THE RIDE VERDICT

AFTER PUTTING MORE than 26,000 miles on 45 pairs of gloves, our extended testing team reached one clear verdict: there’s no such thing as a true all-year glove. Each one is a compromise, so the important thing is to get the right compromise for your riding. In reality these are all three-season gloves: most will work in spring, autumn and summer; but one or two sets switch focus so they’d be too well-insulated for summer but fare well enough on the colder days. But there’s not one set that can get you from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve in perfect comfort.

As a rule, we found the more expensive gloves were noticeably better finished, used higher-quality materials and gave every impression of being built to last. While the budget items generally lacked that plush, substantial feel, what counts is that most worked perfectly well. And in terms of bang-for-your-buck, plenty of mid-price gloves performed brilliantly and had a genuinely top-end feel.

Overall, the two-chamber gloves had a real advantage in coping with the greatest range of conditions, earning the top-performing Held Air n Dry our Recommended triangle and the nearly identical but less expensive BMW 2-in-1 our Best Buy award in the premium division. In the mid-price gloves, the top-scoring Richa Hurricane earns our Best Buy award, but the Recommend Alpinestars Valparaiso

Drystar is a great alternative. Among the budget gloves, Tuzo deserves praise for offering three Ce-approved £30 gloves and our Best Buy award goes to the Tuzo Blitz, though the best-performing of the under-£60 glove is the

Furygan Quartz, which earns a Recommended triangle.