Q36.5 Unique Gloves

The Q36.5 Unique Gloves are low bulk and airy while providing loads of protection from vibration thanks to a palm from Elastic Interface – yes, the people who make the seatpads that go in cycling shorts – but they don't come cheap.

The first thing you notice about these gloves is just how lightweight they are. You're probably not fussed about saving a few grams here but the lack of material is appreciable. For a start, it means there's less to get sweaty when you're riding hard.

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The upper – the back of the hand – is made from a perforated knitted fabric that's designed to let plenty of air in while wicking sweat out. It works. The material can get a little damp when you work up a sweat, but it really doesn't feel uncomfortable.

Flip 'em over and the palm of the glove is where all the action is. It comes from Italian company Elastic Interface which makes seatpads that are used in shorts from a zillion different brands.

Elastic Interface technology comes in a few different varieties. Here, the whole of the palm is made from 80kg/m3 foam, perforated in the centre for increased ventilation. Then you get several areas of extra padding. One section extends across the base of your thumb going down to your index finger (the section that rests on the hoods), then right across the top of the palm. You have three more smaller sections around the heel of your hand. You can just about make them all out in the photos. Although the top section of fabric isn't perforated in these areas, you can feel that the underlying pads are.

Like the uppers, the palms are very low bulk and stretchy so you get a really good fit and great handlebar feel. There's enough suppleness here for the palms to adapt to the shape of your hands without any bunching or ridges. Unlike some more substantial gloves, these don't leave you feeling detached from the handlebar.

They do manage to add a lot of comfort to the ride by damping vibration, though. The benefit is surprisingly large, especially on rougher roads. I've been using these gloves for the whole of the summer while riding a bunch of different bikes and I've never once experienced any tingling in the hands, which is something I usually get from time to time. I could just have been lucky, of course, but these gloves do feel very comfortable in use; there's good padding over the ulnar nerve, and there's hardly any stitching to cause pressure or annoyance. The only seams are the ones that hold the uppers to the palms and the mesh panels between the fingers – there are none at all on the palms themselves.

> Buyer’s Guide: 11 of the best summer cycling gloves

Q36.5 has kept the rest of the design simple. A reflective strip sewn into the main seam on the outer edge of the glove provides a degree of extra visibility and you get a pull-tab in the gap between your middle and ring fingers. I didn't think this would be substantial enough to help remove the glove at the end of a ride, but it works just fine.

Durability was another unfounded concern of mine. I must say, I thought they'd start to age quickly but that hasn't happened. As I said up top, these gloves feel lightweight going on insubstantial and I wondered if that would mean they wouldn't stand up to much use and abuse. Well, I've had a whole summer out of them so far and they still look absolutely fine. Cosmetically, you can tell they've been used, of course, but there's no real wear and tear to the palms, which I find really surprising.

Value and conclusion

There's no getting around the fact that these are pricey for a pair of summer mitts, but so are most of the other gloves that use the Elastic Interface Palm technology. Giro's Supernatural gloves are £64.99, for instance, while De Marchi's Revo gloves are €90. dhb's Aeron Mitts are considerably cheaper at £40, though, and they use exactly the same type of Elastic Interface Palm padding as the Q36.5 gloves (though they're not currently available).

Overall, there's loads to like about the Q36.5 Unique Gloves. They're lightweight and well ventilated, but the real star of the show is the Elastic Interface Palm which manages to protect your hands from vibration while being stretchy and entirely seamless. If you're willing to pay a little extra for a high level of comfort, these could be for you.

Verdict

Lightweight and breathable summer mitts with very good stretchy and seamless palms