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Sidi Power Glove
Sidi Design Series Power Glove
by Rick K. for webBikeWorld.com
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Summary: Race gloves made from goat skin with functional air
scoops and all the bells and whistles.
Also In This Series: Sidi
Design Series Coibuss Gloves
Background
The Sidi Power Glove is now available as part of the new
Sidi Design Series, a new line of motorcycle clothing
being offered by Sidi in 2009.
The Power Glove currently sits at the top of the product line. It's a
motorcycle racing inspired glove and it includes all of the expected features,
making it competitive with other high-end motorcycle race gloves of this type.
And yes, they're officially called the Sidi Power Glove, which is fine,
except that it makes for a difficult writing assignment, because I suppose I
should technically refer to them as the Sidi Power Glove gloves, which seems
redundant and probably a bit silly!
Goats Again...
The Power Glove (Power Gloves?), like the Sidi Coibuss gloves reviewed
previously, are made from goat leather. Goat leather is claimed to be lighter,
thinner and more abrasion resistant than cow leather, and it also seems softer
that cow hide and quicker to break in.
After about one or two rides, the Sidi Power Glove gloves (Power Glove
gloves?) feel soft and comfy. The goat leather feels a bit like suede and
almost like it has a touch of built-in elasticity.
The goat leather does feel thinner than comparable cow leather, and this does
give the Power Glove a different feel. Sidi uses the word "supple" to
describe the Power Glove and I think that's probably an apt description.
Like the Sidi Coibuss summer gloves, the Power Glove feels just at the
minimum size for its range. These are size large, and they fit slightly snug,
which in this case is fine because of the properties of the goat leather.
But if you're on the borderline between large and extra-large, you may want
to move one size up, because the fingers are very slightly narrow and also
slightly short.
What's interesting is that the Power Glove(s) feel like they might be too
tight and short when I wear them without a jacket. But when worn over a sleeve
cuff and when I'm in the riding tuck holding the handlebars, the gloves seem to
loosen up just a touch in the fingers, making for a perfect fit.
The goat hide on the palms does feel slightly thinner, and this gives me a
noticeably good feel for the controls. Probably still not the equal of good
quality kangaroo leather, but better than most of the cow hide leather gloves
I've worn.
Base Knuckle Protection
The other most noticeable feature of the Power Glove are the thermoplastic split
base knuckle protectors, also found on the Sidi Coibuss gloves (the base knuckle
is the main knuckle that connects the finger to the hand). It's a simple
but elegant design solution to what can sometimes be a problem area.
Some one-piece knuckle protectors feel tight across the top of the hand, or
the molding on the underside of the protector has to be just right to fit
correctly. Also, the padding has to be correct to keep the gloves feeling
comfortable.
To help overcome these issues, some manufacturers sew the knuckle protector
on a separate section of "floating" leather over the back of the glove, which
allows the hand to flex underneath without binding.
The split base knuckle protector design used on the Sidi Coibuss and the
Power Glove is not mounted on a separate floating section, and it isn't missed.
The separate protectors are hardly noticeable and the gloves have nearly
unlimited flex across the top; here's a photo:
Split base knuckle protectors provide a large range of flexibility across the
top of the glove.
Now the split base knuckle protector
isn't unique to the Sidi Power Glove; other gloves
feature this design to varying degrees.
For example, the
British Motorcycle
Gear "Rapido" gloves use a split design mounted on a separate section of
leather over the back of the hand, with three knuckles covered by one protector
and the fourth knuckle by a separate, smaller protector. This adds some
flexibility to those gloves, but not quite as much as the Sidi Power Glove.
Carpal Protector
The Sidi design also adds a second protector in back of the knuckles to protect
the back of the hand, which I guess are the proximal and distal carpal bones?
This protector also serves as an air scoop; it has three
separate openings along the top, which, either by coincidence or by design, end
up just at the right spot when the hand is bent around the hand grips.
I can blow in to the vents on the knuckle protectors and this
second hand protector and feel the hot air inside the glove, although the glove
lining does prevent direct air flow from hitting my hand. But I can
definitely feel a suprising amount of air flow even in 80 degree F or so (27 C)
weather we've been experiencing.
In fact, I'd have to say that for this type of glove, the Sidi
Power Glove provides probably the best air flow this side of a fully perforated
leather glove, and surely it provides the most air flow of any race-style
motorcycle glove I can recall.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that the Power Glove is the
equal of the Coibuss or other textile/mesh or perforated gloves specifically
designed for warm weather riding. I am saying though that for a leather
motorcycle race glove, the Power Glove has good ventilation and I think it feels
surprisingly cool in a temperature range that I normally would not consider
appropriate for this type of glove.
Sidi Power Glove, protectors on fingers, knuckles and back of hand. Note
air intakes on hand protectors.
Sidi Power Glove - phalange protectors.
Phalange Protectors
I'm really getting in over my head with regard to these anatomical descriptions,
so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Sidi says that the smaller protectors that cover what I guess
are the middle and distal phalanges (i.e., the bones between the base knuckle
and middle knuckle and the bone between the middle and tip knuckles) are also
made from thermoplastic.
But they feel different than the material used in the base
knuckle and carpal protectors. The material protecting the fingers feels a
bit more "rubbery"; perhaps its just a different type of thermoplastic.
These protectors are single-stitched on to the glove fingers, but the stitching
is semi-concealed in a channel that runs around the perimeter of each protector,
so there's probably no way the stitching would be touched in a crash, unless the
entire protector was ground down to nothing.
By the way, I'm not sure if thermoplastic is any better or worse
as a protector than carbon fiber or other materials (I have a sneaking suspicion
that carbon fiber is more for show than go).
I can tell you that I feel more protected wearing the
Icon TiMax gloves (review) or the
Velocity Gear SS
Metalwear gloves (review) with their big, honkin' Mad Max style metal
protectors and sliders than I do with any other type of motorcycle glove armor.
But who knows? I don't see Valentino Rossi wearing metal knuckle
protectors, although he probably gets a new pair of gloves for every race.
The fourth finger (aka baby or pinky finger) is covered on the
outside by an extra section of double-stitched leather with three separate
plastic protectors attached. The thumbs of the Sidi Power Glove have two
separate sections of padded leather and no hard armor.
Sidi Power Glove, palm view. Note embedded "bumps" on the gauntlet strap
on the right.
Sidi Power Glove, top view.
Reflective strips across the top of the gloves.
Glove Construction
The palms have extra sections of what I assume is goat leather and a section of
rubberized material for grip. These are all double-stitched -- in fact,
the gloves use extensive double-stitching in most areas except for where some of
the protectors are attached.
Sidi says the stitching in the palms is Kevlar. The heel
of the hand has a carbon-fiber-look material backed by padding for protection.
The gauntlet of the Sidi Power Glove is relatively generous.
A separate section is sewn on the top, and it comes half-way around the outside
wrist portion of the glove to secure on the bottom.
This outer portion of the gauntlet includes padding on top, a
large piece of thermoplastic on the outside and a set of 12 dimples on the
bottom of the gauntlet (the piece that serves as the attachment) with what feels
like hard plastic underneath. The plastic, if that's what it is, is molded
under the leather.
The wrist of each glove is narrow, so it takes some push to get
my hands inside, as it should for a race glove. The gloves also feature a
hook-and-loop wrist attachment and there's a rather short leather flap to cover
that covers the center portion of the strap.
The fingers use the external seam construction, which is often
found on race gloves. There are pros and cons to both the hidden, or
"blind" stitching and external stitching when used on glove fingers.
External stitching does usually allow for more finger comfort, because the seams
and stitches are not touching the sensitive fingers and fingertips.
I think the external seams and stitching also allows keeps the
glove fingers slimmer, which keeps the leather closer to the skin. Again,
there are pros and cons, because if this isn't done correctly, the fingers can
become too tight.
The size large gloves shown here are, like the Coibuss gloves we
reviewed, at the minimum size for what I'd consider a large. My hands fit
and everything feels fine, although the very tips of my fingers run up against
the inside of the gloves and I can feel the leather against my fingernails.
This is due to the tapered fingertips on the Power Glove.
It would probably have been better had the gloves used a "box" construction
right out to the end of the fingers, without the taper, because this would
probably provide more room for my fingers -- which, by the way, are probably on
the thin side to begin with.
I'd say that if you are on the borderline between a large and
extra-large, you may want to move up rather than down and go for the XL.
But like all motorcycle gear, it's best to try before you buy.
Conclusion
The Sidi Power Glove motorcycle gloves check off most of
the boxes to play with the Big Boys. Both the
Coibuss and Power Glove are a bit conservative in terms
of design; i.e., there isn't a lot of high tech or
innovation here, but this is probably a safe and
deliberate bet for Sidi, considering the Design Series
is a brand-new venture.
I think the list prices may be a bit ambitious though;
if I was in charge, I probably would have set the price
a bit lower for the introduction to try and develop a
customer base in what is a very crowded motorcycle glove
market. The Power Glove lists for $185.00, which
is at or near the top end for this type of motorcycle
glove, but the Sidi name probably counts for a lot with
the intended customer.
Overall though, these are very nice gloves and the
combination of goat leather and the split knuckle
protector do make a difference, and the Sidi Power Glove
may just become my new favorite.
Also In This Series: Sidi
Design Series Coibuss Gloves
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