Gore Bike Wear Power 2.0 Gloves Review

The Gore label is known for its excellent quality active clothing. Whether it be their extreme outdoor where, their GORE-TEX® range or their sports and cycling clothing, you can usually expect great quality. The Gore Bike Wear products are probably more well known in the off-road trails world of mountain biking than in the peloton of road cycling, but they do offer a line of products which are design specifically for road use.The Gore Bike Ware Power 2.0 Gloves sit somewhere in the middle of the Gore range and with a £27.99 RRP, they won't break the bank like some. But do they represent good value as well as comfort. We give them the AATR 'road' test.

Comfortable Grip?

The overall design of the Gore Bike Wear Power 2.0 gloves is nice and simple. The palm is made from an 60% Polyamide and 40% Polyurethane mix and has small ventilation holes in the centre of the palm and the inner side of the fingers. The Gel padding sits nicely in all of the palms pressure points for extra comfort and shock absorption. Unlike some gloves, whilst you know it is there, the gel padding is not so thick that it stops you really feeling the handlebars. The Gore Power 2.0 gloves also give a pretty good grip which is comforting when riding in the 'drop' position or at speed.The 'backhand' of the glove has a nice well made feel about it too and is made up of 3 main panels. There is a nice large sweat (and snot) towel-like absorption section covering the thumb, forefinger and inner corner of the glove. This is excellent for hot (and cold) weather wipes. The centre panel is a fine mesh for increased ventilation when riding in hotter conditions. This panel is printed with a large reflective Gore Bike Ware logo which due to it's simplicity gives the Gore Bike Wear Power 2.0 gloves a little prestigious finish. That being said, we would imagine this will come off after a number of washes. The final panel on the outer-hand is a Polyamide, Elastane mix to give the gloves stretch and flex in different gripping positions on the handlebars. The Gore Power 2.0 gloves fasten with a strong, but not over the top, Velcro strap which does up on the inner wrist. Gore have made the glove with a lip which drops below the fastening strap and stops any rubbing against the wrist.One of the things we like about the Gore Power 2.0 gloves (and others in the Gore range) is the strategically placed removal loops which are stitched between the ring and little fingers and the fore and middle fingers. This is great for pulling the gloves off. Our only concern is how well they are attached. The pair we tested seem pretty strong but we could see them possibly ripping off with too much force.

Fit Like a Glove?

Like lots of cycle wear brands, Gore Bike Wear products are a little on the smaller size. This doesn't really differ where their gloves come in. Based on previous gloves, we tested the XL or 9" gloves. The Gore Apparel website gives you a handy little size chart to show how their measurements are determined. When the gloves arrived, the first concern was that they looked incredibly small for the size ordered. When pulling them on, there was enough stretch in them to get your hand in and once on gloves felt tight but comfortable. Trying the next size up we found that it was too large and gaped in the palm. The Gore Power 2.0 glove is cut quite high up on the outer wrist which allows lots of movement and rotation between the hand and wrist.

Gore Bike Wear Power 2.0 Gloves conclusion

We really like these gloves, there is no doubt about it. They are well made and with discounts at Evans Cycles and Wiggle But we did have a couple of negative views about them. The first is that whilst they have a large mesh backhand and ventilation holes in the palm, we found that in hot temperatures the hand did get extremely hot and sweaty. Testing them on a 30 mile ride on a day when the temperature reached around 26°C, we actually removed them and road the last 10 miles with no gloves. This may have been down to the tight fit or down to the tester. When retested on a day where the temperature was around 20-21°C, they felt much more comfortable.The second annoyance if the ridiculously over-the-top care label in the left glove. You get a small size label which is great and causes no issues. Then you 3 labels which are almost as long as the glove itself, with wash instructions and list of materials in multiple languages. The first time we tried the left glove on, the label came out of the thumb hole. This of course can be cut out but we feel that it probably doesn't need to be so imposing in the first place.