Louis Garneau Mondo gloves

These Louis Garneau Mondo gloves offer very comfortable gel padding and good ventilation for hot summer weather.

One of the main features of the Mondo gloves is that they keep your hands cooler than most. That's largely down to the centre of the palm being a mesh panel that Louis Garneau call the Ergo Air Zone – a small window in the Amara synthetic leather. There are also lots of vent holes in the palms, most of them going right through the gel padding.

The majority of those holes are covered most of the time when you're gripping the bars or the hoods, but some of them are always open – which ones depends on your hand position – so you do get some additional air conditioning here compared to most other mitts.

The backs are similarly well ventilated, the white sections being stretchy Lycra Power fabric and the black areas being a highly breathable mesh. The overall result is that your hands usually remain cool in these mitts, and even when they do sweat, the moisture can escape quickly. It's not a massive difference compared to most other summer gloves but it's certainly discernible, and if you do tend to get sweaty hands in hot summer weather, these are worth considering.

The padding is very good. You get gel strips across the base of your fingers and right across the heel of your hand. Crucially, the meatiest padding protects your ulnar nerve and I've never experienced any numbness or tingling in the hands while wearing these, or any aching towards the end of long rides. They're really comfortable.

The backs are seamless; the various sections are bonded together rather than stitched so there are no pressure points there. I wondered whether this would be a weakness but after several weeks of regular use and a few trips through the washing machine there are no signs that this is going to happen. I also thought the silicone discs on two of the fingers of each glove – designed to help you get them off easily – might come a cropper after a while, but that doesn't look likely either.

Problems? The sweat/nose wipe on the thumb is tiny so you have to be a pretty good shot to make it count, and the stitching has come undone next to one of the Velcro fasteners - I should get out a needle and cotton and repair that. And after getting energy drink, chain lube and various other forms of gunk on them, the palms will never be completely white again. They look lived in rather than knackered, but I'd still go for the black version instead.

Verdict

Very comfortable summer gloves with effective gel padding and good ventilation.