Why cycling gloves are fingerless

I wrote a recent post about my encounter with some shoddily made Netti gloves. The things started falling apart after less than a week of use.

When I rode into town yesterday to smell the ferals, I wore my winter gloves (it was threatening to rain). My winter gloves are quite lightweight (compared to the ski type gloves that you'd wear in Canberra when it gets cold). The only real difference between my summer gloves and winter gloves is the fingertips. One set has them, the other doesn't.

I only pull out the winter gloves when it gets really cold and wet and miserable, so the wearing ratio of winter to summer gloves is probably 1:5 or greater. They don't get much of a workout, and it wasn't until my second year on the bike that I bothered to buy a set of winter gloves. In other words, the summer gloves have spent an awful lot of time on my hands, and the winter ones haven't.

How much time?

Well, before my bike computer gave up the ghost yesterday, it told me that I had ridden 9511km since installing it. Given that my average speed is a bit under 25km/h, that adds up to 380 hours in the saddle, or a bit over two weeks. The summer gloves are starting to show a few signs of splitting, but they should get me through the remainder of the year.

The winter gloves are a different proposition. I had a look at the fingertips yesterday and noticed that I could see my fingers through the fabric - the ends had worn so thin, my skin was visible. At that point, I started to wonder 'what is the point of wearing gloves with full fingers if they provide almost no more protection than gloves without?'. Especially since the summer gloves have really good padding on the palm, and the winter gloves don't.

I don't have an answer, but I figure that if you want really long lasting gloves, you just have to remove the finger tips, since that is the part that wears out fastest. It kind of makes them a bit pointless in cold weather, but I had never studied glove wear points until now.