Polaris RBS Winter Tech Glove

Recently I found fault with Polaris's lighter-weight RBS Windgrip gloves for being too short in the wrist, having no Velcro fastener, not having enough palm padding and being not warm enough for the winter. Polaris must have been reading, because the next items to turn up were its winter-weight RBS Winter Tech Gloves. Warm – yes. Long wrists – present. Velcro fastener – aye, aye captain. More palm padding – erm, well nobody's perfect; but this is a pretty good effort all-round.

Like the Windgrip, the RBS Tech is about high visibility. It's a shame that Polaris hasn't extended the high-vis theme to the palms, because showing a bright signal to oncoming traffic, especially when you're turning right, would seem a good thing to do. Fortunately, the chunky backs of the fingers extend round a little way so some of the fluorescent material can be seen by drivers approaching from the opposite direction, but not really enough.

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Nor has Polaris chosen to add reflectives to the palms, though they are present on the back. These take the form of the RBS logo, a stripe up the side of the little finger and a band at the wrist. Oddly, on one glove this was about 1cm wide, but on the other about 3mm, so something seems to have gone awry at quality control. It doesn't matter, because the wrist strips were hidden by my jacket cuff anyway.

The gloves were a good fit on my long fingers, the wrists have elastic and Velcro for a perfect seal, and an extra layer of faux-suede on the palm adds a little bit of padding, though not at the all-important ulnar nerve area. All the same, I found these gloves comfortable on the handlebar.

Of course, the arrival of the gloves prompted a spell of mild weather, but about two weeks later the first freeze hit and I took them out on a bright but Baltic day with snow on the ground to test them for winter warmth. The first 10 minutes were mostly downhill and I was soon numb to my fingertips (a typical state of affairs for me from November to around June). I was prepared to bail out, but after two sustained climbs that got me sweating into my jacket, I suddenly felt the circulation return and I had no trouble for the rest of the ride. I won't say these will cure your Raynaud's, but if I can ride in the snow in them and be comfortable, that's a pretty good sign.

> Check out our guide to the best winter cycling gloves here

The Carbon Touch fingertips, which are supposed to allow you to use your mobile touchscreen device without taking the gloves off, just didn't seem to work. This wouldn't put me off buying a pair of these gloves.

Build quality looks very good, although I haven't been using them long enough to see how well they stand up to a full winter's punishment. No doubt, though, they will get plenty of use.

Verdict

Ample warmth for most people, highly visible and very comfortable. Just a couple of minor issues prevent a higher mark