# No Glove....No Bicycle Love?



## Jesse McCauley (Feb 19, 2022)

Typing a little slower this evening but I'll get through it - 

I want to ask you guys what glove(s) you wear for your bicycle work? 

For years I have been washing my hands 20x a day and never really getting clean, countless scraped knuckles, cuts etc etc etc. 

This past week I experienced the first "debilitating" consequence of this gloveless habit I have nurtured. 
It started mid week with what felt like a splinter-like pain in my thumb but for the life of me I couldn't see anything there. 
Over the course of a few days of "powering through" my left-hand thumb had become badly infected and was spreading unfortunately. 

I spent most of yesterday dealing with doctors and it is slowly improving with their advice and I appreciate it but now I need to think about tomorrow. 

What kind of gloves to do you use? I have and have had so many styles of glove all with their own drawbacks. 
Oil reacts very badly to most synthetic gloves, leather gloves offer me no digit mobility. 

Any suggestions? Thanks guys, happy tinkering.


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## GTs58 (Feb 19, 2022)

I use nitrile gloves at work even though I'm like you and personally don't like wearing gloves. But when I do, I use a good quality nitrile I believe the Boss gets at Costco. Every once in a while I do a machine refurb tearing it down to every nut and bolt and these machines are disgustingly dirty, greasy and a total neglected mess, so gloves are always worn during the tear down and cleaning, not so much when the reassembly starts.  









						Park Tool MG-2 Nitrile Mechanic's Gloves - Package of 100 | REI Co-op
					

Keep your hands free of grime, chemicals and solvents with the Park Tool MG-2 Nitrile Mechanic's gloves. An updated heavy-duty material resists snags and can be reused multiple times.




					www.rei.com


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## raidingclosets (Feb 19, 2022)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JFN9UE/
		

These are my favorite, about the thickness of a balloon so fairly durable and with some texture on the fingers.  Best part to me is if you snag them on something it’ll tear a small piece out but won’t totally shred the glove like most of the others I’ve tried.  Solvents do weaken them and make them swell a little, but you can use gritty hand cleaners on them to wash off motor oil/grease and reuse them.


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## pedal4416 (Feb 19, 2022)

I use the Venom Steel black nitrile gloves from Lowes and Walmart. I have smaller hands and if its not too hot out I can slip em off and re-use them.


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## New Mexico Brant (Feb 20, 2022)

pedal4416 said:


> I use the Venom Steel black nitrile gloves from Lowes and Walmart. I have smaller hands and if its not too hot out I can slip em off and re-use them.
> 
> View attachment 1573377



The black venoms are great gloves.  I haven't tried the Park tool brand.


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## coasterbrakejunkie1969 (Feb 20, 2022)

I have had very good luck with the nitril gloves from harbor freight. They are quite heavy duty but not so much you lose touch. They are a decent price and while other places had no gloves last year they always seemed to have them. The large fits my hand perfectly. I noticed that Hdeephole(Home depot) used to carry the grease monkey black nitril. Great gloves ,good price ,nice fit, different sizes. Sounds like a great product for consumers I'm sure that is why they discontinued them and brought in a bunch of C-r-a-p


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## dasberger (Feb 20, 2022)

Love these for just about anything...  Have some disposable nitrile for the messiest work.  They last a really long time and once broken in have great dexterity









						FIRM GRIP Large Nitrile Coated Work Gloves (10 Pack) 5510-16 - The Home Depot
					

Nitrile coated gloves offer superior performance in a variety of applications and across a broad range of industries. They are lightweight, offer great dexterity and fit snug like a second skin. The nitrile



					www.homedepot.com


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## sm2501 (Feb 20, 2022)

I like Park gloves the best, as did my mechanics at the shop.


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## J-wagon (Feb 20, 2022)

dasberger said:


> Love these for just about anything... Have some disposable nitrile for the messiest work. They last a really long time and once broken in have great dexterity
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I second that. I use gloves daily for past 2 years. Good grip, protection, and durability. With double glove using poly food handling gloves. In the beginning I used skin tight nitrile but got too expensive for my budget. So switched to home depot nitrile coated much more durable and double glove for extra skin protection. I even reuse the poly gloves. If they get wet I let them air dry. When nitrile coated gets too greasy oily, I mist spray and wipe with simple green diluted.


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## Andrew Gorman (Feb 20, 2022)

MaxiFlex gloves work pretty well out of the box, and are stretchy enough and come in enough sizes to to fit most hands.  Try them on for size at the store. If the gloves don't fit, you aren't going to use them.  You may have to go to a construction supply store like White cap to find them, and take the time to find a pair that are comfortable and you can work in.  I spent years using oversize White Mule  "work" gloves that were a total PITA.




__





						MaxiFlex® | ATG® Intelligent Glove Solutions
					

Precision Handling™ in dry environments




					www.atg-glovesolutions.com


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## razinhellcustomz (Feb 26, 2022)

Jesse McCauley said:


> Typing a little slower this evening but I'll get through it -
> 
> I want to ask you guys what glove(s) you wear for your bicycle work?
> 
> ...



Well for the most part , being i was an Army mechanic for over 21+ years we never had to use gloves so i guess this doesn't help much. But i guess if i had to use any thing Nitrile and the rubber lined gloves when i worked at Ariens pretty much sucked the bag, so i'm  like you and go COMMANDO... Good luck... Wrench Onn... Razin..


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## Dbike (Mar 8, 2022)

I use the examination gloves which doctors use. Very thin. A lot easier than trying to get grease and oil off my hands!


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## SirMike1983 (Mar 9, 2022)

I keep three types of gloves in the shop: all-purpose cleaning gloves, heavy-duty paint stripping gloves, and gripper/work gloves.

For very fine dexterity work, I don't wear gloves. Sometimes you have to clean a small screw or work with parts that require fine manipulation where gloves get in the way. I do the work and wash up as needed afterward.

For general cleaning of parts where dexterity is not an issue, I use cleaning/kitchen type rubber gloves. It isn't the end of the world if you get some WD-40 or Evaporust or weak Oxaxlic Acid on your hands. But it's nice not to have to wash off all the oil, or deal with residue on the hands.

For work with more caustic chemicals,  I use heavy-duty paint stripping type gloves. This is the big one. If you get a substance on your hands and you quickly begin to feel it burning or blistering, you need gloves. The chemicals I can think of here are paint stripper, Naval Jelly, brake cleaner, oven cleaner, etc.

Then there are the gripper/workman's gloves. I use these when I'm working with the Dremel brush or wire wheel and I need something to grip the part, and I don't want the wire wheel biting into my hand. It's tempting to cut corners and just take the part over to the bench grinder and start on it with the wire wheel, but if there is any doubt about working with the part, take the time to put on gloves. The wire wheel can very quickly chew up your finger tips.


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## mike j (Mar 9, 2022)

These are, hands down, my all time favorites. Sorry for the bad photo. A case just arrived today, they were tough to get during the height of covid. Fit really nice, I can do most things with them, fairly chemical resistant. I trick that I use when gloves aren't readily available is slather my hands w/ liquid hand soap, rub it in good, let dry, work, then rinse after. Gets rid of a good amount of the gook.


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## Barnegatbicycles (Mar 9, 2022)

I use callused hands. Esp at work because no matter what gloves I have they are getting destroyed. 

However, if I'm using chemicals i use dish gloves. I've had the same cheapish set for over 5 years and I like them because you can reuse them instead of going through a bunch. Also when using steel wool they dont just get torn up in 5 seconds and you end up with a metal splinter anyway. 

Just be sure to still wipe your hands. I had a guy work with me that always wore gloves his hands were clean but everything else was nasty, Esp tools. I guess when you can't feel the grease you don't have a constant want to wipe your hands.


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## Rivnut (Mar 10, 2022)

coasterbrakejunkie1969 said:


> I have had very good luck with the nitril gloves from harbor freight. They are quite heavy duty but not so much you lose touch. They are a decent price and while other places had no gloves last year they always seemed to have them. The large fits my hand perfectly. I noticed that Hdeephole(Home depot) used to carry the grease monkey black nitril. Great gloves ,good price ,nice fit, different sizes. Sounds like a great product for consumers I'm sure that is why they discontinued them and brought in a bunch of C-r-a-p



I use the Harbor Freight mitral gloves as well. The blue 7mm ones on the bikes and the black 9mm ones on the cars.  I’ve not tried picking up a dime with them but you do get a nice feel with them, especially for the small nuts and washers.  Prices have come back down since Covid-19 has been de-escalating.


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## OldSkipTooth (Mar 11, 2022)




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