We counted 18 different
pairs of Joe Rocket motorcycle gloves available for sale
in their 2007 catalog. The list includes
everything from full race gloves (Speedmaster 6.0) to
Supermoto gloves and everything in between.
Joe Rocket has settled on a
few different branded clothing lines; Speedmaster is
their "flagship" race brand, followed by brands like
Blaster, Ballistic, Atomic and the Phoenix mesh line,
among others.
They sell jackets, pants and
now gloves in each of the clothing lines, hoping to
target all of the marketing niches that develop.
It's interesting to note that they apparently had to
play catch-up to Icon, who was first to recognize and
capture the stunt community, with the Joe Rocket "Rocket
Nation" lineup.
The Phoenix brand first
emerged several years ago with the
Joe Rocket Phoenix mesh jacket, which we reviewed
when it first appeared. A year or two later came
the Phoenix pants, and the Phoenix gloves are now in
their third generation, thus the "Phoenix 3.0"
appellation.
The Phoenix 3.0 gloves use
what appears to be the same Joe Rocket "Free-air" mesh
that's used in the latest version of the Phoenix mesh
jacket. But there's a lot of leather on this
glove, which is used on the palms and over the tops of
the fingers. Combine that will the big plastic
knuckle protector and it would probably be more accurate
to consider the Phoenix gloves as leather with traces of
mesh, rather than all mesh.
Read the label and you'll
discover more -- a veritable laundry list of fabrics is
used in their construction, including 40% Nylon, 25%
goatskin, 15% cowhide, 15% synthetic leather, 5%
Aeroprene (a breathable neoprene) with a 100% polyester
lining. I wonder what cube dweller was assigned
the task of calculating all these percentages?
Synthetic fabrics are
normally used in motorcycle gloves to either lower the
price or increase protection. Normally it wouldn't
be a problem to use whatever type of fabric or material
will offer better protection, but when you start seeing
lots of Nylon and other synthetics used in the body of
the glove itself, with leather used only for the areas
that have to do the work of protecting the rider's
hands, it's usually a sign of cost cutting.
The Phoenix gloves have
leather palms and what appears to be a type of synthetic
leather (Clarino?) over the palms as a wear barrier.
The fingertips and the back of the fingers have what
feels like a very thin leather (possibly goatskin), but
overall these gloves feel very thin.
The Aeroprene material is
used on the cuff, which also has what feels to us to be
an almost vestigial rubber-like strap with hook-and-loop
on the back, used to secure the cuff. The strap
looks, feels and works like someone really tried hard to
lower the cost as much as possible, giving us no
confidence that the strap will either last or hold up
during a crash.
We're also very disappointed
with the way the Phoenix gloves feel inside. The
word "hinky" comes to mind, because these gloves simply
feel awful. There are all sorts of threads, seams
and plasticky-feeling pieces that press against the
rider's hand. Perhaps it's more noticeable because
the gloves don't have a full-length liner?
A great motorcycle glove
will be constructed in such a way that allows a seamless
feel between the rider's hands and the grips that
provides maximum sensitivity for the controls so the
rider can feel what the bike is doing. These
gloves have exactly the opposite, in our opinion.
There's too much going on inside that shouldn't be felt.
The fingers also seem rather
tight and smaller than normal for a size large and the
pinky finger especially feels tight and it hurts over
the knuckle when the hand is curled in a grip on the
handlebars.
Most of the mesh is covered
by leather, and the leather has only 3 perforations on
each finger. Thus, the gloves don't seem to flow
much air. When the hands are lifted off the bars,
more air seems to flow in on the palms than through the
tops of the gloves. The plastic knuckle protector
looks like it's supposed to be an airfoil or scoop that
would flow air into the gloves, but it's backed by some
foam padding that prevents any air from entering,
rendering it ineffective.
Conclusion
Our opinion is that the Phoenix gloves offer an
uncomfortable feel with too many uncovered seams and
sections inside. The cuff is small and it doesn't
provide a secure feeling of safety and the gloves just
don't seem to flow much air, which is really a problem
in what is supposed to be a premier summer glove.
We're usually impressed with Joe Rocket products and
we're not sure what happened here.
We place these last after
the Alpinestars Sledge gloves.
