I bought a thin Pearl Izumi winter glove.
I was looking for Mavic's "Spring Glove"—
the one I had for spring and autumn wear,
which has been the same since the Adidas brand era—
but I can't find it even though I don't remember throwing it away.
The thinness of those gloves was perfectly calibrated,
and I especially liked that the palm-side padding was basically non-existent.
I really hate palm-side padding on gloves in general,
and in most cases I remove it right after buying.
When I'm looking at gloves, that's the first thing I check—whether it's possible to remove.
↑This is Pearl Izumi's premium winter glove.
The one I have is an even older model than that.
I've also removed the palm padding from this one.
↑With this section, if I cut the thread it would just unravel, so I left the fabric.
↑The padding on the gloves I bought this time looks like this.
The key point is that the thread stitching the padding in place is independent,
and there are no—or almost no—places where it's sewn together with the fabric underneath.
I still don't understand the point of padding on the pinky-side of the palm.
Is it because I don't usually grip the bracket portion of the lever much?
Or is it a consideration to avoid pinching the ulnar nerve in the case of flat bars?
It doesn't affect me since I barely grip the bracket at all.
But if the padding material here is hard or has a file-like texture,
for people who grip the bracket a lot it absolutely shreds the bar tape on the drop bar shoulder section.
Also, thick palm padding makes the finger grip on the brake lever shallow when coming from the drops.
I sometimes switch to super-thin bar tape just in winter,
and that's because I'm thinking about the total thickness of both glove and bar tape combined.
There's some suspicion that the section at the base of the index finger is co-stitched with the lower fabric.
Everywhere else the seams appear to be independent.
After carefully unstitching, I confirmed it wasn't co-stitched,
so it's definitely possible to remove just the padding section.
If it were just double fabric, that would be fine,
but there's sponge in there, which is a pain.
Got it removed.
There are adhesive residue marks where the sponge was temporarily stuck to the glove side,
but there's no real problem.
When I put on the gloves and rub my hands together,
most of the sponge came right off.
The spots with adhesive residue don't feel sticky or anything.
I put on gloves with padding removed from just one side,
and when I squeeze and release with my fingers,
the range of motion—or the tension feeling—is completely different.
Only the side with padding removed has no pinching sensation between the fingers when making a fist.
And my finger grip on the brake lever is better now that the padding's gone.
I did both sides.
I know someone will say "Why don't you just buy gloves that come like this from the start?"
but since this was an impulse buy at the wholesaler,
Pearl Izumi was the only option available.
If you want an unmodified option from current production, OGK Kabuto's "EXG-3" is recommended.
While I'm on the Pearl Izumi subject.
Their toe shoe covers have evolved again.
I'm not particularly sensitive to cold in my extremities,
and since I'm in Osaka, I generally get through a whole winter with just these.
The advantage with this one is that the topmost of the three velcro straps or the ratchet
is adjustable even with the shoe cover on.
Since what I'm currently using isn't broken,
I probably won't buy this season's model, but I'd recommend these.
↑This is the older version.
Unlike the current model, the opening doesn't have a stretchy belt-like strap.
↑Since Mavic from the same era looked like this,
they were influenced by it(←a roundabout way of saying copied).
↑An even older model.
↑Rat Bandit
There's no rubber at the toe.
So if you walk around quite a bit, you'll wreck it in a single winter.
I know this looks like I've reposted images from other blogs,
but these are actually photos from my own digital camera.
One more thing.
Starting next season (Spring/Summer 2015), some models of Pearl Izumi's inner pants
will intentionally remove the Pearl Izumi branding from the waistband.
"We judged that doing so would help us reach a broader range of users,"
according to them, but this is probably just the official story.
The real reason is probably to prevent the situation where
"when you went somewhere in the past, if the waistband had the brand name on it,
people would mistake it for the name of the pants' owner."
I was looking for Mavic's "Spring Glove"—
the one I had for spring and autumn wear,
which has been the same since the Adidas brand era—
but I can't find it even though I don't remember throwing it away.
The thinness of those gloves was perfectly calibrated,
and I especially liked that the palm-side padding was basically non-existent.
I really hate palm-side padding on gloves in general,
and in most cases I remove it right after buying.
When I'm looking at gloves, that's the first thing I check—whether it's possible to remove.
↑This is Pearl Izumi's premium winter glove.
The one I have is an even older model than that.
I've also removed the palm padding from this one.
↑With this section, if I cut the thread it would just unravel, so I left the fabric.
↑The padding on the gloves I bought this time looks like this.
The key point is that the thread stitching the padding in place is independent,
and there are no—or almost no—places where it's sewn together with the fabric underneath.
I still don't understand the point of padding on the pinky-side of the palm.
Is it because I don't usually grip the bracket portion of the lever much?
Or is it a consideration to avoid pinching the ulnar nerve in the case of flat bars?
It doesn't affect me since I barely grip the bracket at all.
But if the padding material here is hard or has a file-like texture,
for people who grip the bracket a lot it absolutely shreds the bar tape on the drop bar shoulder section.
Also, thick palm padding makes the finger grip on the brake lever shallow when coming from the drops.
I sometimes switch to super-thin bar tape just in winter,
and that's because I'm thinking about the total thickness of both glove and bar tape combined.
There's some suspicion that the section at the base of the index finger is co-stitched with the lower fabric.
Everywhere else the seams appear to be independent.
After carefully unstitching, I confirmed it wasn't co-stitched,
so it's definitely possible to remove just the padding section.
If it were just double fabric, that would be fine,
but there's sponge in there, which is a pain.
Got it removed.
There are adhesive residue marks where the sponge was temporarily stuck to the glove side,
but there's no real problem.
When I put on the gloves and rub my hands together,
most of the sponge came right off.
The spots with adhesive residue don't feel sticky or anything.
I put on gloves with padding removed from just one side,
and when I squeeze and release with my fingers,
the range of motion—or the tension feeling—is completely different.
Only the side with padding removed has no pinching sensation between the fingers when making a fist.
And my finger grip on the brake lever is better now that the padding's gone.
I did both sides.
I know someone will say "Why don't you just buy gloves that come like this from the start?"
but since this was an impulse buy at the wholesaler,
Pearl Izumi was the only option available.
If you want an unmodified option from current production, OGK Kabuto's "EXG-3" is recommended.
While I'm on the Pearl Izumi subject.
Their toe shoe covers have evolved again.
I'm not particularly sensitive to cold in my extremities,
and since I'm in Osaka, I generally get through a whole winter with just these.
The advantage with this one is that the topmost of the three velcro straps or the ratchet
is adjustable even with the shoe cover on.
Since what I'm currently using isn't broken,
I probably won't buy this season's model, but I'd recommend these.
↑This is the older version.
Unlike the current model, the opening doesn't have a stretchy belt-like strap.
↑Since Mavic from the same era looked like this,
they were influenced by it
↑An even older model.
↑
There's no rubber at the toe.
So if you walk around quite a bit, you'll wreck it in a single winter.
I know this looks like I've reposted images from other blogs,
but these are actually photos from my own digital camera.
One more thing.
Starting next season (Spring/Summer 2015), some models of Pearl Izumi's inner pants
will intentionally remove the Pearl Izumi branding from the waistband.
"We judged that doing so would help us reach a broader range of users,"
according to them, but this is probably just the official story.
The real reason is probably to prevent the situation where
"when you went somewhere in the past, if the waistband had the brand name on it,
people would mistake it for the name of the pants' owner."