The Best Winter Motorcycle Gloves You Can Buy

Motorcycle gloves have a tough job to do. They have to protect your hands in case of a crash and provide dexterity. Add in the need for winter warmth, and all these duties become much more challenging.

Luckily the same tech that’s making ski wear and other winter garb far warmer and easier to move in has landed in the moto space, too, so it’s not hard to find a warm but relatively lightweight mitt that still provides the freedom of movement you need on your moto.

But here’s a caution: For the same reason you shouldn’t use a work glove while you ride your moto in summer, a ski glove also doesn’t provide the specific protection you need for riding a motorcycle. And, sorry, ditto those old snowmobiling gloves you found at the neighbor’s garage sale.

The Best Winter Motorcycle Gloves

la choppers

Best Overall Winter Motorcycle Gloves: Alpinestars HT-7 Heat Tech Drystar Gloves

• $470.00 at cyclegear.com

No, these babies don’t come cheap, but they’re also about as brilliant a glove as you’ll find. First, the Heat Tech system begins warming the interior and the entirety of the back of the hands and the fingers the moment you slide your hands inside. They also pair with your phone, so you can check the charge level and nail the warmth setting you’d like before you ever step outside into the chill.

Your digits will be kept dry by Alpinestars’ own Drystar membrane, and beyond the battery-powered warmth, PrimaLoft Gold Aerogel is lighter than down and is designed to hold in the heat generated by your body (and in this case, the onboard heating tech, too). Alpinestars still does the moto side well, too, with Goat leather palms for supple adhesion, touchscreen compatibility, and a protective palm slider.

Dainese

Best Affordable Winter Motorcycle Gloves: Dainese Scout 2 Gore-Tex Gloves

• $63.00 at cyclegear.com
  $210.00 (70% off)

Few brands make gloves with as consistent a lever and control feel as Dainese. It helps that they pre-bend the palm and fingers, and even with both Gore-Tex and Primaloft insulation, for warmth and weatherproofing, The Scout 2 was designed to offer the brand’s signature ease of motion. The palm’s goatskin leather and Amica suede increase grip, and then for phone and other operations, Dainese includes touchscreen-compatible fingertips.

Naturally, Dainese incorporates an oversized palm slider into these mitts, and further armors the outside of the pinky finger, since a would-be slide during a crash tends to lead to dragging the outside of your hand during such accidents.

Revzilla

Best-Looking Winter Motorcycle Glove: Merlin Minworth Heated Gloves

• $249.00 at Revzilla

Want a glove that looks as good off the bike as on it? We dig the Merlin Minworth for not looking “tech,” while still including four hours of battery-fueled hand warming. Also, even though they just look like “normal” gloves, they get a waterproof membrane inside, for even more tech that doesn’t come with show-and-tell looks. Speaking of which, the knuckles are subtly protected by D30 armor, the digits are touchscreen compatible, and even the palm slider is understated.

Rukka

Best Adventure Riding Winter Gloves: Rukka R-Star 2 In 1 Gore-Tex Gloves

• $249.00 at cyclegear.com

When’s a battery-heated glove less than ideal? When you don’t have ready access to electricity to recharge batteries, like on an extended ride where you’re camping each night. Also, when you need more dexterity and may be mixing colder and warmer days. The Rukka R-Star might be the right mitt for you for that latter reason. It lets you put warmth at the back of your palm by sliding your hand into the glove beneath the insulation layer, which maximizes grip feel. Or, you can slide your hand in over the fleece lining, which would let you have more of the warming layer against the moto’s controls, which would be fine during a longer, but faster highway cruise.

Yes, you still get Gore-Tex, carbon fiber knuckle guards, a palm slider and a visor wiper on the left hand. Also, dig that the gauntlet cut hits the happy medium of guarding against wind climbing your coat sleeve, but it’s not so long that you’ll have bunching at the wrist.

Revzilla

Best Heated Winter Motorcycle Glove: REV’IT! Liberty H2O Heated Gloves

• $300.00 at Revzilla

With four heating levels from a battery-powered system, your digits should remain very toasty in these gauntlet-style REV’IT! gloves that also get water/windproofing. We dig that even though they’ll run for up to 6.5 hours on the low setting, too, they also get plenty of insulation as well, with a high loft fur liner and a thick layer of PrimaLoft Gold batting on the backs of your hands.

REV’IT uses goat leather on the palm for more grip and pliability in the cold, includes a palm slider for the heel of your hand, generous knuckle guards, as well as reflective features on the tops of the fingers so drivers will spy you more readily when you’re riding during darker winter days.

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