Race Face Agent winter gloves review

Race Face Agent gloves add useful features to a well-proven recipe but are they tough enough?

Race Face Agent
(Image: © Guy Kesteven)

Bike Perfect Verdict

Versatile all-weather gloves which offer a controlled hand to handlebar connection

Pros

  • +

    Excellent palm grip

  • +

    Decent weatherproofing

  • +

    Accurate pre-curved fit

  • +

    Snot wipe and smart finger

Cons

  • -

    Slightly expensive

  • -

    Smart tabs can rip

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Neoprene-style softshell gloves are becoming the dominant solution to variable weather winter riding for good reason and that’s the direction Race Face has gone with the comfortable, versatile Agent glove. The palm grip is excellent too, but ‘smart’ durability potentially lets them down.

The Agents use a reasonably thick DWR (Durable Water Repellent) treated neoprene with a Terry toweling backing for extra warmth and to spread out the sweat for faster drying. Two more pieces of the same material make up the sculpted wrist-hugging cuff with Velcro tightening tab and rubber plug for easy pulling on. The hem is lycra bound and the pre-curved fingers have lycra sides for stretch and mobility despite quite a stiff feel. 

As well as the back shrugging off showers and keeping you cozy well down into single figures, the synthetic suede palm and fingers are completely covered in a silicone gripper print for excellent grip and control feedback however wet they get. There’s a Terry toweling snot wipe on the thumbs which also gets a reinforcing patch across their base. There’s a metalled smart touch panel on each index fingertip as well but that tore on one glove early in the test schedule which was a shame. Durability has been good otherwise though.

Verdict

Slightly expensive but a versatile, comfortable all-weather glove with a particularly good grip. Smart too as long as the tip tabs last.

Tech Specs: Race Face Agent winter gloves

  • Price: $35.99 / £36.95
  • Colors: Black
  • Sizes: S-XL
Guy Kesteven
Technical-Editor-at-Large

Guy Kesteven has been working on Bike Perfect since its launch in 2019. He started writing and testing for bike mags in 1996. Since then he’s written several million words about several thousand test bikes and a ridiculous amount of riding gear. He’s also penned a handful of bike-related books and he reviews MTBs over on YouTube.

Current rides: Cervelo ZFS-5, Specialized Chisel, custom Nicolai enduro tandem, Landescape/Swallow custom gravel tandem

Height: 180cm

Weight: 69kg