Chiba Express Waterproof Gloves

The Chiba Express Plus Gloves have lots of great features, though sadly their stand-out feature, the waterproof overflap, is a bit of a let-down. Otherwise they are fantastic gloves for riding in not too cold weather.

Chiba is a German specialist glove manufacturer that has been making gloves for 150 years. That heritage shows in the materials chosen and the fit of the Express Plus. There's stretchy windproof material for the top, nice fleecy warm material around the wrist, and reinforced sticky stuff for the palm and thumb. There is gel padding to relieve pressure and avoid numbness too. The tips of the thumb and index finger on both gloves are made from special fabric allowing you to use capacitive touch screens, as used in most mobile phones.

All of these materials have been put together in a glove that fits extremely well; snug but not tight. The cuff is just long enough to fit under a long sleeve jersey, and the windproof material keeps cold at bay down to about 5 degrees – though this is obviously highly personal. The material is pretty thin and so handlebar feel and brake and shifter interaction is good.

The gloves are not waterproof though, and Chiba have come up with a high viz lobster style glove cover thing they call an 'overflap'. The overflap is tucked away in a little pocket on top of the wrist when not required. When it's damp out, you simply take the overflap out of its pocket, slip it over the glove and hey presto: a highly visible and waterproof glove. Bob could be your uncle.

But he isn't. A good idea in theory – including the bit about making the glove high viz in poor conditions, but I haven't found it to work. Firstly, the overflap does not make the glove waterproof. Even in not-too-heavy rain, an hour's riding will get the gloves wet, and your hands therefore cold. The second problem is that the overflap fits nowhere near as well as the glove itself. It greatly reduces handlebar feel and it's in the way - it's got stuck between the shifter and brake levers on the Shimano shifters on my winter bike a few times. Even when it's not in use the bulk on top of the wrist is a bit annoying.

This won't stop me using these gloves though; they are still my favourite gloves for riding in temperatures between 5-10 degrees. I made a simple improvement: I removed the flap.

I think the £27 RRP is a reasonable price for windproof gloves that fit as well as the Express Pluses. Even if they need a small modification to remove a flaps.

Verdict

Superb gloves in terms of fit and feel, pity about the overflap