On a bike, I feel like we often neglect our hands until it’s too late. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself shaking my hands out to get some feeling back after having had it vibrated away by the roughness of the road, or just because my gloves were falling apart prematurely.

The Sugoi RS glove sits at the top of the heap in their fingerless cycling glove lineup. Encased in its synthetic leather palm is Sugoi’s V-Control foam, which spans across the entire area of pressure points. The palm contains vent holes that allow air to circulate to help keep sweat under control. The bonded terrycloth thumb gives the rider a quick and easy way to wipe away sweat and also allows for quick evaporation and drying. The RS Glove is also available in a full finger model

In my experience, all the gels and foams and anti-matter that is put in gloves doesn’t mean a thing if it’s placed wrong for the rider. The V-Control foam that Sugoi uses does a great job of vibration dampening, but that’s not what makes the biggest difference for me. What matters is where the padding is. Sugoi has put big, honking patches of V-Control on a large majority of the palm. All hands are different and one glove, even if sized exactly may or may not work for a particular athlete. With this design, I’ve found that my hands are always in ample contact with the padding that I need.

You might be wondering why there are picture in this review of a pair of beat-to-hell gloves; well, those are my own Sugoi RS gloves. The reason I wanted to show them is because they have been sweated on, slipped on, rained on, crashed in, tire changed in, indoor rode with and I’m pretty sure puked on for about a year now. I have never owned a pair of cycling gloves for that long. I could speculate as to the mileage on them, but I can’t begin to think about that, but at peak Ironman training time last summer, they were getting 300-400 miles a week on them. At this point they have tears and holes appearing in various places, but even as I write this, they’re hanging up to dry after last night’s trainer ride and waiting for more.

I know that I’ll have to part ways with my RS gloves pretty soon, but I’m very impressed with their construction and feel. They’ve taken me a very long way and I think they’d be a great choice for someone who likes to wear a glove that has the tools to be worn into the ground.