The 7 Best Mountain Bike Gloves (2024)

Best Bang for Your Buck

Giro DND

Available sizes: XS - XXXL | Touchscreen Friendly? Yes

The Giro DND is a popular glove in Giro's line-up and has remained relatively unchanged over the years. These slip-on gloves feature a comfortable combination of AX Suede synthetic leather on the palm and 4-way stretch mesh on the backside of the hand. Their fit is bolstered by Giro's "Super-Fit" engineered three-panel palm construction, meant to improve feel and reduce material bunching. The gloves are meant for warmer weather riding and offer a sweat wipe on the thumb and silicone on the thumb, index, and middle finger for grip. Not to be outdone by the other, more expensive models, the DND is also touchscreen compatible, so you can shoot pictures and text without removing your gloves.

The DND is more of a minimalist, warm-weather glove. It doesn't offer the same protection from overgrowth and tree branches as the higher-rated Troy Lee Designs Air, but it did hold up to a few slides across the hardpack. The DND has been well received over the years and continues to be an all-around favorite for many riders, all at a price almost everyone can afford.

Best Budget Buy

Giro Trixter

Available sizes: XS-XXL | Touchscreen Friendly? Yes

The Giro Trixter is a minimalist glove offering solid breathability and comfort on a budget. The slip-on style features a stretchable lycra cuff that makes it easier to glove up. The perforated palm, flexible "AX Bolt" fabric on the backside, and mesh between the fingers keep your hand cool. These pricepoint gloves even feature Giro's "Instachill" technology, which they claim cools your skin as you sweat. The Trixter also includes blister protection inside the thumb and is touchscreen-compatible.

The lightweight fabric of the Trixter is definitely comfortable and flexible, but the gloves fit smaller-to-size than other comparable models tested. It is one of the few models to experience failure during our test period, with the mesh seam splitting on one finger and the fabric across one of the knuckles pulling apart when stretched. The cuff of the gloves also feels short on the palm side, and the seams on the fingers cause pressure at the fingertips. The Trixter is a great value for a warm-weather glove, but unless you're shopping on a particularly tight budget, it's worth considering spending a few more bucks on a durable glove like the Giro DND.

Most Protective Gloves

100% Cognito D30

Available sizes: S-XXL | Touchscreen Friendly? Yes

When you envision a tough, protective glove that is still flexible and breathable, the 100% Cognito D30 should be what comes to mind. These gloves include all of the desired features of other popular gloves, like silicone finger and palm pads, touchscreen capability, mesh finger gussets, and a Clarini perforated palm. The Cognito D30 also adds a neoprene velcro cuff and abrasion-resistant stretch material on the backside for additional protection from scrapes and cuts. The stand-out difference of these gloves, however, are the molded knuckles that will give you the confidence to corner tighter and knuckle kiss a tree here and there.

With the additional protection, it takes some time to get used to the thicker fabric and formed knuckles on the Cognito D30, especially if you're used to more minimalist gloves like the Giro Trixter. The abrasion-resistant material on the back of the D30 isn't particularly well-ventilated, so these gloves can feel a bit warm on hotter days. Even though they fit true to size, the velcro cuff felt looser than other, similarly sized gloves. Additional protection aside, the gloves don't feel bulky or stiff, so you won't be sacrificing any range of motion or dexterity for the added protection. Ultimately, the D30 is a well-made glove that offers a little boost of confidence to tackle those tight trails and obstacles.

Best for Cold Weather Riding

Fox Racing Ranger Fire

Available sizes: S - XXL | Touchscreen Friendly? Yes

The Fox Ranger Fire is a riding glove for colder days, offering comfort and dexterity without the bulky feel of a full winter glove. The Ranger Fire has a water resistant Ax Suede palm with silicone grips to prevent slippage when wet, and the back of the glove is a flexible polyester and nylon softshell. Sliding your hand into the soft, brushed fleece interior is made easier with a reinforced pull tab on the extended cuff, which can be tucked into a jacket to keep the wind and water out on adventurous rides.The glove also offers a nose wipe on the thumb and is touchscreen-compatible, so you don't have to expose your hands to send a text.

Often a cold weather glove is bulky, and it can be difficult to get a feel for levers and shifters. But the Ranger Fire fits close to the hand and doesn't feel much different from any other fully-featured gloves in our test group, like the Troy Lee Designs Air Glove. Riding in early morning temperatures in the 40 °Fs was no issue with the Ranger Fire, but they got a little uncomfortable as temperatures climbed closer to 60 °F. Once our hands were sweaty, the gloves were a bit more challenging to slip on due to their narrow cuff, but the pull tab certainly helped. An altogether impressive design, the Ranger Fire is a sleek and comfortable glove for cold-weather riding.

Most Stylish Gloves

Handup Summer Lite

Available sizes: XS - XXL | Touchscreen Friendly? No

The Handup Summer Lite is the go-to choice for those who want a lightweight, minimalist glove with a little pizzazz. Sometimes the first things you notice are a rider's gloves, and the Summer Lite offers a variety of colors and graphics to express your inner wild child. Handup makes a variety of gloves for different conditions, and as the name suggests, the Summer series is made for the warmest riding weather. The perforated palm and mesh shell keep your hands cool on those hot days and these gloves include a sweat wipe on the thumb to keep the sweat out of your eyes. Their close-knit fit and top-notch flexibility make them quite comfortable for a full day on the trail.

Since the Summer Lite is a lightweight glove, it doesn't offer much protection past the fabric covering your hand. The glove may be fine sliding out in a turn or hitting light foliage, but unlike the 100% Cognito D30, it probably isn't the best option for testing out your bone density in a rock garden. The Summer Lite is listed as a touchscreen-compatible glove, though inconsistencies during our testing would prove otherwise. If you are looking for a minimalist glove with a little flair so you can be a peaco*ck at the bike park, the Summer Lite offers plenty of fun options to fit the bill.

Best for Glove-Averse Riders

100% Celium

Available sizes: S - XL | Touchscreen Friendly? Yes

If you are a rider who likes the au-natural feel of the controls, but you still want some level of protection and grip, the 100% Celium may be your perfect glove. The Celium is a true-to-size glove that offers a single-layer, perforated Clarino palm with an ultra-thin stretch mesh back panel that feels almost non-existent. The slip-on design with a short cuff offers a very snug fit that flexes well with any hand movement. Other features include touchscreen compatibility, a sweat wipe, and silicone on the palm, first, and second fingers for additional grip.

The Celium performed well on the trail and definitely keeps your hands from getting hot. Since it is a minimalist design, it doesn't offer any smash or bash protection but does offer some abrasion resistance for when you take a slide. One noticeable issue is the seams are sewn at the fingertips, which feels odd at first. Although those odd feelings subsided with use, a glove with a more refined fit like the Giro DND avoids this issue altogether. However, for riders who like a minimalist glove or for the glove-adverse rider who wants to try out a pair, the Celium is still the perfect ultralight glove with a barely-there feel.

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Why You Should Trust Us

For our comprehensive review, we first identified key metrics to grade mountain bike gloves. While there was debate over which aspects we should focus on, all of our reviewers agreed that the best way to test these gloves is by wearing them to ride – a lot. For metrics like fit and comfort, we simply wore these gloves for months end to feel how they either improved or impeded our riding experience. Other metrics, like features and protection, were supplemented by close, side-by-side examination of every glove to judge how certain designs supported our experience in the field. We wore these gloves while riding a wide variety of terrain and through every type of weather to best assess their versatility.

Our testing of mountain bike gloves is divided into five rating metrics:

• Fit (25% of total score weighting)

• Comfort (25% weighting)

• Features (20% weighting)

• Protection (15% weighting)

• Durability (15% weighting)

Our lead mountain bike glove reviewer is Jeremy Benson. Benson is a bike racer based in South Lake Tahoe, CA. He began mountain biking in the early nineties and has become more addicted to the sport over the years. Whether riding for fun, work, or training, Benson spends lots of time on the bike in all seasons. In addition to putting all types of gear through the wringer for GearLab reviews, Benson is also the author of Mountain Bike Tahoe, a guidebook published by Mountaineers Books.

Zach Wick is a riding fanatic who has spent years working in product development and testing in the cycling industry. He has experience testing new equipment both in the lab and in the field, and he has developed a keen sense of what makes a good product. Over the past fifteen years, he's spent time riding and racing most two-wheeled disciplines you can think of at an elite level. These days he spends most of his time mountain biking on his local trails in Santa Cruz and taking part in the occasional mountain, gravel, or cyclocross race while testing gear for GearLab.

Travis Reddinger has spent much of his life on two wheels, starting with BMX racing and dirt jumping, eventually growing into riding mountain bikes and dirt bikes. Now, he is fortunate enough to have a family who also enjoys riding all things two-wheeled. With years of experience on the trails, putting equipment to the test with a keen attention to detail, Travis knows how to determine what is functional and what simply doesn't work.

Analysis and Test Results

Mountain bike gloves serve different purposes for each individual rider, and it can be challenging to pick the perfect pair to suit your particular needs. There is a wide assortment of gloves to choose from, so we spend time researching the most popular options on the market and selecting only the best ones to test side-by-side. During the testing process, each model is rated on five performance metrics: fit, comfort, features, protection, and durability. The gloves undergo testing and examination by multiple riders, and feedback is collected for accurate assessments.

Value

Price does not impact how a product scores during our testing phase, but it does matter to anyone making a purchase decision. Oftentimes, high-performance products come with higher price tags as a result of the materials used, cost of production, or design labor behind extra features. Specially designed glovers like the 100% Cognito D30 and Fox Ranger Fire fit this mold perfectly. But opting for a less expensive glove doesn't mean you are settling for an inferior product. The Giro DND performs admirably across the board, offering many of the same features as higher-end gloves at a fraction of the cost.

Fit

If your gear doesn't fit properly, it won't get used. We pay attention to finger articulation, length and shape, ease of application and removal, material stretch and binding, and how the glove impacts movement or is restrictive. We also examine if the gloves run true to size since the range of fit can vary between brands or even between a brand's own models.

The four-way stretch fabric and Clarino palm on the Handup Summer Lite make this minimalist summer glove one of the best-fitting options in our review. The Fox Ranger Fire and TLD Air Glove are made for different temperatures (cold and shoulder seasons, respectively) but score similarly well thanks to their nearly perfect finger length and shape. The Hestra Sr. 5-Finger and Specialized Trail Thermal also offer additional cold weather protection without limiting movement for technical riding. The 100% Cognito D30 and Dakine Covert feature a perforated Clarino palm with stretch material on the back, which aids in unrestricted movement – a particularly notable achievement for the heavily padded D30 gloves.

Comfort

The comfort of a glove may seem like a subjective metric, but there are important objective factors that determine how comfortable a riding glove will be. The materials used in manufacturing greatly impact the comfort of a glove, as well as its ability to regulate body temperature for warm or cold weather rides. Most mountain bike gloves feature a mix of synthetic leather, polyester fabric, and mesh for flexibility. But some gloves have a much better feel than others when compared side-by-side. Design and construction can also make or break comfort. Poorly placed seams and excess fabric can bunch up or create hotspots, causing irritation or blisters. Throughout our years of testing, we've noticed that the most comfortable gloves tend to have a solid, seamless palm and minimal overlap of fabrics or seams on the fingertips.

At the top of the comfort scale are the TLD Air and the 100% Cognito D30, two very different types of gloves that are equally enjoyable to wear on long rides. Thanks to flexible, lightweight fabric, minimal flat seams, and plenty of ventilation, the Air glove is barely noticeable. Alternatively, the Cognito D30 might be the most comfortable protective glove we've ever worn, thanks to flexible knuckle padding, a soft Clarino palm, and an abrasion-resistant back that is still quite flexible.

Gloves employ different materials on the palms, which can greatly affect their flexibility and grip.

Fox Racing designed the warm-weather Ranger and cold-weather Ranger Fire with thoughtful seam placements to improve overall comfort. The minimalist Giro DND and Handup Summer Lite feature synthetic leather palms and a stretchy mesh backing that closely conforms to your hand. Unlike the Dakine Cross-X, which is similar to the DND and Summer Lite but with a Clarino palm, the Dakine Covert features a more unique construction. The Convert combines a four-way-stretch back with a one-piece Ax Suede Uno synthetic palm, which wraps over the fingers to the first knuckle for a seamless fingertip.

Some gloves bring the fabric together at the finger, while other brands avoid this altogether.

Features

While most gloves generally look pretty similar, there are a number of features that differentiate the functionality of various models. We examined and tested each glove's useful features, including the nose-wipe chammy, touchscreen compatibility, silicone fingertips, padding, ventilation, and moisture-wicking capability. Through extended field testing, we could verify not only that the feature existed but whether or not it actually worked. In the process, we discovered that not all of a brand's claimed features are created equal and offer the same experience.

Our lineup includes many feature-packed gloves, with nearly all of them including touchscreen compatibility, mesh ventilation, a nose wipe, and some sort of silicone grip on the palm or fingers. The 100% Cognito D30 sets itself apart with molded knuckle guards for increased impact protection.

The Fox Ranger and Ranger Fire feature a stretchy, polyester backing for increased flexibility, while the Ranger Fire is also specially designed for cold weather rides with a brushed fleece interior. Gloves like the TLD Air and Giro DND incorporate a ventilated mesh, while the POC Essential DH features a lycra palm and backing for improved comfort in warmer climates.

Protection

Any glove you choose will offer improved protection compared to bare skin, but some offer more impact and blister protection than others. Some gloves are meant to be as lightweight as possible, while others offer additional padding to hopefully avoid ride-ending injuries. Gloves that offer specific protection may be sought after for certain types of riding – like downhill racing – but most riders want some level of protection for their hands.

The 100% Cognito D30 offers the most impact protection by far. With D30 knuckle pads, abrasion-resistant fabric on the back, a longer cuff, and blister protection on the thumb webbing, this glove is a cut above the rest for trail protection. The POC Essential DH uses EVA foam padding on the outer knuckles for increased protection, but they don't quite compare to the moldable knuckle guards of the Cognito D30.

The Specialized Trail Thermal and Fox Ranger Fire offer a different kind of protection against cold, wind, and moisture. The TLD Air, Dakine Covert, and Cross-X all add material to the knuckles and back of the hand for improved abrasion resistance, but ultimately, these are still lightweight gloves.

Durability

Mountain biking takes a toll on the rider and their equipment, and gloves see a lot of abuse. Constant pressure on the grips and sweat absorption are among the regular factors that can limit the normal lifespan of a glove. Now factor in hitting trees, brush, twigs, thorns, burrs, and the occasional slide in the dirt, and you are asking this piece of clothing to endure a lot during a regular ride. We examined the quality of each glove's stitching, craftsmanship, potential weak points, and materials used to determine how much punishment they could endure. We took notes on the trail and compared the wear and tear of the gloves after our extended testing period. Knowing that nothing lasts forever, especially depending on how much abuse you dish out, durability only accounts for a small fraction of a glove's overall score.

Thicker gloves like the Fox Ranger, Hestra Long Sr., or 100% Cognito D30 are built to withstand abuse on the trails. If you'd rather wear a lightweight glove, opt for ones with quality craftsmanship and materials, like the TLD Air or Dakine Covert. Even ultralight gloves like the Handup Summer Lite or 100% Celium that combine flexible, thin fabric with flat seams and synthetic leather palms are surprisingly durable for their weight. At the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweight Fox Ranger Fire and Specialized Trail Thermal offer high-quality materials and stitching that should last through the seasons, especially if they don't see the same regular use as an all-weather glove.

Conclusion

We put these gloves through rigorous testing – with many hours in the saddle through a variety of trail conditions – to help narrow down the overwhelming number of options on the market. We hope our experience will help you easily decide on the right pair of gloves so that you can get out and ride!