[Guest]

Some interesting things to note. No manufacturer yet makes a pair of motorcyclist gloves that are approved to the CE standard for them. As you can see, when tested to those guidleines, most fail to bring all of the critical aspects together in one choice, meaning seam strength may be great, but abrasion resistance was not so good, or vice versa. The thing to note with the impact scores is that the impact test they do for gloves is really easy to pass, and in my view hugely compromised for real protective value. I beleive the knuckles are only subjected to a 5 Joule impact severity and must measure under 4kN, which is not hard for even hard armor, as it doesn't have to manage much energy. The gloves without the hard bits are using the same comfort foams just exposed, rather than the type of foams found in CE-approved suits. BKS and Teknic are using impact protection found in limb armor, but neither were tested here.

http://www.robinsonsfoundry.co.uk/library/pdf/triumph/gloves.pdf

 

[grandshervee]

Why is it that you never see the japanese brands on their tests? I am curious to see how brands like Kushitani or RS Taichi, for instance, would do on these tests.

 

[heisenberg9]

Thanks for posting the PDF!

 

[Guest]

Why is it that you never see the japanese brands on their tests? I am curious to see how brands like Kushitani or RS Taichi, for instance, would do on these tests.

Me too. Kushitani, also uses the infamous Zylon thread in the stitching of their gloves, which recently went through an investigation for it's use in bullet-proof vests that degraded with age and moisture to the point of the tensile strength being compromised over time enough to create failures in it's ballistic properties and resulting in a massive recall of zylon-containing vests. Anyhow, since hands sweat a lot, and gloves are put to a lot of environmental conditions, it's a real issue of concern that doesn't show up in new product testing. With those vest showing a nearly 50% drop in strength of the fibers in a 1-year period, it brings in a whole other area of questions for gear that is rarearely addressed by manufacturers.

The way these article comparison tests are put together is that the magazine sends out a request for products from the manufacturers to fit the title of the article, so the manufacturers that respond send the product that best fits their idea of the category, or what usually amounts to their flagship offerings, or their latest piece that they would like to get some free press for. Not all manufacturers are contacted, and since this is a UK-based magazine, you are going to find more European offerings that are found in that market. I don't know if Taichi or Kushitani are big in England or even sell anything there or not, or if who the magazine decided to contact with product requests.

What needs to happen, is instead of having to rely on magazine comparisons is to have them actually comply to the CE standards for motorcylcist protective gear, which is essentially the same thing as the testing seen here, except that the label will esure that all pieces are up to par in the protective value areas. So far, no compaines have complied with the standard(which is EU law for protective gear).