Outdoor Research Freewheel MTB Leather Palm Gloves

Review by Paul Gallaher

Design

The Outdoor Research Freewheel MTB Leather Palm Glove has several key features that make this an attractive item for your mountain biking apparel quiver.

• Made with durable materials including goat leather palms and finger contact points

• Soft fabric area on thumb that make a nice sweat wipe for the face

• Sturdy hook-and-loop wrist closure is snug and secure

• Abrasion resistant back with nylon mesh for breathability and moisture-wicking.

• Touch-screen compatibility

• This is Outdoor Research’s top of the line summer MTB glove

Performance

• These gloves fit and feel very well. I like both the protection and breathability that these gloves afford. I feel confident while I’m riding narrow singletrack through bushes or trees that my hands will be protected from abrasions.

• Fit: I wear an XL in these gloves and they fit well to my normal size. They feel great on my hands and I don’t think about them when I’m riding, which is the idea.

• The soft leather grips my handgrips very well. Definitely a secure contact with the handlebars.

• The touch-screen compatibility of cycling gloves is very important for me. Unfortunately, these gloves have been a “miss” in that area. Regardless of which glove I try to use on my phone or the amount of pressure I use, neither glove will ever work on my touchscreen. I’m hoping this is a manufacturing defect with my particular pair of gloves. For those riders like me that use a moving map display on your phone or a touchscreen GPS/bike computer, I’d recommend testing these on your own equipment in a store before making a purchase. As it is now, I have to remove my gloves to use my phone/camera/bike computer. If you’re one of those riders that does not use touchscreen technology on your rides, I would recommend picking up a pair. I have numerous other pieces of OR gear and they’re all top-shelf.

• Glove options: OR makes these in two colors; Pro Khaki and Black. They’re available in five sizes, from XS to XL. Check out the Outdoor Research website for more details.

Paul Gallaher

Paul grew up in Minnesota where he learned to love the outdoors, riding his bike, fishing and canoeing in the summers and skiing in the winters on Minnesota’s 300 foot-tall “mountains”.

After finishing college, he was commissioned as an officer in the USAF eventually becoming a special operations and reconnaissance instructor navigator flying and serving around the world for twenty-two years.

Living and traveling around the world has given Paul opportunities to explore outdoor passions. He is an advanced scuba diver, a pilot, a sailor and has skied in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.