While not perfect, the Klim Induction gloves offer a winning combination of protective features, comfort and feel and hot weather ventilation.
This combination does come at a price, but still provides good value for the money spent.
Compromises. Most hot weather or “Summer” motorcycle riding gear will be a study in compromises. Motorcycle gloves are, of course, no exception.
A summer riding glove needs to offer protection while providing good feel and at the same time offering good ventilation to mitigate the summer heat.
It is easy to design a glove that excels in any one or two of the aspects; unusual to nail them all.
You can find well vented gloves with good feel, for instance, but these will likely not offer great protective features.
Recently Bill C. and “Burn” put together a review of three summer gloves that offer differing degrees of balance between protection and ventilation.
Unfortunately, all of those gloves were missing a feature that is key for many of us webBikeWorld reviewers: a wrist strap that secures the glove to the hand.
Still, these gloves demonstrated the different takes on the compromises that are usually made designing a summer-weight motorcycle glove.
But it seems like there should be a way to get all three of these important aspects to combine in one piece of gear, and it turns out there is.
Klim (pronounced “climb”) may have one of the best formulas for summer gloves in their lineup.
It’s been a while since webBikeWorld has reviewed any of the gear from Klim and since that time (2011), Klim was acquired in 2012 by Polaris Industries.
Though their motorcycle gear is still focused squarely on the off-road/adventure riding market, some of their gear easily crosses over into the regular street rider zone.
This time, we’re looking at a pair of Klim summer-weight gloves that would be at home on any riding surface when the weather is hot.
The Klim Induction Gloves
The Induction gloves from Klim at first glance look like the typical mid-weight summer / hot weather motorcycle riding glove.
The pair reviewed here are in black (white is also available) and this helps reduce the visibility of the details that make up the Induction gloves, of which there are many.
This pair is the Klim Induction Gloves “Long”. There is also a short version with the same features and build, but without the long gauntlet and fastening.
There is a long list of materials that make up these gloves: 1000-denier mesh fabric, carbon fiber, perforated leather, Pittards leather, Poron foam, and more.
Bringing all of these together in a motorcycle glove requires quite a bit of stitching, and this can be seen concentrated in the palm. The stitching itself is very tight and even and is doubled in high impact zones — and then some.
The stitching has held up very well over the last several months of frequent use. The fact that visible wear is quite minimal is a testament to how well the many pieces of these gloves have been put together.
Unlike many summer weight gloves, the Induction gloves have a proper gauntlet as well as a separate wrist strap closure.
On the anterior facing side of the gauntlet is a large yellow “K” (for Klim) and the full logo is embroidered on the pinky finger of each glove.
Small repeating versions of the Klim logo are also screened onto the welts at the gauntlet and around the edge of the gauntlet strap.
The tops of the first three fingers on each glove each have two small, but very effective, reflective Scotchlite reflective panels. Another panel of Scotchlite is also placed on the gauntlet strap.
Construction
As mentioned above, the Induction gloves are made from quite a laundry list of materials.
Starting with the back of the hand and wrist is an open weave mesh panel (two actually), made from 1000-denier nylon mesh. This mesh has a rough texture but feels very tough.
Despite the mesh having an open weave, not a lot of air flows through this are directly to the skin. This is due to a soft and thin moisture-wicking layer of fabric that runs from the end of the gauntlet all the way up under the carbon fiber knuckle protector.
This is complemented by a different and slightly softer liner that runs on the underside of the wrist and up through the palm area.
Close inspection of the mesh area will also reveal another “K” logo sandwiched between the mesh and the liner underneath. While a nice touch for branding, it might have been more effective to leave this subtle logo out as it could have allowed more air to flow towards the moisture wicking layer.
Staying at the back or wrist area of the glove, perforated leather covers 30% of the material making up the gauntlet. A portion of this leather bisects the mesh panel providing a good spot for the two panels to flex for comfort on the back of the wrist.
The main gauntlet closure is provided by a flap of perforated leather with the hook side of hook and loop fastener underneath.
Further up the wrist is a wrist strap of leather with the same type of hook and loop closure.
On the back of the hand between the mesh and the carbon fiber knuckle protector is a section of accordion stretch panel. A smaller section of stretch panel is present at the base of the knuckles of the first two fingers.
Perforated leather extends up on the top side of the thumb and between each of the glove’s fingers, at their base, is what Klim calls “micro-fine” mesh to encourage airflow.
All of this adds up to quite a complex piece of apparel but one that at the same time feels very solidly constructed.
Protective Features
For a summer weight glove, the Induction gloves offer generous protection which I feel is suitable for commuting and touring / sport-touring styles of riding.
The carbon fiber knuckle protector is the most noticeable, but is only the start.
Underneath that protector is a layer of Poron XRD foam padding. At about 1/8th of an inch thick, it should provide additional impact protection in addition to adding comfort.
This same foam padding is present at the heel of the palm as well on the outer wrist of gauntlet.
The palm is constructed using Pittards Armortan leather. This is a ceramic reinforced leather that is claimed to offer more abrasion resistance than regular leather.
There is also an additional layer of leather at the base of the thumb with some internal padding for more impact and abrasion resistance.
Finally, although not strictly a protective feature, the side of the index finger on the left glove includes a visor wiping “blade” in the form of a rubber squeegee.
I think this is a great feature that is often missing from summer weight gloves. It seems there are plenty of waterproof / insulated gloves that include a visor wipe but the designers at Klim understand that it can rain when it’s hot outside too.
I have actually had several occasions this year to use this wiper and it has proven quite useful.
Liner, Fit and Comfort
Normally I wear size medium gloves in several brands, including Joe Rocket and Alpinestars. In the case of Klim, their gloves fit a little smaller for me but they are actually accurate in sizing according to their sizing chart.
According to their sizing chart, I run right at the point between medium and large at 9 inches (23 cm). Normally I prefer gloves that fit closely, but the size medium gloves run a bit too small for me.
Surprisingly, the size large fits very comfortably without being too loose, so I’d say they run almost a half-size smaller than expected compared to some other major brands.
The Induction gloves are comfortable, offer good feel, and are very flexible right out of the package.
Some of the flexibility is no doubt due to the nature of the perforated sections of leather which obviously will flex more easily than solid leather.
The interior of the gloves are a very comfortable and despite the very busy nature of the many seams constructing the palm, they are not really noticeable. Part of the reason is certain pattern in which the seams are cut below the fingers and to the side of the thumb.
These seams let the leather fold without pinching or bunching.
Ventilation
From a protective and comfort standpoint, the Klim Induction gloves are very good for street riding, but how do they fare in the heat of summer here in the Southeast United States?
Very good and only missing an “excellent” rating by not allowing more air to flow in the mesh areas.
The top panel of the finger boxes are all perforated with one side also perforated except for the index finger. The thumb is also perforated on the top side only.
These perforations combined with the “micro-mesh” material at the base between the fingers provides excellent airflow.
Tricks like trying to stretch your fingers to get some air to flow in are not necessary with the Induction gloves, as it is with many gloves that have only a few “perfs” on the sides of the finger boxes.
On the back of the hand, the mesh would appear to allow air to flow even more than on the fingers, but the lining and logo underneath the mesh reduce this dramatically.
It’s not a complete loss though, as the moisture-wicking lining underneath the mesh allows sweat to be drawn up and then evaporate quickly as it comes up under the mesh.
It’s not as dramatic as feeling air swirl around your fingers, but I can definitely tell that it is working. Still, I would have preferred to have more air flow in this area and lose the “K” logo under the mesh…
Conclusion
The Klim Induction gloves are not perfect, but they rate above average on the three major points I consider important in a summer glove.
While not as protective as a dedicated racing glove, they offer very good levels of impact and abrasion resistant features.
They also provide very good levels of comfort and feel through the use of quality leather and a well thought out pattern design of the leather panels in the construction.
On the point of ventilation, very few gloves — short of the “all mesh” type — likely offer significantly more air flow than the Induction gloves to help beat the heat of summer.
Add in the quality of construction and the extra touches like the visor wiper — and even a small set of clips in the gauntlets for attaching them together — and the Induction gloves are hard to beat in the hot weather glove category.
There is one factor that I haven’t mentioned yet and that is the price.
The Induction Gloves have a list price of $159.99, so these are not going to fall in the “budget” category. However, even at that price, I still consider them a good value, if not a bargain.
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From “D.G.” (July 2015): “Compared to the Klim Induction (Gloves), the RS-Taichi 410 gloves have similar protection, better ventilation, and are almost half the price.”