Giant Cima mitts

I haven't written a kit review for ages, mostly because I buy the majority of my bits and bobs secondhand. However, I was in the market for a pair of mitts for commuting, now the weather has turned warmer, and ended up plumping for these Giant Cima short-fingered gloves. So what are they like?

I chose these because I want decent padding, but don't want gel pads. In my experience, they compress and become less effective over time. Your mileage may vary, but they're not for me; I prefer an old-school pad. I've also been spoiled in recent years, using excellent DHB Aeron mitts for all my serious rides. So I expect a lot from a glove.

Mostly, these Giant mitts deliver. They feel very well made, stitching is tidy, and the materials, especially the sweat-wipe thumb, have a quality feel. The all-important padding is firm but comfortable and, for me at least, in exactly the right places. Even the price - £14.99 plus P&P at the time of writing - feels alright for a branded product. And although they do an all-black variant, I went against type and bought the black and white colourway shown, complete with reflective branding across the knuckles. Can't hurt to be better seen, right? So why only four stars?

It's the sizing. I have always worn a Large in cycling gloves and, after consulting the Giant size chart, saw no reason to change that. These, though, are ironically not giant. In fact, they may be the tightest Large mitts I have ever tried. They are just wearable enough for me not to return them, but they are very hard to get off, being so tight. In fact, I had to roll them off this morning, so that they ended up inside-out. This wasn't helped by a complete absence of any pull-tabs to help remove the gloves, which seems like quite a basic oversight these days.

TLDR: these are good quality, nice looking gloves at a fair price, but size up! Consult the chart, then order one size up from whatever that says. And if you have ham-hands, maybe look elsewhere... ★★★★☆

BUY: Cima mitts, currently £14.99 from Giant

Full disclosure: I bought these with my own money. If anyone wants to give me kit in exchange for an honest review, I'm open to that, but unless I explicitly say otherwise everything I review on here will be sourced and paid for by yours truly.

"I can see clearly now the rain has gone...."

"...I can see all lobster-claws in my way..."

That is how the song goes, right?

All of which terrible punning serves only to introduce the fact that I bought myself a pair of lobster-claw cycling gloves back in the autumn, thinking I wanted warmer hands when winter came calling. After much open-mouthed gawping at the cost of such gloves from established brands, these are what I ended up getting:

No, I wasn't especially familiar with VeloChampion as a brand either. But these were being sold as new on eBay for a tenner. I took a chance.

And you know what? They're excellent, probably the toastiest cycling gloves I've ever had. The claw design, allowing your fingers to keep each other warm, has been a real boon. In fact, it has taken until this week's sub-zero temperatures for me to get even slightly chilly hands cycling - that's how good these have been. Very comfy too, with well-placed padding. And although they were not advertised or sold as being waterproof, I've completed 25-minute rides in steady rain and emerged with bone-dry hands too. Your mileage may vary in a downpour, but I can only speak for my own experience so far.

Downsides? Well, the glossy black stripe on the back isn't really to my taste, but even that isn't gaudy or bling, is it? That said, the gloves could use some reflective details for these dark winter nights. Oh, and if the cuffs went 5 or 10 millimetres further up my sleeve, I wouldn't complain. But these are minor niggles, for what are properly good gloves and, at the secondhand price I paid for them, an absolute steal.

TLDR: warm, comfortable and even showerproof, these lobster claw gloves are terrific. ★★★★☆

BUY: seems that these are no longer available from VeloChampion, but you might be lucky and find some on eBay like me.

Full disclosure: I bought these with my own money. If anyone wants to give me kit in exchange for an honest review, I'm open to that, but unless I explicitly say otherwise everything I review on here will be sourced and paid for by yours truly.

Real-world cycling

A snug isotonic sports drink, yesterday

In the vast and profitable world of online cycling, it's all 20-something men with washboard stomachs making Lycra look good as they belt up hills on 6kg wafers of hand-crafted Italian carbon. The real world, or my version of it at least, is not like that.

As a middle-aged man with a bit of a paunch, I look an absolute tool in Lycra, and wear it as little as possible. And whilst I would, of course, love a 6kg wafer of hand-crafted Italian carbon, life (and finance) is not like that, so I continue to eke a few more miles out of my 12-yr old flat-bar.

And if, as I do, you store your cycle helmet up on a shelf in the garage, you have to accept the possibility that, one day, a spider may take up residence. And that, as a consequence, when you're cycling into the city later that evening, the spider in question may crawl down over your face as you're trying your best to keep your speed up on an icy road. And that, being cold enough for you to wear your serious gloves, you might not be able to easily pluck your arachnid friend from your face. And even when you do get rid of him, you'll be imagining you can still feel him there for most of the rest of the journey. Doesn't happen to 20-something washboard-man, does it?

Another thing that doesn't happen much in the vast and profitable world of online cycling is real-world tests, by which I mean tests that I approve of. Example: have you ever seen a review of a bottle cage that tells you whether it will securely hold a 500ml bottle of ale isotonic sports drink? Another problem from last night, the bottle in question was not a snug fit and I was concerned that it would fall out and break, spilling all the hoppy isotonic goodness out on the road. Cue a real-world solution - fold your buff scarf in half lengthwise, to double the thickness, wrap around the bottle and Bob's your uncle, you have a nice tight fit. You don't get that kind of cycling tip anywhere else, do you?