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.
