Halvarssons Holen gloves in black

The problem with a lot of summer gloves is that they are sometimes simply too lightweight to offer much by way of protection. These gloves are always going to be better than not wearing gloves, but in anything other than a car park fall some of these gloves can be found to be wanting.

Halvarssons’ Holen summer glove isn’t that kind of summer glove. Obviously, there’s no membrane involved, and you don’t get anything by way of insulation, but you wouldn’t expect to with a summer glove. In fact, other than in the cuff, and behind the knuckle protector, the Holen isn’t lined at all. So it’s lovely to wear, and is going to provide great grip on the bars; especially as the palm is made from kangaroo leather.

On the back of the hand you get a hard knuckle protector, but it’s backed by a panel of foam to absorb the energy of an impact. There’s another protective pad on the top of the wrist. Rubber bumpers also protect the minor knuckles. And for the first time ever on a Halvarssons glove you get a Superfabric slider at the base of the palm. Now many people get confused between a slider and a scaphoid protector, but the good news is that the Holen has both. On both hands, a panel links the two smallest fingers to prevent them from being pulled apart in an accident. The aim is to avoid an outcome like the one that befell Troy Bayliss in WSB.

For comfort, the Holen has an open-back construction. You also get concertina bands on all the fingers and the thumb for flexibility. The fingers have external seams. We tend to prefer internal seams from an aesthetic perspective, but external ones are usually more comfortable. On the palm, there’s a panel of digi-leather for better grip. Certain areas of the glove are perforated for better breathability. You get a single Velcro strap at what one might term a mid-length cuff.

What you don’t get is touchscreen-sensitive fingertips.

Now this has to rank as one of the more robust and protective summer gloves out there. And we think it’s an impressive one. Goat and kangaroo leather. Superfabric. Digi-leather. The spec. is up there, but the price isn’t. So the Holen offers the kind of value you might expect from Halvarssons. In fact, on that score it’s hard to beat.