****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I really like these gloves. They are NOT cheaply made as a couple reviewers wrote. They are well-designed and the quality is very high. They're also very comfortable.I was a little unsure about what size to order because the measurement across my knuckles is 9.5 inches which is 1/2" greater than they XX Large chart measurement. However, my fingers are spot on for the XX Large measurement. That is, my middle fingers are 3.5" long. The reason I was a bit concerned was that I like to buy leather gloves that are tight and then work them in until they fit perfectly so I considered ordering the X Large gloves. I don't like loose gloves. I treat the new gloves with a good leather conditioner (this time I used Leather Honey) and then put them on a work them in for about an hour while watching TV. By work them in, I mean I make tight fits, open and close my hand, spread my fingers and work them vigorously, etc. This softened the gloves up and made them fit almost perfectly in no time. Then I took a ride and, by the time I got back, I practially forgot that I had them on. They were that comfortable.Now, some have complained that the leather is thin and cheap. Well, it's not cheap and it's not thin but they may be comparing them to gloves used by professional racers that may have shoe-thick leather in strategic places and titanium knuckle inserts, etc. But those gloves can cost several hundred dollars. Once these gloves are softened up and broken in, you can then pinch the leather alone (without the lining) and, yes, the leather isn't thick but I have no doubt that they will provide plenty of protection for "normal" spills and crashes for street riders (maybe not crazy sports bike riders that ride at 150mph through traffic as seen on YouTube but nothing will save them in the end anyway.)The gloves have reinforcements in all the places you could expect to scrape on the ground in a crash. The major knuckle inserts aren't metal. They feel like they may be some kind of plastic with padding or perhaps some sort of rubber but, again, I think they would provide ample protection in all but the longest slides on pavement. The minor knuckles (finger joints) also have padded protectors of the same type but, oddly, the index and little fingers don't have them as you can see in the product pictures.As for size: I'm glad I ordered according to the chart. Even though my knuckle measurement is larger than the largest XX Large measurement on the chart, the fit was really good. It wasn't tight like I normally order but they felt as though they had already stretched in to fit me. They were stiff as any new leather glove of this type is but they softened up very quickly and beautifully. The only thing that didn't fit perfectly was the thumbs. But this makes no difference at all and it's not a fault of the glove. I just have shorter thumbs than most people so there's about 3/8" air space and the end of the thumb. It's not something that I notice at all when wearing the gloves, though. I just thought I'd mention it.In summary, these are very well-designed gloves of high quality that should be fine for street riding but not for professional high-speed track racing, etc.One more thing: I don't consider my hands to be really large. They're probalby a bit larger than average. I think the fact that the charts show I should order the XX Large gloves may just be that people in the country where they're made (Pakistan, I believe) may have small hands. I know people that have MUCH larger hands than mine. So if you have really big hands, you probably won't find a size in this glove that fits you. If you can squeeze them on, you should be able to stretch them to fit but you can't stretch the finger length much so if you have fingers much longer than the longest in the chart, they probably won't fit you. Otherwise, the chart seems to be accurate. If my finger measurement was a bit shorter than the XX Large in the chart, I probably would have ordered them X Large and stretched them in as I usually do but the XX Large worked out fine.
