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Old
style discontinued REV'IT! Solar Gloves |
REV'IT! Solar Summer Mesh Motorcycle Gloves
by Rick K. for webBikeWorld
wBW
Reviews Home
| Owner
Comments (Below) | See our review of the Rev'it
Airforce jacket, and the
Rev'it
Challenge pants hot weather mesh riding outfit
Rev'it
Updates Solar Mesh Gloves
September 11, 2006 - The designers at Rev'it never seem
to rest. Their Solar mesh gloves have been
redesigned and now feature Pittard's Digital goatskin
leather on the palms. The new style Solar gloves
are shown in the top photo on the left with an
additional photo below.
Other than the redesigned palms, the new Solar gloves
are identical to the original. The goatskin
addresses a premature wear issue that was discovered in
an early manufacturing batch of the original version of
the Solar gloves, due to a problem with a supplier of
the Clarino synthetic leather used in the palms (see
below).
My original pair of Solar gloves are just fine, but
the goatskin is a really nice touch and adds what I
think is a higher level of sophistication to the look
and feel of the gloves.
Although Rev'it says that it may be necessary to
break in the goatskin during the first few rides, I
found them to be very soft and comfortable right out of
the box.
I've been riding with these over the last several
weeks in the continuing hot weather we've experienced
this summer and I really like them. The goatskin
gives the gloves a richer look and it also offers a much
better feel on the grips than the stiff Clarino fabric,
which feels rather like cardboard in comparison.
The revised Solar gloves are available now from
Rev'it. I have to give them a lot of credit for
their continuous improvement strategy; as far as I can
tell, the new Solar gloves are the third revision in the
past three years of the Rev'it mesh glove line.
We had an incredibly hot summer here in the Mid-Atlantic
region of the U.S.A. last year, with temperatures high
enough to make motorcycle riding a chore rather than a
pleasure.
I enjoy riding in colder weather more than I
do in hot weather, probably because I am always encased
in full protective clothing, making it easier to stay
warm on a cold day then to stay cool on a hot day.
Huh?
Back in the old days, as I'm sure you're tired of
hearing, we didn't have motorcycle clothing that was
specifically designed for riding in hot weather.
Mesh clothing is only a very recent invention -- a
breakthrough, I'd say, and something that has become
very popular for summer riding.
The newest generations of mesh clothing seem to have
been designed with better protective features.
Designers have learned that it isn't really necessary to
use 100% mesh on every square inch of the apparel item
to still keep the air flowing, and they've used some of
the real estate for abrasion resistant materials like
leather and Kevlar.
These Rev'it Solar gloves are a good example; they
have some of the same type of knuckle armor and leather
reinforced areas as might be found on a standard pair of
street gloves, but they still have enough mesh to keep
the digits cool.
In fact, the Solar gloves flow so much air that my
hands get too cold whenever it drops down below 70
degrees (Fahrenheit) or so (which has been the norm
lately)!
The gloves have sections of leather around the
outside of the fingers and on the fingertips for
protection against abrasion, but the fingers have plenty
of mesh in between. Rev'it lists materials like
French cowhide, Pampas leather, Schoeller Keprotec and
even regular old cow leather used on various parts of
the gloves, and all of these materials come together to
make a good looking glove that flows lots of air without
compromising protection.
The palms are especially nice; they have a gray
colored leather that feels like suede, with an extra
section of black leather across the wear area. The
first and second fingertips are coated with silicone
applied in hexagon pattern, which provides excellent
two-fingered grip on the brake or clutch lever. I
wish my normal street gloves had the same...
The size XL Solar gloves fit me perfectly, but
they're snug, so I'd say they run slightly small.
The gauntlet also seems smaller than I'd like; it's a
snug fit when worn around the outside of the jacket
cuff. Note that many riders in Europe wear their
gloves under the jacket cuff, which provides a cleaner
look, thus the majority of Rev'it gloves are designed to
be worn under the cuff of the jacket rather then on top.
For more information on this topic, see
The Case of the Missing Gauntlet.
Newly revised version of the Solar gloves with goatskin
palm.
Original Solar gloves with Clarino synthetic leather
palm.
The palm uses a section of material with a cut
identical to the material used on the palm of the
Rev'it Ultra H2O glove. On the Ultra H2O, the
palm has a flap that is used to cover the wrist cinch.
The flap is there on the Solar glove, but the wrist
cinch is not. This is too bad, because the only
method of securing the Solar glove is by the flap on the
short gauntlet. I wouldn't mind having the extra
protection of the second wrist cinch.
Conclusion
The Rev'it Solar gloves offer good air flow for hot
weather riding along with some of the protective
features on their more expensive gloves. They make
an excellent companion to the Airforce mesh jacket and
Challenge pants combination.
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►Your Comments and
Feedback
Please send comments to
Comments are ordered from most recent to oldest.
Not all comments will be published ( details). Comments may be edited for
clarity prior to publication.
From "T.W." (7/08): "I bought a pair of
the Rev'It Solar Mesh gloves (new version) about 2 months
ago. I agree with your assessment - great air flow,
but very tight fit. They seem to be holding up just
fine, but I really have to pull on the gauntlet sometimes to
get them (back) on. I am completely satisfied though,
wouldn't think of wearing anything else when its hot.
Thanks for your great reviews/informative website."
From "L.S.": "Bought a pair of the
Rev'It Solar Mesh gloves today and went for a long ride.
Very nice! Your review was spot on. Before this
pair I had the Rev'It Hurricane Mesh gloves which, I am sad
to say, did not hold up more than two seasons - the mesh
lining came away from a seam on the cuff. Hopefully,
these new gloves will last longer. Thanks again for
being such an informative and helpful site."
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Original with Clarino synthetic
leather palm above; revised version with goatskin
leather below. |
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From
"P." (Regarding the old style Solar Mesh gloves, no
longer made): "Like the reviewer, I thought
these were
quite an ideal set of summer gloves, so I picked up a pair on
6/10/06. I have to say that I'm quite shocked to see that,
less than a month later, the "leather" finger and palm areas of
these glove are disintegrating.
Have a look at the attached photos. These glove
have not been subject to any adverse conditions of any kind.
They have been used in normal riding in fair weather conditions
and stored with the rest of my gear.
Not that any glove can offer any significant
protection if you should ever go down, but it's obvious that
these gloves, even new, would disintegrate on a heartbeat.
Even my lowly Joe Rocket Atomic gloves have far outlasted these
things! Needless to say, I can't recommend anyone buying
these gloves, and I now have doubts about the entire Revit!
line.
I think you might want to gives your readers
this heads up. Thanks."
Response from REV'IT!: "As,
you know, REV'IT! Always stands behind their products. We
are in the business of making the best fitting most
technologically advanced products on the market and always want
to know about anything we can do to further improve our product
line. We became aware of the problem with the SOLAR glove
not to long ago and have rectified a solution.
Now we are pretty sure that only the first batch
of solar gloves were defective. But we will be accepting
returns on all Solar gloves from anyone who thinks they might
have a defective pair and will replace them with a newer updated
model that should be available the second week of August.
Also, I am not sure if you had any complaints about the silicon
imprints coming off. But I know I have heard a few. The
silicone on the glove can be compared to a tire. It will
wear off with time and in no way will compromise the integrity
of the glove.
Our main concern with the glove is the Clarino
fabric on the palm. So those are the problems we will be
addressing with all returns. I believe the newer model
Solar glove will have a goatskin perforated palm. So the
pilling and seam splitting problem will be solved.
I hope this answers any of your questions.
If you have any more, please feel free to give me a shout either
on my office or cell. Email always works too."
Tim Falcone (
TFalcone@revitusa.com
)
North American Marketing Director
REV’IT! SPORT USA
499 Van Brunt St.
Brooklyn, NY 11231
O- 888.681.0180
M- 610.442.8965
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