When you’re riding a bike at its limits and your own, it’s important to have motorcycle gear that performs well both at speed and in the event of a crash. The Racer Gloves USA High Speed glove pairs comfort, protection, and fit into a perfect package.

I’ve struggled to find good race gloves for years. My Dainese Full Metal D1 gloves are some of the most expensive and supposedly nicest on the market, but they feel almost crude in their construction and they scrape and bruise my knuckles. Alpinestars have traditionally fit me weird and even REV’IT, who are my other favorite glove brand, haven’t shown me a race glove that made me want to stop looking for new options.

After hearing about the Racers from a number of people who swore by them, I decided it was time to finally check them out.

The Specs That Matter

The High Speed glove has a cowhide leather chassis, with a kangaroo leather palm. Kangaroo leather is stronger than cowhide, which means it’s able to be made thinner while offering the same protection - which give these gloves greater feeling on the bars.

In most crashes, the rider tries to catch themselves by stretching out their palms as they hit the deck. No, this never works, but yes, people continue to try it. To help protect our fragile hands from this instinct, Racer have included dual density on both sides of the palm. To protect the outside of the hand and wrist, the High Speeds have TPU hard inserts on the knuckle, fingers, and outside of the wrist.

The gloves use a perforated leather, so they’ll flow enough air to keep your hands from clamming up, and use a double velcro enclosure (wrist and forearm) to secure them.

The gloves are CE certified, come in white or black, sizes small to triple XL, and retail for .

I Rode With The Damn Things

I’ve been using the High Speeds now for several months for pretty much every track and sport riding outing I attend. I took them to Spain to ride on the new Monster 1200R, rode with them at Chuckwalla for the ICON Airframe Pro helmet launch, and just did two very long days in them at Pridmore’s STAR school.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a hard time finding race gloves that are comfy for a single session on a track, let alone all day use. The Racers have changed all of that. Out of the package, they were a tad stiff but fit perfectly, and it only took one day of riding to get them into “lived in” shape.

Aesthete that I am, I normally try and make sure my gear all matches or looks nice for photos for things I’m doing for stories. The only thing that takes second to physical discomfort. This may sound silly to you, but the fact that I wear the Racers, regardless of my leathers or helmet, says volumes about how much more I like them than anything else.

As with most gloves, I wear a size XL, and the fit is absolutely incredible. With slightly curved fingers and the thinner kangaroo leather, the palm never bunches or pinches like many gloves can, and the finger size and length are all spot on.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to test how they hold up in a crash, but the big TPU inserts give me plenty of confidence should that happen. Most people land on their palms or side of their wrist when they crash, and Racer has taken both into account - although neither insert ever interferes with the glove’s use.

Why You Should Care

You should care because race gloves suck. Because they never fit well and because they always put hard inserts and claims of safety over comfort - which ends up being far less safe in the long run. Because they’re simply better gloves, because they’re an incredible company, and because if you disagree on the fit - they’ll send you your money back.

The Racer High Speed Glove is the perfect combination of lightweight design and superior…

As the new emperor of Lanesplitterland, we’re only going to review the products that are newsworthy (or you’re curious about) or the ones we think are honestly worth your attention and hard earned dollar bills.

Few things fit into that second category as well as these Racer gloves.