I Bought & Tested the Best-Selling Motorcycle Gloves. Here's Why TalonGrip is #1:
Written by Jake Thornton
After that mountain ride, I spent the next four months cycling through gloves that all promised weatherproof performance and delivered soggy disappointment instead. A pair of textile touring gloves lasted exactly two rides before the seams let water straight through to my palms.
A stiff leather pair fit like a rock for the first three weeks, and my clutch hand cramped on anything longer than 64.4 km (40 miles). A third pair with a flashy touchscreen patch couldn't grip a wet handlebar to save its life, and I nearly dropped my bike pulling into a gas station in a light drizzle.
A buddy on an adventure-riding forum mentioned this glove almost in passing. Skeptical after three failures, I ordered a pair anyway and set up a real test — six weeks, four climates, one spreadsheet tracking every ride.
Here's what I found.
My Test Results
I ran TalonGrip alongside four competing gloves through six weeks of testing across coastal humidity, high-desert heat, mountain rain, and near-freezing morning starts, logging roughly 1448.4 km (900 miles) on each pair. Every ride got logged for grip slippage, hand temperature, and sweat buildup.
I scored each glove against four criteria — impact protection, breathability, grip and weather resistance, and touchscreen usability — comparing side by side after every ride rather than relying on memory or marketing claims.
The first thing that stood out was wet-weather grip. On a rain-soaked descent that had soaked two other gloves through within minutes, TalonGrip's sealed palm kept my hands completely dry and my grip locked to the bars the entire way down.
The second surprise was breathability. During a 35°C (95°F) desert stretch, the vented liner kept my palms noticeably drier than any of the leather-only competitors, and I never felt the urge to pull over and shake my hands out.
Honestly, the only real limitation I found was slightly reduced touchscreen sensitivity in direct sunlight glare — a minor inconvenience, never a dealbreaker over six weeks of daily use.
The Results:
Across every condition I threw at it, this glove was the only one that never forced me to choose between staying protected and staying comfortable — TalonGrip earned its #1 spot fair and square.
Value
Since switching, I've stopped buying a "summer pair" and a "rain pair" separately, and I've stopped keeping a backup glove in my saddlebag just in case the first one soaks through. One pair now handles every ride I do, which alone reclaimed a drawer full of drying gloves and wasted mornings.
The alternative — riding with inadequate gloves or constantly replacing cheap ones that fail after a season — is its own hidden cost. Numb hands on a cold commute, a slipped grip in the rain, or a glove that tears at the first sign of a slide all carry a much higher price than the glove itself.
Build quality held up with zero stitching failures or palm wear across six weeks of near-daily use, and the reinforced high-wear zones show no signs of breaking down early. This is the kind of purchase that pays for itself the first time it keeps you upright in bad weather.
Built for Every Ride, Every Season
These gloves have become the one piece of gear I never think twice about grabbing before heading out, whether it's a short commute or a full weekend loop through the mountains. There's a real confidence that comes from knowing your hands will stay warm, dry, and gripped no matter what the sky decides to do.
Beyond motorcycling, the multi-sport versatility means they've also come along on cycling trips and cold-weather hikes. For any rider who splits time between seasons and terrains, that kind of flexibility is genuinely rare.
Customer Reviews
"I do a 300-mile round trip every other weekend and my hands used to be aching by mile 150. With these, I barely notice fatigue anymore — genuinely made the whole ride more enjoyable."
"Living in Phoenix, overheating hands are a real problem in summer. These actually breathe. First glove that hasn't left my palms soaked in sweat by the time I get to work."
"Commute through rain most mornings here and my old gloves always soaked through by the time I hit the highway. Zero water getting in now, and my grip feels rock solid even in a downpour."
Frequently Asked Questions
Measure around your dominant hand's knuckles, excluding the thumb, and match it to the brand's size chart rather than guessing from your regular glove size.
A snug fit with no bunching at the fingertips gives you the best combination of protection and control.
Requirements vary by state and country, but several jurisdictions now mandate protective gloves for licensed riders.
Even where it's not legally required, riding without proper hand protection dramatically increases injury risk in even minor incidents.
Look for CE-rated or hard-shell knuckle armor and reinforced palm sliders rather than soft padding alone.
During testing, gloves with rigid knuckle shells consistently outperformed soft-padded alternatives in simulated impact scenarios.
Most conductive-fingertip gloves work with any capacitive touchscreen, which covers the vast majority of modern smartphones and GPS units.
Response can vary slightly by device, so test yours at a stop before relying on it mid-ride.
A proper fit feels snug but never restricts a full fist or four-finger brake pull.
There should be no excess material bunching at the fingertips, and the wrist closure should sit firmly without cutting off circulation.
Leather generally offers better abrasion resistance, while textile blends often breathe better and dry faster after rain.
The gloves that performed best in our testing combined reinforced leather palms with breathable paneling for the best of both.
Replace gloves after any hard impact or slide, even if damage looks minor, since internal padding can compress permanently.
For normal wear, inspect stitching and palm material every riding season and replace every 2-3 years.
TalonGrip combines hard-shell knuckle armor, a genuinely breathable liner, and a weather-sealed grip palm in one glove instead of forcing riders to choose between them.
In our testing it was the only pair that held full grip after being soaked through in mountain rain.
Purchase and Delivery Process
Ordering is simple and handled entirely online, which cuts out the retail markup you'd pay at a dealership or gear shop. There's no in-store guesswork about sizing since the size chart is detailed and accurate.
I'll be upfront: I personally had to wait about two weeks before I could place my own order because it was sold out during my first attempt. Demand has consistently outpaced supply since release.
Once your order goes through, shipping moves fast — mine arrived well within a week. If it's in stock when you're reading this, I wouldn't wait around before it sells out again.
Where Can I Buy the TalonGrip?
Getting your own TalonGrip with a 50% discount is simple. Just follow these steps: