Racer “Mickey” Gloves Review
The Racer “Mickey” Gloves are another short gauntlet summer type but with more protective features than the Racer Guide gloves (review). The most prominent feature of the Mickey gloves is the large bifurcated Superfabric-covered main knuckle protector. Another Superfabric-covered slider protects the scaphoid. Only the top of the inside of the gloves has a liner; the bottom or palm side is unlined Clarino.
The Mickey gloves fit one size small, also requiring a re-order for a size XL, which fits more like a standard size large. This is Part 3 of our eight-part 2013 Summer Motorcycle Glove Review Series. The Racer Mickey summer gloves move up the scale a notch on the Racer hierarchy of protective features (at least the way I see it), with large and very nice Superfabric-covered main knuckle and scaphoid protectors.
As noted in our previous reviews, Racer is an Austrian-based company noted for adding something special to each of their gloves and the Superfabric is the special sauce in the Mickey gloves. Superfabric has been discussed previously in several webBikeWorld reviews. The Rev’it Cayenne Pro jacket (review) was the first motorcycle product to use Superfabric back in 2008, as far we know; since then it has appeared in many higher-end motorcycle jackets, pants and gloves.
Superfabric is a matrix of tiny ceramic tiles that provides outstanding abrasion resistance. Incorporating it into hard knuckle and scaphoid protectors is the perfect use for this technology.
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Racer Mickey Gloves Details
As I mentioned in the Racer Guide gloves review, the compromise with summer gloves is protection vs. ventilation.
More protection means more coverage; more coverage means less air flow. Solving this equation depends on each individual rider’s preferences and risk calculus.
When I arranged the Racer gloves review schedule for our 2013 Summer Motorcycle Glove Review Series, I listed them in what I thought was the level of protection from lowest to highest. For me, protection is more important than ventilation and the Racer Mickey gloves have more of it than the Racer Guide gloves reviewed previously in this series.
The Mickey gloves are a combination of leather, Clarino (synthetic leather) and some textile, which is used sparingly for portions of the fingers and a small mesh section at the rear of the wrist.
The most prominent feature of the Mickey gloves is the Superfabric-covered main knuckle protector, which looks like it’s divided into two sections but is actually a single hard protector, covered with the Superfabric material.
A fairly large scaphoid slider is also covered with Superfabric, and together these provide what appears to be better levels of protection than the Racer Guide gloves and many other types of short-gauntlet summer gloves. Both of these protectors are backed on the inside with a soft, cushy foam liner, which adds a lot of comfort and making the sliders unnoticeable when riding.
The Mickey gloves have a couple of too-large labels or tags sewn into the side, proclaiming the features with “Superfabric” and “Kevlar” on one side and “Teramid” on the other. Other than this — and as is the case with the other Racer gloves in this review series — there just isn’t a heck of a lot of information or technical details about the gloves available on the Racer website.
So other than the obvious (Superfabric, leather, textile and Clarino), I don’t know where or how the Kevlar or Teramid is incorporated. I’d like to think the stitching is Kevlar fibers but I don’t know for sure and glove manufacturers almost never list the type of thread used in their gloves unfortunately.
I’m not a big fan of Clarino because it has an artificial feel that reminds me of something like reconstituted cardboard some type of non-woven textile. But Clarino is used in many different motorcycle gloves we’ve reviewed, including the palms of the Mickey gloves.
I’d prefer all leather construction and I’m not sure if the manufacturers save money by using Clarino or not. If it’s more protective than cow hide or goat or kangaroo skin, I’d sure like to know that but I doubt it.
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Racer Mickey Gloves Ventilation
As expected, moving up a notch in the protection hierarchy brings less ventilation. The textile used in the fingers of the Mickey gloves has a tight weave and I really don’t feel any air flowing through, although the fabric is used mostly in between the fingers and it’s possible that it does provide better moisture control than leather.
There’s a very short section of mesh at the back of the wrist, behind the rubberized protector on top of the wrist, and some cooling air can be felt there.
The short gauntlet also helps; this one fits nicely underneath a sleeve cuff and if the cuff is left a bit loose, air can flow up into the sleeve. But the overall protection provided by the Mickey gloves is definitely worth the slight reduction in ventilation in my opinion.
Besides, the air flow is only effective when the hands are out in the air stream and this isn’t always the case on touring bikes or on a dual-sport bike with hand guards blocking the wind.
Liner and Comfort
The Clarino palms are unlined on the inside, so they can get a little sticky in very hot weather. But it’s no worse than other types of gloves. I sort of wish the Mickey gloves had a full-length liner using the mcFIT liner system attached on the inside like the Racer Guide gloves, however.
I can feel some of the stitching inside the Mickey gloves; it’s not annoying and it’s quickly forgotten when riding however. Also, the fingertips of the Mickey gloves use a touring style “box” construction but with no seam at the fingertips, which helps. Here’s a photo:
Overall Construction Quality
This pair of Mickey gloves is very nicely made, with excellent quality stitching and overall construction. There are no hanging threads or other issues and the detailing around the protectors on the tops of the fingers and the knuckles is also excellent.
The underside of the fingertips has a triangular-shaped checkerboard pattern of silicone grip assists, with the “Racer” logo also included as part of this pattern. This is a nice touch that is also functional.
Most of the stitching is double rows, even the two sections of Clarino synthetic leather on the palm.
Fit and Sizing
I had to exchange the size large Mickey gloves for a size XL; like the Racer Guide gloves, my feeling is the size large was too small and I had trouble fitting my hand into the gloves. The fingers were also too short.
The size XL gloves feel like a standard size L to me, which is my normal size. It’s a bit puzzling because Racer goes to some lengths to promote the fit of their gloves. All of the new Racer gloves in this series are comfortable, no doubt, but the sizing on several pair just doesn’t seem correct to us.
The finger length on the Mickey gloves is proportional and also feels like a standard size large. My fingertips do touch the end of the inside of the fingers and again, because there’s no liner on the bottom half of the gloves, some of the stiches can be felt.
But the textile on the sides and back of the fingers adds flexibility, so the fingers move quite nicely with my hands, making the gloves feel comfortable.
The leather used on the Mickey gloves feels and looks similar to the leather on the Racer Guide gloves. It’s soft and has a broken-in feel.
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Gauntlet and Closure
The Racer Mickey gloves are the short-gauntlet type, good for summer and hot-weather riding. The gauntlet fits snugly on these gloves but it’s very comfortable and the leather easily slides under a summer jacket sleeve cuff.
The closure is a rubberized strap on top that connects to the body of the glove with hook-and-loop. It may not appear to be the most secure race-type closure but it works well and the tight wrist fit of the Mickey gloves, combined with a secured strap, keeps the gloves on my hand. I can’t pull the gloves off unless the strap is completely open, which is good.
There is a small flap of leather on the underside of the wrist that adds some protection. This is the type of flap that is usually included to cover an underside wrist strap but there is no secondary strap on the Mickey gloves.
Protection
Besides the Superfabric-covered knuckle protectors, which are quite nice, the Mickey gloves have leather-covered soft rubber protectors over the middle and top knuckles on the thumb and first three fingers. The last or “pinky” finger has a soft rubber “Racer” logo on top and an extra strip of leather along the outside.
The level of protection seems about appropriate for this type of short-gauntlet summer glove and the Superfabric-covered hard protectors are the surprise feature here that “makes” the Mickey gloves, but I’m not completely sold on the use of soft rubber for the finger protectors, although this seems to be a trend we’ve noticed recently with several brands of motorcycle gloves.
Conclusion
The Racer Mickey gloves are comfortable and they have a nice fit…considering the sizing issues noted above.
These gloves have what appears to be a better level of protection than the Racer Guide gloves we reviewed, especially on the main knuckles and scaphoid. Using Superfabric to cover a hard knuckle protector makes perfect sense and it’s probably the best use of this technology we’ve seen so far.
The Mickey gloves give a good overall feeling of protection for this type of glove, although the ventilation isn’t quite there, but we’ll take protection over ventilation any day.
The simple wrist strap seems to work well and the rather large knuckle and scaphoid protectors or sliders aren’t at all in the way of comfortable riding.
The list price of the Mickey gloves is very reasonable also; they cost only about $5.00 more than the Racer Guide gloves and you get a lot of Superfabric protection, making these a good deal. Strangely enough, in Europe the Mickey gloves have a list price of €74.90, which is actually €5.00 less than the Guide gloves, making for an even better deal!
More wBW: 2013 Summer Motorcycle Glove Review Series
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