The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Thanks to the forum members on here and from reading various articles on the web and watching videos I have decided to join the ATGATT brigade...

I am getting armoured high quality textiles for the winter and probably save up for something in leather for next Spring/Summer. I have spotted the boots that I want (recommended from reviews).

However, gloves.. Well, I did what most noobs probably do and bought a cheap armoured gaunlet pair from off Ebay. They fit great BUT they are bloody horrid to use. I have ZERO feel in them and when I put my hands on the grips I cannot move my fingers quick enough to brake plus the finger ends catch on the brake levers. This is clearly very unsafe. I have worn them once and removed them afer 3 seconds having hit my BBQ set.

I went to the local Motorbike superstore. They have dozens of gloves and he said to just try them all on until I find a pair that are right for me, which makes a lot of sense.

Problem is, I assume all gloves are crap on feel as it's the flipside of safety and warmth, which worries me. Do gloves start to give after a while? Dose anybody recommend any warm, waterproof gloves that allow for decent feel on the fingers?

Thanks in advance.

PCXade wrote:I assume all gloves are crap on feel

Nope what you are experiencing is something we all went through when we started.
As you ride you will develop a feel for how things should be with bike gloves on and when you try to ride without them it will feel wrong.
Held Freezer are good for winter if you don't fancy lobster claws.

I think before I discuss gloves I would like to mention that I ride with one finger on the brake lever on both sides at all times. Our reaction time is slow enough as it is. We need every advantage.

As far as proper fitting gloves go, my wife and I went to 3 different motorcycle shops and tried on every glove that was our size. When we found the right ones, we bought them. Not all gloves are for everyone. If you can't find ones that you feel comfortable with, just wear regular gloves with leather palms until you do find the correct ones that fit and do a good job of protecting you. Gloves are made to protect you....all gloves...but when you buy a pair at a store you don't just grab the first pair that fits you. You look for certain other things that you like. Do the same with motorcycle gloves. Take your time. You will find the right ones.

Mel46 wrote:I ride with one finger on the brake lever on both sides at all times.

Won't do you any good, you need all four to operate the brakes effectively.

That is where you are wrong. I have ridden that way all of my life and it has saved my life many times. My wife is fairly new at riding. I taught her about this and bought her adjustable brake levers. You don't need a lot of pressure to squeeze a brake lever, and when there is a sudden need to, you can easily pull those levers with a finger.

Mel46 wrote:That is where you are wrong. I have ridden that way all of my life and it has saved my life many times. My wife is fairly new at riding. I taught her about this and bought her adjustable brake levers. You don't need a lot of pressure to squeeze a brake lever, and when there is a sudden need to, you can easily pull those levers with a finger.

Nope its you who are wrong.
Use of all four fingers is essential for proper brake control.
There isn't a single credible riding teaching organisation which would agree with you.

gn2 wrote:

Mel46 wrote:That is where you are wrong. I have ridden that way all of my life and it has saved my life many times. My wife is fairly new at riding. I taught her about this and bought her adjustable brake levers. You don't need a lot of pressure to squeeze a brake lever, and when there is a sudden need to, you can easily pull those levers with a finger.

Nope its you who are wrong.
Use of all four fingers is essential for proper brake control.
There isn't a single credible riding teaching organisation which would agree with you.

They teach this at the UK cbt. They say 4 fingers on the levers.

Agree with gn2. Makes perfect sense. In fact, it should be a natural reaction
I understand your reasoning Mel. Get one finger "set-up" as a starter and the rest will follow. Right?

In that "dire time of need" you/I will need all fingers on the trigger(s) to make our best efforts at stopping before the ______. That said, if we have the fingers, by golly we should use them. My one finger on each brake would be Too Weak for me to do what it is I would have to do. I realize my weakness. I was trained in my MSF course to use all four (both hands). Habit now formed aka muscle memory.
Just adding: Never grab handfuls of brake! Squeeze

Gloves? Keep trying them on. You want goor quality, comfort and armor (in the right places). Most cases, your hands will be the first to react and touch something in a fall or crash. Natural human reaction. Cover them good, but be able to move those fingers

I do a bit of both. I instinctively cover the brakes with a finger (got told off a lot for this on the cbt) but then switch to four fingers for propproper braking. 1 finger's enough to start the job but you'll need more for proper control.

gn2 wrote:

Mel46 wrote:That is where you are wrong. I have ridden that way all of my life and it has saved my life many times. My wife is fairly new at riding. I taught her about this and bought her adjustable brake levers. You don't need a lot of pressure to squeeze a brake lever, and when there is a sudden need to, you can easily pull those levers with a finger.

Nope its you who are wrong.
Use of all four fingers is essential for proper brake control.
There isn't a single credible riding teaching organisation which would agree with you.

Is there any limit to your pontification?

Use as many fingers to brake as you need to slow or stop. Make your own mind up and don't listen to self appointed experts

you you wrote:

gn2 wrote:

Mel46 wrote:That is where you are wrong. I have ridden that way all of my life and it has saved my life many times. My wife is fairly new at riding. I taught her about this and bought her adjustable brake levers. You don't need a lot of pressure to squeeze a brake lever, and when there is a sudden need to, you can easily pull those levers with a finger.

Nope its you who are wrong.
Use of all four fingers is essential for proper brake control.
There isn't a single credible riding teaching organisation which would agree with you.

Is there any limit to your pontification?

Use as many fingers to brake as you need to slow or stop. Make your own mind up and don't listen to self appointed experts

Your right. Do what you want. Don't bother with shoulder checks and speed limits either. Oops I've crashed. I wonder why?

You are probably all correct. What do I know anyway. I learned about the one finger on the brake from my racing instructor back before there were CBT courses or much of anything else that has to do with safety...back in the mid 1960's. On the flat track we wore leather and boots and helmets and gloves. We downshifted without the clutch. We used the brake only when necessary, preferring the gearbox to the brakes. But when we reached those 90 degree turns at the end of the straight we down shifted as far down as we could without over revving the engine, and measured our front brake pressure with one finger while standing on the back brake just before popping the clutch and cranking on the throttle as we almost laid the bike on its side first one way and then the other as we negotiated curves at breakneck speeds. Yes, I learned wrong, but it still works for me after all these years

I have small hands and use regular leather gloves with a pair of fingerless Gold's Gym weightlifter gloves on top. This gives the front and back of my hands decent padding but still lets my fingers work well. This set-up works until the temperature drops into the 30 degree F. range, then I switch to leather mittens.

Mel46 wrote:That is where you are wrong. I have ridden that way all of my life and it has saved my life many times. My wife is fairly new at riding. I taught her about this and bought her adjustable brake levers. You don't need a lot of pressure to squeeze a brake lever, and when there is a sudden need to, you can easily pull those levers with a finger.

Depends how much stopping power you actually need, as well as whether or not you tweaked your brakes to have a feather touch response(almost zero play before brakes engage).

I suppose if you erm... "exercise" your fingers very frequently , it may be possible to pull it off. I certainly agree that stopping would be much easier if your fingers are already on the brakes, but I generally find it to be a PITA for the front brakes as my hand will be on the throttle, and I can't imagine much good will come of squeezing the brakes while I'm on the throttle already.

I've decided to follow the advice of David L. Hough in "Proficient Motorcycling" by making a habit of simply using both brakes whenever I stop. I also tend to cover the rear brakes as much as possible with 4 fingers. The idea being that the rear brake will slow me down enough to roll off the throttle, and my weight will fully transfer to the front tire by the time I squeeze the front brake.

PCXade wrote:Thanks to the forum members on here and from reading various articles on the web and watching videos I have decided to join the ATGATT brigade...

I am getting armoured high quality textiles for the winter and probably save up for something in leather for next Spring/Summer. I have spotted the boots that I want (recommended from reviews).

However, gloves.. Well, I did what most noobs probably do and bought a cheap armoured gaunlet pair from off Ebay. They fit great BUT they are bloody horrid to use. I have ZERO feel in them and when I put my hands on the grips I cannot move my fingers quick enough to brake plus the finger ends catch on the brake levers. This is clearly very unsafe. I have worn them once and removed them afer 3 seconds having hit my BBQ set.

I went to the local Motorbike superstore. They have dozens of gloves and he said to just try them all on until I find a pair that are right for me, which makes a lot of sense.

Problem is, I assume all gloves are crap on feel as it's the flipside of safety and warmth, which worries me. Do gloves start to give after a while? Dose anybody recommend any warm, waterproof gloves that allow for decent feel on the fingers?

Thanks in advance.

It's extremely doubtful that any other glove is going to have better feel than the dozens you've tried. There are various waterproof gloves on the market.

For warmth, you can try these:
http://www.aerostich.com/aerostich-insu ... es-14.html

You can waterproof the leather(to an extent) by either waxing the leather, or using water protectant conditioner. You can do something similar to fabric gloves by treating them with Fabric Guard 303.

If you're not tight on a budget, you can try these:
http://www.motoport.com/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=15

There's no winter here, so I just use their standard Kevlar Racing Glove. The kevlar material stretches like spandex and doesn't have this annoying bump like leather has where the stitching comes together. The only thing that has more feel than this would be a latex glove.

You may be overthinking the "feel" thing, as I personally wore non-standard leather gloves with kevlar lining as well as a cut resistant Super Fabric layer during my MSF Basic Rider's Course. Did not have a problem.

If these gloves work for millions of other motorcyclists, it shouldn't be a problem for you.

Alibally wrote:

you you wrote:
Use as many fingers to brake as you need to slow or stop. Make your own mind up and don't listen to self appointed experts

Your right. Do what you want. Don't bother with shoulder checks and speed limits either. Oops I've crashed. I wonder why?

You're being silly now.

Mel46 wrote:I learned about the one finger on the brake from my racing instructor

When you raced did you have cars pull out in front of you from sidestreets?
What works on the track isn't usually best practice on the road.

Very true. When racing we were all going the same direction. That is one of the problems with non-track riding. Still, i have extremely long fingers and a big hand, so riding with a finger on the brake is not a problem and works well even when the throttle is cranked on a little still when i need to grab brake. By habit, the front brake gets less pressure than the rear does anyway, so it usually works out that while using a single finger on the front and rear brakes, i have time to bring my other fingers up on the rear brake. What works for me though may not work for others, so go with what works for you.

gn2 wrote:

Mel46 wrote:I learned about the one finger on the brake from my racing instructor

When you raced did you have cars pull out in front of you from sidestreets?
What works on the track isn't usually best practice on the road.

I suspect you already know that if you are racing motorcycles that cars aren't pulling out of side streets on the track

No matter. Tell us the story again of how there is no need to check your tyre pressures over four years

Because you didn't

Ffs

Yeah, perhaps the lack of feel really spooked me out.
I will just have to get used to them. As you say, all gloves are basically the same and used by all.