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Hurt Schizo Motorcycle Gloves
by Rick K. for webBikeWorld.com
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Background
I'm still trying to wrap my mind around spending 300
C's for a pair of motorcycle gloves.
The numbers keep ticking off in my head and I can't
keep from thinking about what else I could buy for that
much cash.
My mind rolls over and over, trying to
conjure up something -- anything -- that can help
me overcome the guilt.
It isn't working.
I don't know about you, but $300.00 is maybe about
three times more than I'd like to pay for a great pair
of gloves?
And guess what? After charging me $300.00, they
added $9.99 for shipping!
But that's not all: after the gloves arrived, I got a
bill in the mail from "UPS Supply Chain Solutions" for
$22.25 in duty and import fees! So the total bill
for these babies was $332.24. Ouch!
But hey, we're doing it all for you, right? We
all know that sometimes you do get what you pay for and
it's our job to report back to you on the details and,
as we say in our mission statement "Provide information
that helps our visitors make informed purchasing
decisions".
OK, so the Hurt Schizo gloves cost 300 bucks.
Get over it, right? Regular visitors to
webBikeWorld know that the higher the cost and the
bigger the hype, the greater our expectations are and
the B.S. filters are on overdrive. This means that
any minor flaw can sour the whole deal.
It also means that for the price of these gloves, I
was expecting my hands would feel like, well, like maybe
Elizabeth Hurley was massaging them with hot baby oil?
Or maybe that wearing the gloves would miraculously
allow me to channel Valentino Rossi?
Sorry folks. I have some bad news to report; I
honestly can't tell the difference between these gloves
and just about any others I've tried. In fact,
this pair of Hurt Schizo 700 Impulse "Professional
Racing" gloves has a couple of major flaws that would be
fatal no matter how low the price. Let's hope that
it's just an aberration in the pair we received, which
I'll generously guess is from an early production run,
because Hurt won't be selling many more if the flaws are endemic.
A big problem with evaluating motorcycle gloves -- or
any other type of protective motorcycle apparel for that
matter -- is the inability to objectively determine the
product's protective qualities or to compare it to
others.
For example, the Hurt Schizo gloves read like a roll
call of Political Glove Correctness when it comes to
protective features. The list is huge, with
features like "racing grade" Kangaroo leather in the
palms, a "Second Skin Hypergrip System" (huh?), Kevlar
stitches, Schoeller Keprotec reinforcements, Kevlar
carbon fiber over the knuckles and more cool-sounding
race stuff like "Anti-seam Bursting Technology",
"Seamless Feel Stitching" and more.
But who really knows how much better these gloves
might protect than, say, my trusty old pair of
Teknic Violators?
Sure, we've all seen the letters from owners who have
survived a horrific crash, telling us that "Brand X"
saved their hides. But the question to ask is
"Compared to what?". Who can really say
whether or not the
outcome would have been the same, worse or better if the
rider was wearing Brand X under the same circumstances?
The bottom line is that all we can go on is gut feel
with a smattering of knowledge gained by other
unfortunate souls who have gone through the experience
of using their protective gear in anger.
The only other criteria is subjective; the comfort
factor. If a pair of gloves (or a helmet or jacket
or boots...) isn't comfortable, chances are the rider
won't be wearing them when (or if) the time comes.
And serious discomfort can certainly affect the rider's
concentration.
Which brings us to the primary problem I have with my
pair of Hurt Schizo gloves. There's a sublime
irony here in the naming of these gloves, because my
pair really does hurt. The problem is that the
carbon fiber on top of the knuckles is not molded to the
shape of my knuckles (or anyone else's in the same
species) underneath; it's more flat than anything.
There isn't much padding under the carbon fiber either
and the "floating" section of leather that acts as a
mount for the knuckle protector has virtually no lateral
flexibility because it is sewn too tightly to the back
of the glove.
The result is that my pair of gloves is so tight
across the back of my hand that I can't even wrap my
hands around the grips without excruciating pain.
I've tried to push, pull and stretch the gloves every
which way with no luck. I literally can not wrap
my hand around the throttle.
Compounding this serious problem are the carbon fiber
protectors over the first and second knuckle of the
pinky finger on both hands. They are situated in
such a way that they interfere with the bending of my fingers
at those critical joints, again causing excruciating
pain.
It isn't as if the gloves don't fit -- I was
surprised when I placed the order that Hurt didn't want me
to send an outline of my hand, but the size large shown
here is right on the money. And my hands are
absolutely, perfectly normally sized.
The Schizo gloves come
in standard sizes from small to XXL. You'd sort of
think that for $300.00 maybe they'd send an engineer to
your house to take a custom measurement with a laser
coordinate measuring machine or something, no??
But the gloves are the correct size for my hands,
with just enough room in the fingertips and elsewhere so
that there should definitely not be a problem with
flexibility or pain. Hurt does warn that the
gloves will need some time to get broken in, but I've
tried numerous times to wear them and stretch them, both
on and off the bike, hoping that I could somehow mold
them to fit, but so far it's been hopeless.
What more can I say? Surely I'd like to like
these gloves after spending so much. In terms of
looks, they're no better or worse than any of the other
high-end, "Boy Racer" motorcycle gloves on the market.
The finish, as you can see from the photos, is so-so,
with some loose thread ends and roughly cut leather
sections. This may not affect the protective
ability of the gloves, but compare them to, for example,
the Alpinestars GP Tech or Kushitani GPR 5 and they look
a bit crude. But that's only subjective...
The lining is also relatively coarse, in my opinion
(see the photo at the top of the page).
I can feel seams inside and bits of thread here and
there catch under my fingernails occasionally as I move
my hands.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that based on my experience with
this pair, I can't recommend them. I can't even
wear them. There are very few (like never?)
products that we've said that about, but I'm giving my
honest opinion here.
I'm not sure I'll be spending
another $300.00 on a pair of motorcycle gloves any time
soon, because I
think there are many choices out there for, say, about
half as much that would probably be just as good -- and
more comfortable.
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