Cube Natural Fit Touch Gloves

Cube's Natural Fit range of gloves are designed to provide plenty of movement and dexterity while still offering full finger coverage for those early Spring mornings. You'll need to size up though if you've got long digits.

We've got the Touch version here which is designed with touch screen devices in mind. Considering many riders use their phones mid ride for Strava, taking pictures and the like it makes a lot of sense.

The material used for the palm and fingers feels like a sort of faux leather and it's this that works with the touchscreen so can use any part of the underside of the glove. It's thin but gives you plenty of feeling, ideal for navigating through menus or feedback from your brake levers.

While the screen of my Garmin and iPhone will work with my normal gloves it's a bit hap hazard, especially the phone. Using the Cube gloves it's much more precise and easy to do something with the screen while riding too.

The comfort is good with it barely feeling like you've got any gloves on at all, which I suppose kind of the aim with the Natural Fit moniker. The palm material of the finger extends over the top and finishes just below the nail so there are no seams at the finger ends.

This touchscreen compatible material is also very grippy especially when used on carbon brake levers in the wet. It has a sort of tackiness that sticks to the material.

The three sections of gel padding are positioned just where you need them, base of thumb, running below the fingers and the outer palm. It's about 4mm thick and firm too so it's supportive and decent at absorbing shock without being over the top. Riding a pretty harsh frame over rough roads didn't feel uncomfortable and stopped all of the big shocks passing up through my arms. This should make them good for cyclo-cross and general off-road riding too.

The back is ventilated with a soft, tight knit mesh and this works well from around 7°C to 15°C for regulating temperature between too hot and too cold.

You get a snot wipe on the back of the thumb which is always a must on any glove.

The Cube gloves seem to be a bit on the short side in the finger department. The main palm area fitted me spot on as did the cuff in both width and length but my decidedly stubby fingers reached right to the ends, not something that happens often to be honest. If you're a bit nifty on the piano you're definitely going to have to size up to get the length.

Thanks to some stretch in the material they are easy to get on and off when coupled with the cuff tab and a Velcro strap provides a close fit.

Overall the Natural Fit Touch gloves are well built, very comfortable and make using mobile devices very simple. The short fingers could be an issue for some but I think the biggest hurdle could be the price. £34.99 is pretty steep for the type of glove that is likely to be used for just a few months of the year, for pure roadies anyway.

Verdict

Pricey screen tappers but robust with plenty of comfort