"Technically cut with plenty of feel through the lightly padded palm, the Madison DTE 4-Season DWR glove is a mountain biker's dream for weather protection and thermal performance expected from a winter glove.” That’s how Madison describe their wallet-friendly winter gloves. The question is, will they also work for gravel riders? We’ve been putting them to the test.
With winter very much in evidence outside the Gravel Union office window at the minute, there’s always that niggling feeling in the back of our minds when we’re planning a ride – how are we going to keep our extremities warm, dry and happy? We should say straight away that Madison’s DTE 4-Season DWR gloves aren’t specifically designed for deep mid-winter riding – they’ve got other gloves in their range, such as the Stellar Reflective Waterproof Thermal glove or their DTW Waterproof Primaloft Thermal 1-1-3 gloves which cover the coldest conditions. The 4 Season gloves are aimed at those cold-but-not-bitterly-cold days which seem more typical in winter for many of us recently.
Images courtesy of Madison
Considering how good value the 4 Season gloves are (the Recommended Retail Price is £24.99), they come with an impressive range of features:
- DWR coating makes this glove windproof, showerproof and breathable
- Unlined, with a pre-curved shape and tailored grip palm
- Low bulk palm doesn't have any unnecessary seams, keeping things clean and irritation free
- Silicone gripper on the index and middle fingers give positive feel on your brake levers in the wettest of conditions
- Super soft large soft sweat wipe
Mountain bikers (who the gloves are aimed at), as you’re probably aware, tend to hold their bars differently to gravel riders. While they wrap their hands around a bar that’s roughly perpendicular to the bike, gravel riders spend a significant portion of the time riding ‘on the hoods’ where our hands are rotated roughly forward/backwards. This places different pressure on our hands and means that things like seam placement around the thumb/forefinger area are absolutely vital if the user is to avoid chaffing and sore patches. Fortunately, despite describing their gloves as “a mountain biker’s dream”, the one piece “low bulk palm” means the risk of anything rubbing should be low, no matter how you’re holding onto the bars.
The Madison 4 Season gloves are unisex, rather than being female or male specific. While for some riders there won’t be any noticeable difference in fit, there are significant differences in the hand shape of the two sexes. The biggest issue for riders at opposite ends of the size spectrum is getting gloves in an appropriately small or large size. Our tester Abby used Madison's size guide for the 4 Season gloves before deciding which size glove to test. These are the comments she made about the fit “I used Madison’s size guide to select the glove that I needed. When they arrived, the fingers fitted well but the glove was a bit large across the palm. This meant the fabric on the palms creases, which could lead to discomfort. The benefit of the generous size was that it allowed for a thinner liner glove to be worn underneath for extra warmth when the conditions warranted it.”
The majority of Abby’s testing was done in November/December last year when the temperature range was between 5-15 degrees C. This would probably be described as ‘shoulder season’ weather, rather than full-on winter conditions, but were the exact conditions that the 4 Season gloves were designed for. In her feedback on the gloves, Abby noted the fabric was described as “Windproof and showerproof, rather than waterproof” but that the gloves “kept my hands dry after an hour of riding in the rain on a wet day out on the bike.” She noted that the palms of the gloves were “grippy and unpadded” and praised the inclusion of "a good sweat wipe aka a snot wipe.” The first test ride for the gloves saw the lowest temperatures of the test period and Abby mentioned the 4 Season gloves “Didn’t stop my hands feeling cold at points on the ride - but I’ve not yet found a pair of gloves that does.” She also noted that “the gloves are described as handwash only. I have hand washed them and they washed fine, but not being able to chuck them in the washing machine is a definite drawback.”
The Madison DTE 4-Season DWR gloves are available in size S to XXL and are available in a choice of four colours. They have an RRP of £24.99. You can find more details about them on Madison’s website.