I've had these bike gloves for 20 years, maybe more. (Yes, since I was a kid.) Dad, you may even remember buying them. I think we were on one of those vacations up to the Door Peninsula? I can't quite remember, but I do remember that K and I were at the bike store but I don't think E was, and that was about that era in our lives. These are definitely from back when I was riding the green Diamondback.
The gloves are in sorry shape. They're frayed at the edges, there's a hole in one palm and at the thumb joint on the other, and the elastic in the spandex portion is basically shot. But when you think about how old they are and the beatings they've taken in the intervening years (including one RAGBRAI), they've actually held up quite well.
And they're the best gloves ever because they're actually padded. I know that's a wild idea for bike gloves, but they make biking fairly comfortable. Perhaps I do strange things with my hands but I find the gloves you can buy now, with just a few of those little padded gel cushions scattered about the palms, to be grossly inadequate. These are gloves; I can put my hands anywhere on the handlebars, in any position, and they're comfortable. And as a bonus, there's lots of space to wipe your nose.
Or at least they were, and there was.
:::cue dirge:::
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