As important as your bike’s contact points are to you, the same is also true of the kit that connects them back to you. Protecting your hands from all angles, a good pair of gloves will take a lot of abuse and come back for more, all the while encapsulating and unrestricting one of mankind’s most complicated components; the hand. In this review we’ll take a look at a rather special pair of gloves designed for the touch screen generation where taking your gloves off to take a photo or answer the phone are hopefully a thing of the past…

Answer are without doubt one of those brands steeped in off-road bicycle racing history and to this day, still produce premium components and accessories for both BMX and Mountain Bikes. In this mini review, we’ll take a closer look at their new ‘Won’ glove – a lightweight, cuff-less number with a unique material insert in the index finger that lets you interface with touch screen devices. Sounds pretty good huh?

Words: Olly Forster | Photos: Thomas Gaffney

The perforated palms help keep the build up of sweat at bay, but it’s the pre-curved design and silicone printed non slip fingers that truly stand out.

The anatomical cut and pre-curved fingers feel really nice with the tapered stitch at the knuckle, but as you can see from the photo, the absorbent fleece thumb is massive. It didn’t seem to bother me too much on the bike and while the large fleece section was useful with a cold in my system, it is the first thing you notice slipping them on. Other than the randomly large thumb, the gloves are nice and tight with a good balance between both and translate to a nice level of grip and without any rolling of the palm under pressure.

Conclusion.

Slipping on the Answer Won gloves was no real drama and for a size large hand felt on a par with what other manufacturer are offering. The cuff-less design is spot and with two rubber Answer logos at either end of the cuff to grab with your free hand and coupled with an ample elestic section, make for an uncomplicated and hassle free on and off. The cut and feel is also spot on across the hand and the fingers feel positively secured and comfortable where they need to be. One criticism has to be the thumb, which just feels unproportionately large compared to the rest of the glove and although not a deal breaker, it is odd none the less.

The box stitch section at the top of the index finger relates to what Answer have coined as “answer- it” technology. It’s basically a special material that allows you to use a touch screen phone when gloved up – a great idea for those social media whores or riders expecting calls while out on a ride. Does it work? It sure does, but you have to keep it flat…

The addition of the touch screen friendly finger will certainly be a welcome addition for most of us, especially if you’ve experienced the angst of hearing your phone wringing from within the depths of your hydration pack to only miss it due to wrestling with your gloves… More importantly, what happens when there’s an Instagram opportunity? Now you don’t want to miss that now do you? I know this is neither here nor there and I’m sure your thinking, “there are worse things?”. Your right, but as we move forwards in communication technology, it’s great to see the gear we wear on the bike move with it too. All in all a nice pair of gloves, that at £27 are not exceedingly over priced against the competition and come in an array of 4 colour combos that would easily please all but the fussiest of riders. For more information, head over to Hotlines-UK or tap the logo below. Happy trails, Olly.

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