Altura Ergofit mitts

Altura's Ergofit range of clothing is designed to be body-hugging - either for comfort, style or aerodynamic reasons - and these short-fingered cycling gloves (or mitts) are no exception.

To create the close fit, the mitts have a Lycra back, and a stretchy synthetic leather palm. Although they're close-fitting, they're not too tight, and are very comfortable to wear. The material along the outside edge of the thumb is softer, for wiping glasses, forehead or nose (but ideally not all three).

There's no mesh anywhere, which means they might feel hot at the height of summer, but they'll be fine for most of the year - until you need full gloves.

The most noticeable feature, compared to many other mitts, is the wide elasticated Lycra band around the wrist. This seems to give additional support in the wrist area, and adds to the overall comfort, so ideal for longer rides, but without any Velcro tabs, these mitts take a long time to get off.

There are some little tags on the top of the two middle fingers, to provide something to grip on when removing the mitts, but they feel a bit flimsy and I wouldn't bet on them lasting long - though they are holding up so far.

But any niggles I have about removing the mnitts are outweighed by the pads on the palm. In fact, there are three separate pads: along the inner side of the palm, across the base of the fingers and on the lower thumb. They're made from a dense gel and once again add to the overall comfort. I've used these mitts on a couple of long-distance rides on some fairly bad roads, and the pads easily absorbed most of the shocks coming up through the bars.

When it comes to sizing, the Medium I'm testing certainly feels snug on my average size male hands. For a bit more freedom, you might prefer a Large, but that kinda defeats the purpose on a glove that's designed to be a close fit. A bit more room inside would however make the glove easier to remove.

These mitts retail at £29.99 - and you can find them for £25 or less in bike shops and on-line. Not cheap, but for the level of comfort they provide, it's a fair price.

The test pair is black and red. They're also available with the backs of the mitts in white.

Verdict

Very comfortable close-fitting mitts, at a fair price. Hard to take off though.