Gorewear Gore-Tex Infinium Thermo Split gloves - A quick review

Today I tried some new gloves on my mountain bike. Although, to be honest, they were bought primarily for my road bike riding. These are weird-looking gloves

GOREWEAR Gore-TEX INFINIUM™ Thermo Split Gloves.

I bought them because the other day, and for two days on the run, my hands were cold while out riding my Girs road bike. The temperature was around two degrees.

I have winter gloves from Castelli and even an old pair of 'electric' gloves, which are no longer as warm as they were years ago; the chargeable batteries don't hold their charge. Neither pair of these gloves were warm enough, and I had to stop several times to warm my fingers on both rides.

Looking around on the web, I came across these Gore gloves with some good reviews, so I thought I'd try them.

I was lucky, they arrived just before an MTB ride that I had planned to do on my Van Nicholas Tuareg, making a nice change from road riding.

As I hadn't seen any reviews about these gloves on mountain bikes, I took a second pair of 'normal' winter gloves with me just in case, which I used coming back, to make sure of my feelings for the Gore gloves. Effectively, the ride back was better, feeling-wise, but they were slightly colder.

Now, first things first

The gloves fit just nicely, I had chosen size nine as I know that is my size. perfect. Thumb, forefinger, like any other gloves, but the last three fingers are together in one big compartment, but inside the three fingers don't actually touch each other. I haven't tried turning the gloves inside out, but I presume there are three fingers inside.

Touchscreen capable

I don't like this at the end of the forefinger; it's squared off rather than rounded, with a cheap-looking piece of false leather, to give you finger control on a phone, but it looks wrong, looks cheap, and looks strange being squared off.

The thumb is not much better, though the back side is as it should be.

They shouldn't have and don't need these crap pieces, making them look cheap and ugly. Also, I'm certain a normal ending would feel even better for one-finger gear changing.

Using a phone with these gloves is impossible. This is a complete waste of time for this gimmick, adding unnecessary work and cost to the gloves.
I'm a phone addict, using chat all the time as I'm deaf, but unless I have an emergency, the phone stays in my pockets while out riding, or if really need be, I take off my gloves to use my phone, no big deal.

MTB riding was strange and disconcerting. They're not perfect for MTB riding

Why? I ride cross-country. I ride, or rather I brake, using two fingers, don't we all? And as the second finger is tied up in the main section, this isn't really possible. So either you brake one using one finger only, or basically all four fingers, even if there's a bit of movement in the main compartment, and you think you're breaking two fingers when actually it's four. Strange...

This will also depend on your brake levers, short or long. I have Hope Tech X2 brakes, Old but brilliant, perfect for cross-country riding that I do, but the levers are quite short, so again disconcerting when using all your fingers.

These gloves are definitely not for fast riding, nor for cross-country style. To be honest, as they're winter gloves, riding tends to be slower, and more 'delicate', so it can be done. But .....

In comparison with my winter gloves, the palm side is a little too thick, so the grip on my bars is not as good as I would like it to be. I could feel the different layers of cloth moving around slightly. They ought to have some stitching to keep the layers in 'one piece', or they could be slightly thinner, as it's not the palm that gets cold. Also, being thinner or having a more 'one piece' feel would give better grip on your bars.

Changing gears with my XTR shifters wasn't a problem, though again, that crappy bit of leather would have been better with a 'rough' cloth/silicon, giving an even better feeling.

These are my main gripes with the gloves and MTB riding. Other than that, my hands weren't cold. Again, it was only about two degrees outside. Also, it was a short ride.

I'm sure even after more time, my fingers would still be warm. For MTB riding in cold winter, if you're not hammering it or riding fast, or too technical, they're okay, but they could be far better with a little work done.
Gore obviously hasn't tried them out on an MTB

They're good for road bike riding

This afternoon, just two days later, I jumped on my Girs road bike. Now, as I thought and had read some articles, this is much better. Perfect, no, it was as cold as the last rides, but after a two-hour ride, my hands weren't cold at all.

I mostly ride with my hands on top of the brakes, normally with two fingers on the outside of the bar and the last two under, if you understand what I mean. With these gloves, it's all fingers over, but that wasn't a problem.

Changing gears was easy. I have a Sram Rival eTap setup, left or right, changing wasn't a problem. Riding with my hands at the bottom of the bar felt a little strange, again due to the last three fingers locked into the 3-finger compartment.

I would like to have some non-slip silicone on the finger tips, to have a better feel on the brake levers, especially when riding the bar at the bottom and braking.

It was cold, as I said, even my Sram power meter decided it didn't want to work, three times I stopped, grabbed my phone to check the settings. Using these gloves is impossible with a phone.

Below are some photos, including two photos of my Castelli gloves fingertips. You can see they are far simpler and, being Italian, far better looking.

Final thoughts

MTB riding. Not really, unless you have long brake levers and don't ride fast or technical.
Road riding. Yes, my hands weren't cold. No real gripes with them, except
again I would prefer the palm side thinner or the layers stitched as they do slip around slightly.
Gravel riding. I haven't tried them as my Gravel bike is 400 km away, but I would imagine that it's not too bad, being so similar to a road bike.
Touchscreen capable. A pure waste of time. Using a phone with these gloves is not an option.
Silicon anti-slip. Need some at the fingertips on the bottom side.

I'm keeping these gloves, but I'll only use them for road biking, as they are effectively quite good for that. Though I won't use them again for the MTB.

Apart from the touchscreen pieces, and missing silicon. They are well-made. The cuffs could be a little larger to slip over the wrist of a jacket.

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