Gamjams review: Gloves

I'm relatively new to this whole cycling thing, but in the just over two years I have been riding I have used three, yes that's right three different kinds of gloves. My first gloves were your standard half finger gloves made by castelli. I loved these gloves, they were very ultra comfortable. While comfort is the reason to buy a pair of gloves, I find it annoying to have to pull gloves inside out to remove them. These gloves solved the problem with loops of faux leather in between the fingers that made it easy to pull the gloves straight off. The only other short finger gloves I have had are the ABRT team issue gloves and while I have like these gloves overallthere are a few things that could be changed. These gloves have a nice fit and are very form fitting which I like. The one thing I don't like is the placement of the extra gel cushion they placed on the pinky side of the palm. I have found that this pad if you will has a tendecy to bunch up and move to the saide of my hand where it does absolutely no good. Its not a huge deal. The other thing I don't like is that they are hard to remove. My third pair of gloves are made by Descente and they are my winter gloves. I find these gloves to be very versatile as they have gotten me through the last winter while wearing them in almost all conditions. They are warm and they fit well with a gauntlet style wrist. They also have an extra flap that you can fold over for extra finger protection from the wind. I have never been able to use this though as I feel when my full five finger gloves are turned in to basic mittens that I lose shifting and braking control. Other than that these gloves are great versatile winter gloves.

Thanks for reading,
Nick c

Gamjams Review: Bar Tape

In my realtively short time as a cyclist (two years) I have only use four different varieties of bar tape. One variety of this was made by cinelli and I'm not sure the model name, another two types I have used are made by fizik. These two types are both called mictotex but they are quite different in texture. On my training/crit/bad weather bike I have black fizik microtex tape that has sort of microfiber or suede feel which I like because it soaks up moisture and it more grippy. The other variety of fizik tape I have is also microtex as I mentioned earlier but it is kind of like microtex without the "tex" if you know what I mean. This tape is blue and on my race bike, and I'm not sure if I like it yet as I have been using mainly my other bike since it was installed. What I have noticed though is that this tape cracks easier and it doesn't really absorb any moisture which I'm sure will cause issues on hot summer rides. The fourth type of bar tape I have used came on my race bike when I bought it and it is the bontrager tape which I liked because it had a better vibration damping aspect than the fizik but when I started sweating holding the bars was like walking on ice. This tape was comparable in feel to the cinelli tape but one thing I liked better was that I found that if the bar end ever came out with the cinelli the tape would immediately unravel as there is no adhesive backing. Cinelli was probably my least favorite as it wasn't as cushioney(my word) as bontrager and didn't stay on. My ranking of the four tapes is black fizik(fluffy), bontrager, fizik(slippery), and then cinelli.