• Fox Sidewinder glove
• £30
• www.foxeurope.com

Fox’s Sidewinder is one of those staple products – the name’s been around for years and years (we had our first pair in around 1996), always attached to a lightweight, no-frills full-finger glove that’s generally just the ticket for all-round riding.

The 2007 edition is no exception. It’s clearly an evolution from the 2006 model, and thankfully Fox hasn’t fiddled with the fit. The most obvious change is to the palm, which now has a more prominent PU area on the palm, wrapping around to the outer wrist. This does double duty, providing a hint of unobtrusive padding on the grip and also beefing up a common impact zone in the event of an off.

A second layer of Clarino has also appeared on the rest of the palm, suitably shaped to avoid bunching. We initially feared that this would reduce feel, with the single-layer thinness of the old glove being one of our favourite features, but the extra thickness manages not to be intrusive.

On the back is a restyled embossed neoprene knuckle panel and a new Fox head logo in an easily-spotted location (break the marker pens out if you’re not into the branding thing…). There’s a Terry thumb for wiping whatever it is you like to wipe with your thumb, and the minimalist Velcro wrist closure is over the top of the glove.

Ups and downs

Positives: Simple, look good, comfy, durable

Negatives: At the top end of the price range

Verdict

In use the Sidewinders are comfy, not too hot, don’t come undone at inconvenient moments and generally do all that is asked of them. The price is at the upper end for this style of glove, but then we only chucked out that 1996 pair of Sidewinders a few months ago – if these are still around in 2018 then we expect we’ll have forgotten the price anyway.

Ratings

Performance: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 5/5