Louis Garneau Deluxe Gloves

Louis Garneau
Deluxe Gloves
$16

Louis Garneau is a Canadian company specializing in cycling apparel. Founded in the mid-1980s by Louis Garneau, a bicycle racer and Canadian track champion, the company focuses on developing quality apparel at competitive prices. They offer a range of comfortable, fully-featured jerseys, helmets, shorts, and other apparel to fit a range of riders' budgets.

I purchased their least expensive glove, the Deluxe, on a whim several months ago because I liked the style of it. The brown synthetic leather and black (or white) mesh back gives it a slightly retro look. I have some other gloves, but these were inexpensive and, I figured, worth a try.

For the price, it is in fact an extremely comfortable glove. Unlike many higher-end gloves, however, the palms are only slightly ventilated. If buying a glove to use in hot summer weather, one is probably better advised to go with a glove like the higher-end Pilota or Air-Gel. These offer more Ergo-Air palm venting to keep the palms cooler. Also, the Pearl Izumi Elite Gel-Vent gloves use a nice system to vent cool air to the rider's palms. However, all of these have a little more padding than I usually prefer, and on the hottest rides I generally ride gloveless.

In the weather we've been having lately, however, the Deluxe gloves have been great. In weather from 55 to 75 degrees, my hands have stayed very comfortable, and the gloves provide great grip for both road riding and mountain biking, and I have a wide range of grips and handlebar tape on my different bikes. Damp-weather grip has been really good as well, certainly better than riding gloveless in wet conditions.

So far, my criticisms are that the seams and the velcro closure could be of better construction. Also, a real leather palm would fit better with the gloves' style, and probably give them more long-term durability. The material used for the thumb wipe would also be more effective if it were a terry-style fleece material instead of the fine microfiber which is used. However, on the whole the gloves are comfortable, grippy, nice-looking and inexpensive, and are perfectly adequate for regular use, especially in the weather we've been having this spring.