AGV Sport Telluride Gloves Review

The AGV Sport Telluride gloves are made for cool or cold weather riding.

3M Thinsulate insulation and a Hipora water- and wind-proof liner takes care of that.

Leather construction adds protection and Schoeller Keprotec textiles are incorporated into the external shell.

Clarino synthetic leather adds protection to the palms and outside of the thumbs.

Clear plastic-coated metal mesh knuckle protectors help with finger and base knuckle protection.

And guess what? The Telluride gloves are actually waterproof — they passed the webBikeWorld “Bucket Test”!

All that for just $64.00. But, but… You knew there’d be a catch, right?

There’s no secondary wrist strap. That’s a real shame, because with it, the Telluride gloves would be the motorcycle glove bargain of the year.

It’s probably a little late to be reviewing winter motorcycle gloves, but the month of May has so far been a total bust here on the East Coast of the U.S.A.

Nearly every day brings more rain, a threat of rain, clouds, mist and unusually cool weather.

Just what the AGV Sport Telluride gloves are designed to conquer!

AGV Sport Telluride Gloves

Motonation, the U.S. distributor for AGV Sport, said that the Telluride gloves are their “best selling Touring gloves” and I can believe it.

These gloves definitely “punch above their weight”, with just about every feature you need in a motorcycle glove except one. If only they had that all-important secondary wrist strap or some feature to secure the glove on your wrist.

That is a must for motorcycle gloves and we’re kind of phobic about it because local motorcyclists all know the story of a well-known rider who hit a deer once at speed, went down, had a glove come flying off and ground his hand down to…well, you don’t want to know the rest, believe me.

So the absence of any type of wrist strap is the bad news, although there is a fairly strong piece of elastic sewn into the underside of the wrist. Other than that issue, the rest of the story is all good.

Especially the price — at 64 bucks, the AGV Sport Telluride gloves are dirt cheap. You just don’t get this many features for that price very often. As in, never?

The outer shell is a very nice, silky-soft cowhide leather, stitched with mostly double rows of “high tensile strength nylon thread”, according to Motonation.

Rarely is the all-important thread textile described, so this is at least a good sign.

There’s a Schoeller Keprotec insert in the package but nothing to indicate where the Swiss headquartered company’s textile is actually used. It appears, however, that it’s found in the upper and lower halves of the gauntlet.

Seams along the outside and around the fingers are stitched using hidden or blind stitching, another nice feature that keeps the stitches protected from abrasion.

The palms have a big swath of Clarino synthetic leather that feels like suede. More of the stuff lines the thumb on the inside and out.

There are 5 clear plastic covered mesh knuckle protectors over the outer three fingers and a large “floating” main knuckle protector uses the same type of construction.

Overall, the Telluride gloves are very comfortable, albeit a bit bulky, as non-heated winter motorcycle gloves tend to be.

That thick Thinsulate insulation also keeps the gloves very comfortable, although it sort of deadens the feel for the controls. But that’s to be expected with winter motorcycle gloves.

The AGV Sport Telluride gloves remind me a lot of the AGV Sport Willow gloves I reviewed back in 2011. The Willow gloves were yet another AGV Sport bargain — very nice sport/track day gloves at a very reasonable price.

The leather type, overall construction, stitching and design of the Telluride gloves is reminiscent of the Willow gloves and that says something for the DNA of the former.

You don’t often get “racing” type protection in winter motorcycle gloves but the Telluride gloves have it. Now if only they had included the neat wrist strap found on the Willow gloves…

The leather used in both gloves looks and feels similar. It has very fine pores, again unusual for gloves with a price this low. Usually, you find the skin from old cows with pores big enough to shine a light through.

I’m being facetious, of course, but the leather on the Telluride gloves is very nice and buttery-smooth.

The double rows of stitching holding the sections together also follows the pattern set on the Willow gloves, as does the “floating” main knuckle protector and even the clear plastic covered mesh knuckle protectors.

Lining and Insulation

The lining of the Telluride gloves is a typical soft micro-fleece type. There are no seams or stitching to chafe the hands and the barrier of Thinsulate over the liner and between it and the leather makes the gloves feel very comfortable.

Again, these are winter gloves, so the Thinsulate and Hipora breathable barrier, combined with the leather and extra leather panels on the exterior of the gloves makes these feel kind of thick, typical for non-heated cool/cold weather motorcycle gloves.

I found the insulation and the windproof-ness of the Hipora liner to work fine in cold weather — at least in weather as cold as I care to ride in.

I’ve read some owner reviews for the Telluride gloves however where owners complain that the gloves aren’t warm enough.

But it seems to me that if you’re riding in temperatures cold enough that the Telluride gloves don’t do the trick, then maybe it’s time for something like the battery-powered Warmthru heated gloves (review), which are toasty warm (and nearly hot).

Or, check out the rest of the webBikeWorld heated motorcycle glove and clothing reviews.

This pair is size large and they fit as expected for insulated winter gloves of that size. The fingers and thumb are nicely proportioned and the square “two walls, floor and ceiling” fingertip construction yields plenty of room for the digits.

They even give you enough room in the fingertips to account for the added bulk of the Thinsulate and Hipora liners, unlike some winter gloves that are made to size externally but then end up being too small after the liners are inserted.

There’s enough room to account for gripping the throttle and handlebar without jamming the fingertips, an indication that the design was carefully considered.

The soft leather and floating main knuckle protector add some nice flexibility also, so the bottom line here is that the Telluride gloves — at least in size large — are nicely proportioned, comfortable and they fit exactly as expected.

The gloves are available in a size range of S to 2XL and we’ll have to assume that all of the sizes run true, but we don’t know for certain since this size large is the only example we have tried.

Protection

As I mentioned, the Telluride gloves borrowed a lot from the now-discontinued AGV Sport Willow race gloves. For example, the large main knuckle protector is a thick, clear plastic molding with an embedded metal screen.

It looks sort of like the mesh used on a screen door and the clear gloss coating is probably something like a clear polyurethane.

The protector is nice and big and it’s nicely double-stitched on a separate leather section that “floats” over the main knuckles. Underneath is some soft foam and a lining, which adds to the comfort. I don’t feel the knuckle protector at all, which is good.

By the way, even a small leather section that continues up under the knuckle protector from the outer wrist section of the gloves is double-stitched, another nice touch.

That outer section has a large piece of foam padding sewn underneath to provide some impact protection.

The inner part of the wrist is protected by the textile fabric that I assume is the Schoeller Keprotec, but I’m not sure because there’s nothing to indicate where the Schoeller fabric is used in the gloves.

There is one knuckle protector over the middle knuckle of the outer (“pinky”) finger; two protectors over both finger knuckles of the third finger and another over the middle knuckle of the second finger.

A series of leather strips cover the rest of the fingers and all of those are double-stitched.

The thumb gets a piece of the Clarino synthetic leather sewn over the outer portion to protect the knuckles and this is double-stitched on the outside and has a blind stitch on the inside.

Another piece of foam is sewn under the leather on the heel of the hand for abrasion protection, so the Telluride gloves have very good overall protection from impacts and abrasion.

And finally, the gauntlet is large enough to fit over a winter motorcycle jacket and it secures with a large leather flap with hook-and-loop fastener underneath.

Ventilation

There is no ventilation in the Telluride gloves and this is to be expected, as the water- and wind-proof Hipora liner wouldn’t be effective with ventilation holes inserted.

The liner does a pretty good job of holding moisture and it hasn’t turned inside-out when I remove the gloves from sweaty hands.

Reflectivity

Besides all of the other nice features, the Telluride gloves have a large reflective section sewn over the fabric located at the rear of the main knuckle protector. Also, the AGV Sport logo is made with reflective fabric and attached to the outside of the gauntlet strap.

Conclusion

The AGV Sport Telluride gloves are an all-out bargain at a list price of $64.00. Nothing has been shortchanged here and the only shortcoming is the missing secondary wrist strap.

Otherwise, we are very surprised at the overall construction quality and the combination of features in the Telluride gloves.

And the fact that these (ours, at least) are actually waterproof as claimed is another big surprise. Many gloves claim to be waterproof but don’t pass the webBikeWorld “Bucket Test”.

For $64.00, everyone can afford to have a pair of these on hand (pun!) for cold and wet riding, winter or summer.

Owner Comments and Feedback

From “B.P.” (May 2016): “You guys may have reviewed this glove under the Competition Accessories Sliders Cold Pro (review) moniker. Seems very similar maybe except for Kevlar content.”

Editor’s Reply: Wow, good catch! I had no idea, I didn’t remember those from 2013.

From “K.H.” (May 2016): “Nice gloves, glad you posted the review. AGV Sport continues to deliver quality at a reasonable price.

I agree that a wrist strap would be nice, particularly since the looser-fitting 3-season gloves are much easier to pull off.

With all of that careful stitching, they should have wrapped an extra layer of leather around the outside of the pinky finger. If it’s done right, the finger doesn’t lose much mobility as a result. That price is a steal. Add glove liners and ride in all four seasons!”