Farewell Salute To My Favourite Gloves | Mountain Sledder
Gear Spotlight
December 22nd, 2020
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Farewell Salute To My Favourite Gloves

It can be hard to predict how well a piece of gear will perform when you buy it.

Most times you’ll be fairly happy, with maybe a few little gripes here and there. Occasionally you’ll wind up with an absolute dud that just has a terrible fit or underwhelming performance. But every once-in-a-while, a piece of gear comes along that wildly exceeds your expectations, and that’s what happened with these glove from FXR.


Here’s the story. FXR has been a supporter of Mountain Sledder for a long time. Over the years they’ve sent us a ton of stuff to review, from outerwear to boots, insulating layers, gloves, helmets and goggles. Some was good, some wasn’t for us (trail stuff) and some was fantastic.

But in the case of these lightly-insulated gloves, we never really had any intention to review them for the sole reason that they aren’t made to be waterproof. When you’re riding deep snow (and that’s what we like to do), waterproof gloves are pretty key. So we just sort of asked for these on a whim thinking they might be decent for spring riding, and the kind folks at FXR threw a pair in the box for us.

Now, some five or six years down the road, these FXR gloves have reached the end of the line and I still have not written a review and never will—it’s too late at this point. It’s been so long that I don’t even recall what their model or style name is. You certainly can’t buy this exact style any more.

Despite all that, these gloves have been with me through so much that I feel they deserve an honourable mention before going up to glove heaven.

While I seriously have no idea what these gloves are actually called, if you’re interested, there is currently what looks to be a similar glove in the FXR catalog called the Cold Stop Race Glove.

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Farewell Salute To My Favourite Gloves

Over the last half decade, I’ve worn these gloves more than any others. Not for riding so much, except for some warm, sunny spring days in which they excelled. But for virtually everything else.

I have put them on every single time I loaded or unloaded my sled over the course of those years.

I wore them in my freezing cold shop when wrenching on broken stuff in -20˚C.

Lying in the snow, I have changed the oil in my pickup (and made a mess every time).

I have used them to shovel the driveway in the middle of epic BC snowstorms.

They kept my hands warm on cool spring and fall motorcycle commutes to work.

I fell and bucked firewood with them on.

I insulated the attic wearing these gloves.

I wiped my cold, snotty nose with them one million times.

And, ultimately, their death and the only reason I’m not still wearing them today was brought about as the fingers were melted and split by hot metal shavings from the angle grinder—saving my precious skin in the process.

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Fabrication was the nail in the coffin, but hey, they had a great run.

Sure you could do all that with a pair of work gloves from the hardware store. But for all those tasks and more, these have been the most comfortable, breathable and dexterous hand protection I have owned—which is precisely why I wore them all the time. And that’s why I will miss them greatly.

Thanks for all the good years, anonymous FXR gloves! Though your name may be forgotten, your plucky spirit and versatility will live on in memory!

 

– Pat