Bioracer Glove One Tempest Pixel Protect

The Bioracer Glove One Tempest Pixel Protect winter gloves are excellent when the mercury heads south, insulating your hands from the cold and doing a great job of keeping out rain, but they also perform really well as the temperature rises, stopping your hands from overheating and getting sweaty.

I was able to test these gloves in the middle of winter on both longer group rides and shorter training rides, with temperatures around 8°C to 2°C. Bioracer's Tempest Protect insulation works really well, and kept my hands warm no matter what the weather threw at them. However, what really surprised me was how well they handled warmer temperatures.

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Often in the winter, a ride will start off fairly chilly but as the sun comes up the heat also rises. This typically results in sweaty hands and having to choose between keeping your gloves on or bracing the cold. The Bioracers, though, are surprisingly breathable for such a well-insulated glove, managing to wick sweat away and keep my hands comfortable throughout the day. Not having sweaty hands by the end of a long ride was fantastic, and increased my enjoyment of training massively.

I found the gloves a very comfortable fit on my fairly average shape hands, with each finger having the perfect amount of space. I've worn less expensive gloves with digits not wide enough, which resulted in squeezing of the fingers and some discomfort. The Bioracers were spot on for me. Also, as you can see from the photos, the seams are stitched on the outside, so there's no pressure or unwanted rubbing there – another plus point.

I also liked the long cuff, which provides a seamless transition from jacket sleeve to glove, with no skin exposed to the elements. The fit around the wrist was spot on, too, nice and snug without being overly tight.

As the name suggests, the gloves feature reflective panels that light up in headlights, enhancing your safety on dark mornings and evenings.

They also have a water-repellent coating which I found was very effective in keeping out the majority of the rain, and although the very worst downpours did result in wet hands, they did stay warm.

The faux leather palms provide plenty of grip and good levels of padding and protection. No complaints there.

The only real downside of the Bioracers is the lack of any touchscreen-friendly material or silicon – it's quite irritating having to take the gloves off every time you want to use your phone, and navigating a touchscreen GPS computer with these gloves on is challenging at best.

> Buyer's Guide: 22 of the best winter cycling gloves

Although price-wise they aren't cheap – and you can certainly get gloves for a lot less such as the Lomos that Stu reviewed recently, which are £13.50 – the Bioracer's rrp of £42 looks pretty good compared to some: Santini's Fjords are very good but £75, and Castelli's Scalda Elites are £70.

Overall, I'd say the Bioracers are very good winter gloves. Their performance is excellent, both in the cold and when the temperature rises, they seem very robust and they're very comfortable. If they had touchscreen-friendly fingertips they'd be even better.

Verdict

Very good winter gloves that protect from the cold without turning sweaty when things warm up