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Dakine cross-X review

Dakine cross-X gloves review.From the moment I saw these gloves, I had to have them. They feature a durable, double-stitched synthetic suede palm, breathable nylon mesh backpanel, neoprene wristcuff and knuckle panel, terrycloth thumb panels, silicon gripper fingertips and lycra finger panels. They also have a rubberised Dakine backpanel with the Dakine logo, which looks cool but only adds to the price.

Turn these gloves inside out and only then you realise that they’re extremely well made. Stitching is accurate and precise everywhere you look. What does that mean? Well, the stitches themselves look perfect and Dakine accurately controls their position w.r.t to all the different panels which are sewn together. They leave an adequate, equi-distant hem in all places to allow for some fraying of the material. In plain English? This means that they’re fare less likely to fall apart with prolonged use. Look at another cheaper pair of gloves and you’ll probably see the stitches all over the place.

Like all good products, it’s not until you go back to an inferior alternative that you realise how good they are. My standard pair of Biemme windproof fullfinger gloves do not fit as well as Dakine, especially around my fingers. The Biemme gloves also don’t provide grip sections on the index and middle fingers. Unlike with other full-finger gloves, at no time I felt that the Dakine ones hindered my operation of the bicycle. The only negative I found when using the Dakine cross-X gloves is that the back of my hand got a bit sweaty when I stopped, right where the fake «ventilator» thingo is located. I suppose this is due to the padded neoprene back panel, which isn’t as breathable as the rest. When riding, this did not present a problem. I like these gloves so much, I now use them when road bike riding (if only on the descents) because they make me feel so in control of the bike.

Dakine cross-X gloves, dakine gloves review.They’re available in many interesting colour variations shown here as well as a ladies cross-X model. I eventually decided upon the Large size after trying out the medium sized gloves several times. According to the size chart, the medium gloves are recommended based on my palm measurement (~20cm circumference) but I found the fingers too short so I bought what I thought provided me with a better overall fit.

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