Altura Night Vision Evo gloves

The Altura Night Vision Evo gloves are a Jack of all trades, taking your fingers through from Autumn to Spring, even if winter is torrential.

As explained in our guide to winter gloves, having a double-layered glove is one of the most effective ways of keeping fingers warm. Altura's combination of thin gloves, waterproof gloves or both together means that this set will see you through from early autumn to winter and through to the spring.

The inner gloves are slim, with a soft fleecy cuff and generous silicone grippers over the palms and fingers. I found them exceedingly comfortable to wear in situations where no padding was required, so for short autumnal jaunts they did what was needed and kept the mild chill off. Not being padded, wind- or waterproof meant that short rides were all they were suitable for on their own.

The outer layer makes three claims: it's windproof, waterproof and reflective. Oddly, there are fewer reflectives on this glove than the Nightvision glove (not Evo) reviewed back in 2008 and the same amount as the current non-Evo offering. There is reflective lettering along the forefinger, and the 'indicating' side of each hand, but for a glove called Nightvision this really isn't enough to justify the title. The Evo version of the immensely popular Nightvision jacket has significantly more reflectives than its cheaper brother, and so I would have expected to see this reflected (geddit?) in the gloves too.

Also missing from this Evo version of the Nightvision glove is the drops-friendly pad placing. Odd to take it out from this more expensive offering, leaving just two pads which weren't among the most comfortable on the market.

The outer gloves passed the wind and waterproof tests with ease (this involves a hairdryer on the cold setting and time spent getting friendly with the cold tap to test the seams). Although the gloves took a while longer to dry out than some other brands, there was no water ingress. As with anything wind/waterproof, sweat getting out is always the problem but wearing both gloves together helped to wick sweat away and gave an additional option to swap them out mid-ride. The two layers together kept my hands as warm as I needed them to be, but they are not the most thermal offering available.

Overall the outer gloves felt quite stiff, and there was no elastic at the wrist. This left the important job of protecting the wrists from rain ingress to the velcro tab which left a bulky fold when pulled tight.

I tested a men's medium and found the gloves to be a true to size fit. If anything, they were made for pianist's fingers so if your digits are a little stumpy these may not be quite right for you.

Verdict

Could do better in the comfort and reflective stakes