Community Question | Do You Wear Gloves To Sim Race?

[jkn87]

I'll readily admit - I'm a big fan of glove usage when on my racing rig - what's your opinion on the subject?

Initially I started out with the idea of wearing gloves to protect my various wheel rims from unnecessary wear and tear and to avoid any kind of water damage should my palms get too sweaty when driving. Throw into the mix a desire to avoid blisters of slipping on the wheel itself, the initial idea at the time felt pretty obvious.

Having been a wearer of gloves to sim race right from my first laps with the old Logitech G25, wearing them very quickly became second nature to me, and I don't even notice I've got them on anymore... until....

... I quite recently had to test something out, and that required me to turn a couple of laps on the rig. To be quite frank, I couldn't be bothered to reach over and get the gloves on. Man, it felt so strange without them, like an entirely different experience.

I was greatly surprised how much difference handling the wheel felt without my gloves - it somehow felt less realistic. I know that sounds silly, even to me, but I honestly did not like the experience without my gloves on one little bit. Weird how your mind gets accustomed to experiencing things in certain ways.

Anyway I digress.. the point of this article / question is to ask the community if they too use gloves to sim race, or if you don't, is that because you choose not too, or don't feel the need / like the experience.

Let us know how you prefer to go about your racing in terms of hand accessories ! Gloves FTW, or keeping it all naked skin

Let the discussion commence!

View attachment 376652

Fitness gloves cause otherwise the dd wheel ****s my hands

 

[EduCalza]

I Will get a custom gloves.

 

[EduCalza]

So, until get new custom gloves I'm using Nike running gloves.

 

[serya]

As the wheels have gotten more expensive, and gone from rubber/plastic to alcantara, I decided I had to. Experimented with different kinds but Ive settled on a pair and I cheat a little - non-racing soft material (reinforced palm has not worn at all) and fingerless. I like to find the buttons easily and at least have a little feel for the texture of the rims I swap out.

 

[ivanalesi]

I have gardening gloves, they have some plastic material over them that sticks quite well to the wheel. But that's only when I drive for a lot of time or when I do RBR on gravel Otherwise, just socks and bare hands for better feel.

 

[l33tman]

Gloves with race cars and bare hands with trucks (ETS2 & ATS).

 

[JimLee]

I sometimes use my cycling gloves, thin cloth-light weight- breathable fabric (partial and full-fingered) and washable for Fanatec F1 wheel. Other wheels are full-grain leather minimal maintenance/cleaning required . I see no sense in buying a set of (racing-karting) gloves just for sim racing. Though, I am spoiled with an AC room environment. So, it works for me.
Always wear shoes though, Fanatec v3, D-pedals with heavy springs and med-hard performance kit.

 

[surfstrand]

Yes OMP KS-4

 

[Honk!]

Honk!
No, but I want to buy a pair, however, there are many options and I do not know which one to choose, can someone recommend a brand or model? :c

 

[Kbaz Crab]

Gloves for my wheel with alcantara. bare hands with the T300 original, just for some especial car

 

[Kestrel75]

Not for me but can see the benefit in preserving expensive wheels with Alcantara

 

[ThugUK]

Honk!
No, but I want to buy a pair, however, there are many options and I do not know which one to choose, can someone recommend a brand or model? :c

Just the cheapest, thinnest decent leather/cloth gloves you can find.
If too thick then they become too warm, your hands sweat and you cant take them off.
Old style driving gloves are ideal, or thin gardening gloves like the ones I posted above are great too.
You don't need fancy carting or fire proof gloves.

 

[Dennis Karlsson]

Just the cheapest, thinnest decent leather/cloth gloves you can find.
If too think then they become too warm, your hands sweat and you cant take them off.
Old style driving gloves are ideal, or thin gardening gloves like the ones I posted above are great too.
You don't need fancy carting or fire proof gloves.

This!

I use really thin leather work gloves with cloth on the backhand.

 

[stenovitz]

Nearest definition of 'racing gloves' must be some 11-12 years ago wearing my garden gloves in a 6hr (offline) compressed GTR2 24 Heures du Mans with my Guillemotte Trustmaster Ferrari FFB
Otherwise, I drive barehanded and tried blisters several times driving endurance classics in GTR2 PnG v3.2 with my G27 wheel.
Somehow I've managed to boost my FFB values to some sort of direct drive torque feeling with PnG, far more FFB response than maxed out FFB values in GTR2 standard, AC, rF1, ACC, rF1, PC2, iRacing, R3E and older SimBin series. And don't ask me how But it surely still brings PnG alive to me to this day.

Blisters in an endless classic race I take as a bonus side effect and a great part of the authentic feeling

 

[drako90]

Usually No. only if i have more than 25ºC at home.
Btw, my wheel is an T300+Ferrari F1 wheel addon, so NO alcantara here.

 

[Warren Dawes]

Not sure now which is best. I have a Fanatec alcantara wheel but hadn't used gloves. I don't usually get sweaty hands, but don't really drive for more than one hour.
After reading all of the comments about needing gloves to preserve the alcantara, I picked up a set of relatively inexpensive, soft, leather garden gloves. Driving with them is good, feels great, but I've quickly noticed some discoloration of the alcantara which looks like very early signs of wear.
I've gone back to bare hands for now, but will gloves increase the wear rate?

 

[Dennis Karlsson]

Not sure now which is best. I have a Fanatec alcantara wheel but hadn't used gloves. I don't usually get sweaty hands, but don't really drive for more than one hour.
After reading all of the comments about needing gloves to preserve the alcantara, I picked up a set of relatively inexpensive, soft, leather garden gloves. Driving with them is good, feels great, but I've quickly noticed some discoloration of the alcantara which looks like very early signs of wear.
I've gone back to bare hands for now, but will gloves increase the wear rate?

Sounds like the leather on those gloves were dyed.

 

[Ezio Bonaccorsi]

Fortunatamente le mie mani non sudano.. no, non uso guanti

 

[manc0ntr0]

I started to wear gloves when I bought my first Alcantara wheel, so yes.

 

[LogintoDL888]

I don't wear gloves in order to play a video game.
Also, interesting to observe how disconnected from reality this forum is. I think that a very very small minority of people actually use gloves and those who do take simracing very seriously, a very little group.
I wonder what would be the results of this poll when asked on the Assetto Corsa steam page for example, where there is a much bigger variety of people.