Sugoi Firewall GT Gloves £30

I have to admit my fingers don’t last long in the cold. I’d like to think I can tough it out, that I don’t let a little thing like chilly fingers put me off riding, but in all honesty the truth is quite the opposite.

Take last Sunday for instance. The fields and hedgerows were brilliant white with frost and the small deserted lanes I was riding along, where the gritting lorries hadn’t reached yet, covered with a thick intimidating layer of ice. On a day like this my fingers would normally shrivel up and the pain soon become too unbearable to continue, but with Sugoi’s Firewall GT gloves I was able to push onto into the cold without a worry.

The Firewall GT gloves manage this thanks to the Firewall material, a 3-layer 4-way stretch barrier that effortlessly keeps out the cold, wind and rain, and all while maintaining a reasonably slim and light weight glove. The material is also highly breathable, a fact I noticed on a hard ride recently when my hands refused to become clammy from the sweat.

On the outside, the gloves are well designed, as RCUK has come to expect of Sugoi. Firstly they’re pre-curved to offer a more comfortable fit and there’s some slim padding, though not nearly as much as other gloves, on the palm. This does help keep the overall bulkiness of the gloves down and to be fair, we didn’t feel any discomfort. The entire thumb is coated in a soft towelling material, as are the sides of the fingers giving plenty of nose wiping opportunities.

A generous cuff is fastened into place with a large Velcro closure. The nicest attention to detail is the built-in magnets affixed via small tabs to the cuffs, which makes that last minute scramble for the single missing glove minutes before a ride a redundant hassle.

Their lack of bulkiness belies the amount of insulation these gloves provide. We found them to work brilliantly in temperatures that recently dipped down to below zero, once a bit of heat had been generated and stored by the gloves insulation. There’s no silicone-style tabs on the fingers which would have been a nice touch, but despite this grip and flexibility was good on the handlebars and when moving to the brakes.