Dainese full metal gloves
Racing gear is a critical aspect of rider/racer safety. Not only does it have to withstand high abrasion and significantly reduce impact forces, it has to be relatively comfortable with range of motion and weight. With many brands of gloves on the market, I will explain why my personal choice is Dainese.
Dainese is an Italian based company that provides apparel for various activities, but for the purposes of this article, I am focusing on racing gear for motorcycles. Racing is inherently dangerous, but the gear has come a long way in helping to avoid major injuries. Dainese has their equipment being used and developed in the highest levels of motorcycle racing. If a crash is going to happen, especially at high speeds, I want the best odds of coming out of that with the least amount of injury possible. That means you have to invest in your gear.
The Dainese Full Metal racing glove is their top of the line model. It has multiple materials such as leather, titanium, kevlar, and protective inserts all to help keep your hands protected. When we fall, our natural instinct is to place our hands out to help catch ourselves. This is why investing in a top level glove is critical to keeping your hands protected. I personally have had a minor low side crash at 60mph going into a downhill, decreasing radius, off-camber turn and slid across the race track. Another well-known and their top level glove failed to hold up after this crash because a seam in the finger did not hold together. The glove was no longer safe to use. This was my motivation to try Dainese Full Metal gloves, and I don’t regret it at all.
For all the different materials that make up the Full Metal glove, it’s surprisingly lightweight and has great feel. Lower quality gloves tend to have thicker leather and other materials to help withstand crashes/impacts, but this negatively affects being able to have a really good feel on the throttle, brake lever, or pressing buttons on your switches for different map settings. The Full Metal gloves is the closest feeling in a leather glove to your bare hands, in my opinion. This also makes the glove less fatiguing to wear for lap-after-lap on race weekends or trackdays. The easier it is to move your hands to twist the throttle and grip the brake lever all matters over time and very noticeable. Being able to have all these benefits but maintain top notch protection takes a ton of development. Dainese is always further developing and improving their products which it shows.
The gloves are comfortable right out of the box and wore in even better after some use. The size that fits when new still fits the same when wore in, so you do not need to compensate for any significant stretching of the material. Although the glove is intended for racing/trackday purposes, I would not hesitate at all to wear these on the road. The gloves really are that comfortable. Dainese has a hassle free return/exchange policy if you are choosing between two sizes. I personally had to return the first size I ordered and got the next size up. The customer service and return process was very smooth. The total turnaround time was fast.
In summary, the Full Metal gloves are by far my preferred glove. They are gauntlet style gloves, so you can use them with other brand suits or jackets if you already own something else. In my opinion, no other glove offers this much protection with the same level of comfort/ease of wearing on the market. Don’t make the mistake I made by spending over $300 on another brand glove just to have it fail when you needed it the most. This article was independently written, meaning no influence or exchange of goods was provided by Dainese.
Checkout their website for more: Dainese Full Metal Gloves