riding gloves and they also are hard to put on and take off like my old Sparco sim racing gloves.

But use whatever works for you.
 
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Just got back from a couple hours of mountain biking with my wife. I've never actually thought about using cycling gloves for sim racing.

I think the issue is that I would want full fingered gloves and I only use full fingered gloves for mountain biking and they have additional padding and armor on the backs of my hands for brushing various plants on the trail. Didn't protect my arm today. Something with thorns grabbed me while I was going pretty fast.

Road gloves could work, but I only run fingerless road riding gloves and they also are hard to put on and take off like my old Sparco sim racing gloves.

But use whatever works for you.
A lot of the enduro gloves like the ones I use above have pretty thin palms that are aireated without any padding and no armour so they are ideal for dual duty :)
 
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I’ve found these O’Neil gloves do everything I need. Comfortable on warm summer days, easy to take on and off, and a bit more color than other gloves. Don’t let the pictures fool you. There is a thin, sticky soft rubber on the palm and fingers that provide great grip on alcantara.
 
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The link worked for me.

Most of my O'Neil stuff is watersport related. I assumed they were waterskiing gloves, but I was wrong. Silicone printing too! That looks like it could be pretty good cross over.

My water skiing gloves have kevlar reinforced grips and would tear the living crap out of Alcantara. I say this based on the wear I put on my rubber coated handles. Wore right through the rubber, but helped protect my hands from serious blisters.
 
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