Good pair of sim racing gloves?
Gregg Domain
Member
I'm wondering if anyone can recommend from personal experience a decent pair of gloves for sim racing.
This is what I currently use, and I love them, but they've obviously seen better days and are starting to get rather threadbare. They're just an old pair of bicycling gloves that I bought when I was in Australia 7 or 8 years ago for like 10 or 15 bucks. I turned them inside out so that I don't feel any seams, and they're perfect! They have mesh in between the fingers so they're very breathable, and they're nice and thin so I can still easily feel all the buttons and dials on my wheel.
Problem is, here in the US, I haven't been able to find a comparable pair. I've gone to big name sporting goods stores, to local mom&pop bike shops, and nothing is quite right. They either are fingerless, or the material is too thick, or the seams bother me, or they're too expensive (ideally I'd like to spend less than $50).
This is a pic of what I assume is the brand logo that's on the inside (normally the outside before I turned them inside-out). Does this mean anything to any of you?
If anyone knows where I might find this brand of glove, please do share. Otherwise, what do you guys use for sim racing gloves? I'd love to hear some suggestions. Thanks!
Comments
That is 661. MTB brand… 😄 I use those on my bike.
For sim racing I am using a fox mtb glove as well. The thinnest and most breathable one I can find. There is no risk of crashing or fire so mesh between fingers and on the whole back of the hand. And just leather on inside of palm and all fingers.
Fit is really good and no seam between fingers/palm and wheel, just a thin leather/faux… just a second skin.
Something similar…
It’s headquarters is in California and so should be available anywhere where you are.
FoxRacing
That's good info, thanks man! I appreciate it!
Hi Gregg
When I was sim racing I found cycling gloves to be a good solution, good grip, light weight and easy to get on and off. These are from Amazon UK, not sure if they are availible in the US. They are also very kind to Alcantara rims.
I'm really looking for something that's full-fingered, but I'll give these a look see. Thanks for the info!
Sim Hound has a pair but comes from the UK https://simhound.com/products/sim-hound-gloves-black
Sparco Meca 3s seem to be really popular too https://www.sparcousa.com/meca-3
Alternatively, you can look for any cycling glove with no padding. Something like this might work https://tinyurl.com/Roaming-Gloves
Haha I immediately thought of MTB gloves as well, I ride a fair bit so know there are tons of MTB gloves available in all different styles, materials and price brackets.
I think I'm going to give the Sim Hound ones a try. They look to be pretty good quality, yet lightweight and breathable. Doesn't look like the seams will be too obtrusive, but you never know until you try them I guess.
Thanks again for the input, guys. I won't be getting them until Christmas, so...if I remember, I'll update this with my impressions once I have them and am able to give them a good thrashing. 😎🤘
After a huge amount of searching I eventually got there and they are just perfect - fingerless so you can still feel wheel controls, no padding, really thin and breathable. They're Scott biking gloves. https://startfitness.co.uk/products/scott-rc-pro-fingerless-cycling-gloves-black-1?variant=39827076481232 They have various styles on there - cheap too. Can't recommend highly enough.
Cool that you found a pair that works for you, I'm just really not looking for fingerless.
They do "non-fingerless" version of the same gloves too
Ah, so they do. I didn't bother checking. Unfortunately, it seems the size I'd need is out of stock. Not surprising really, given everything.
Thanks for the tip though, I'll keep these in mind if the Sim Hounds don't work out.
As Cyclist AND Sim-Racer I've tried a lot of my cycling gloves and have to say, that most of them are everything but ideal for sim racing.
Reason is, that most of the cycling gloves feature more or less padding on the grip area, which compromises the grip at the wheel in my opinion. See, cyclist tend to firmly grip the handle bar and don't let it go, whereas at simracing, you loose your grip a lot to rotate the wheel or push buttons, etc. That's when the padding on the glove will be disturbing.
I'm using racing gloves for mechanics, as these are way shorter than real racing gloves and have a sturdy material. If you're from the US, search for Mechanix Wear gloves, as these are an US product. An alternative would be the Sparco Service glove. Both are absolutely flat without padding on the grip area.
So, as promised, I said I'd come back and give my thoughts on whatever gloves I wound up going with. I wound up with a pair of the Simhound gloves as a late Christmas present (they showed up on my doorstep yesterday morning).
So far, initial impressions are...mixed. They certainly look nice, and I appreciate that they're quite breathable. I used the web site's sizing chart, which indicated I was toward the upper end of a Medium or lower end of a Large, so I ordered the Large. Upon wearing them for a few hours, I'm inclined to say that I maybe should have gone with an XL. When I pull them on, I can feel that my fingers go right to the very ends of the tips and feel like they're pushing against the fabric. Because of that, the seams are definitely noticeable. Not too much of an issue on my left hand, but the right thumb, I actually had to flip inside out briefly so that I could trim back some of the excess material to make it more comfortable.
Regarding the palms, I feel like I could do without all of the rubbery-grippy designs, but they're ok I guess. What I have a bigger issue with is the material they chose to use for the palms...it's this weird, suede-like material which I guess is supposed to be in the interest of added grip. But it's a bit thicker and stiffer than the plain cotton bicycling gloves I had been using previously, and it kind of reduces your ability to feel details, making the act of fiddling with buttons, switches, etc. on my wheel while driving a bit less intuitive than I'd like. I'm also not a big fan of the velcro closures. Aside from being mildly inconvenient for quickly taking the gloves on/off, I feel like they're unnecessary and can see them being a potential point of failure on these gloves before too long. But, I can't really complain about that since the velcro is clearly shown in the pictures and it's more of a personal preference thing anyway.
Again, I think I may have liked them more if I had gotten a size larger than their charts indicated. Maybe in time, they'll wear in and soften up and stretch a bit. I'll keep using them for the time being at least, as my old gloves are pretty much shot at this point.
After visiting a local bike shop today, I finally found a pair that I think I'll be happy with, and these are it: Lizard Skin Monitor Gloves.
They've got essentially everything I'm looking for and are the closest I've been able to find in terms of fit and feel, compared to my old beat-up 661 gloves.
They're very lightweight and thin, very soft, breathable, no palm padding, no velcro strap to get in the way, so easy & fast on/off. They work reasonably well with a touchscreen, so no having to yank them on/off repeatedly when making adjustments in Sim Dashboard and the like. The seams aren't too obtrusive when wearing them normally, but turn them inside out and they're perfect. And the price wasn't bad, either... only around $25.
The only odd thing was their size...I wound up going with an XXL, which is 2 and even sometimes 3 sizes larger than what I usually wear with other brands (my hand circumference is around 215-220mm when measured around the palm (excluding the thumb).
But, I'm happy that they fit well. Not sure what the durability is going to be like, but considering that my last set of gloves lasted me a good 3 or 4 years before they really started falling apart, I'm optimistic since these seem to be a similar level of quality, at least from what I can tell initially.
Nice one!
I can see the extra layer of leather on the tips of the index finger and thumb. My Fox is only a complete single layer which is my only gripe to date as I can see they may not last as long as your 3-4 years.
Same requirements as mine, eg: thin, breathable, non existent seam, leather palm and no padding or velcro. 👍️
Well, regarding those 3-4 years of use, I'm also pretty gentle with the wheel. I don't have a separate shifter, so I'm not taking my hands on/off the wheel a lot and repositioning them. I think that may wind up being an advantage of a formula-style wheel. I don't do any drifting, and what rallying I do do, I have my DOR set to 360-ish, so my hands pretty much stay in place aside from the odd dial or toggle switch adjustment. And being that I've got the 5Nm base, I'm not armwrestling with the wheel to get around corners either. 😉