Out with the old

After checking out online for a decent set of gloves with armour, I got me this Scorpion Exo pair for a little over a hundred dollars (SGD).

Scorpion EXO Motorcycle Gloves

The Scorpion Exo SGS Mk2, they are the shorter version of the Scorpion Exo SG3 Mk2. I got mine on Ebay, but they are also available on Revzilla and Bikebandit. Somehow I couldn’t find anybody selling this in Singapore so I could not compare prices.

Why did I choose them? My faithful icon justice gloves were wearing out, the stitches were starting to give way, the plastic knuckle guards were starting to drop out and after almost 5 years of all weather riding, they stank of death and decay. Even your neighbours deaf and rabid dog would have given up in a sniff. I’ve washed them many times before but eventually I gave up on washing because I had no spare gloves and found all other excuses to procrastinate. Yes yes, procrastinate, that’s right.

Anywho, I went online to search short cuff gloves. Since I ride a cruiser i don’t fancy getting gauntlets unless I’m:

  • Going to wear it with a track suit
  • Going for track days
  • One of those guys riding old man’s bikes and wearing gauntlets
  • Going for track days

In Singapore you have to deal with the heat and gauntlets don’t agree. Unless it’s this.

Knox Handroid Motorcycle Gloves

The Knox Handroid. Because it’s uber cool and I don’t care what you have to say about it. It just looks cool. It looks like a sock in the face will tear your kisser right off kind of cool.

And so after searching I settled on the Scorpion Exo SGS which unfortunately was phased out and sold out. Its still on Revzilla I think. Just that they are only left with the less common sizes. They however fit my budget and offer some good protection.

For that price, you get carbon fibre knuckle guards, knox scaphoid sliders, extra padding around the impact areas in case of a come off. Floating knuckle guards help to thicken the padding to cushion your knuckles and increase the venting at the same time to keep your hands cool. Very important in the tropical climate.

Pity they did not keep the superfabric protection from the original SGS gloves, but  within the price point, I can live with it. The absence of knuckle venting though, compared to the huge vents on the icons is noticeable. The gloves took 2 rides on my morning commute to work to feel pretty broken in to. its a 20km commute there and back. The goatskin leather helps in that area. Its my first time with scaphoid sliders though and since cruiser handlebars are usually a straight fists-in-the-wind style and with fat grips, those sliders did feel foreign on the first day but felt more settled in by the second day’s commute. So pulling the levers and throttle control were much finer and almost back to my usual style. The interior of the glove is…VELVETY. Very soft and by keeping the stitching external, the gloves are wonderfully smooth inside. I’m very pleased with my choice.

It is also a touchscreen enabled glove with stitching in the index fingers only. My icon justice had them in the thumbs and index fingers. By keeping the conductive stitching in the index fingers, my typing is slow but accurate. Not going to text at intersections, I PROMISE!

For the price point, I do wish that the inner wrist cuff had been goatskin leather too. They used neoprene there and it just feels a little off. Would have loved full leather construction and micro velcro in the closure strap, that would have added just a little bit more of the premium feel to it.

If you don’t mind having a little more neoprene construction, some funky graphics and vented knuckles, you may want to consider EVS Silverstone gloves around the same price range or a little more for the Dainese Essential short cuff gloves.

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