Black Mamba Latex and Nitrile Workshop Gloves

Black Mamba's Latex and Nitrile Workshop Gloves are surprisingly good for bike fettling – they're almost impenetrable while working on bikes. They do come at a pretty high price, though, and with obvious environmental drawbacks when compared with reusable alternatives.

I must admit that a box of nitrile gloves for £30 had me very sceptical, and I was expecting to write a review stating that these were no better than a generic box of nitrile gloves from Amazon that cost a fiver. But I've been really impressed. These gloves from Black Mamba have done their job really well, so much so that I'd thoroughly recommend them.

If you've ever used single-use nitrile gloves before to work on your bike, whether cleaning it or doing a total strip-down and rebuild, you've probably had that same issue I have – if you touch a sharp corner or chainring then the glove will almost certainly rip, making wearing them almost pointless as you still end up with dirty hands. These gloves really don't have that problem, which is very impressive.

During the testing period I have carried out some basic bike maintenance, bled some brakes, replaced some frame bearings on a mountain bike, and even replaced the discs and pads on my car. I did all of these jobs while wearing a pair of Black Mambas, and not once did I manage to rip a glove – even having snagged them on the inside of my car's wheel arch multiple times.

> Six essential tools for cyclists who do their own bike maintenance

This really impressed me, and I can confidently say the outcome would not have been the same with generic nitrile gloves – I would have had multiple rips and tears.

In fact, to actually rip one of these gloves I had to stab and rip it aggressively with a small hex key multiple times – so in general use, I think it's almost impossible to rip them. I certainly haven't managed it.

The gloves seem true to size, with the large on test fitting my reasonably large hands well, so I'd recommend getting the same size you would choose for long-fingered bike gloves.

The gloves have a slight texture to them, which is useful when doing anything fiddly or slippy, and they grip really well, ideal with all the small bolts and tasks encountered during bike maintenance.

All good so far then... But a big downside of single-use gloves is their unavoidable impact on the environment, especially if they're not biodegradable.

The advantage of single-use gloves is being able to do messy jobs like bleeding brakes and then simply binning them, not worrying about contaminating discs, for example. With reusable gloves, such as Muc-Off's Mechanics Gloves, you'd need to be careful about not getting grease or oil in places they shouldn't be, but they don't have such a cost on the environment – or your wallet, at less than a third of the price of a box of Black Mambas.

> Check out our bike maintenance video series

If it's single-use gloves you want, though, at £30 for a box of 100 the Black Mambas are about six times the price of a box of generic nitrile gloves, which is a huge markup, but the advantages of being impervious to ripping is a very big benefit. It also means you can reuse them a few times, if you take care (don't contaminate your discs!).

Overall, I was really impressed with these gloves and would thoroughly recommend them over generic nitrile gloves – if you can stomach the price. Bearing in mind their eco impact, though, I would recommend saving them for the super messy jobs and using a reusable pair for everything else.

Verdict

Great single-use gloves that are grippy and don't rip