We're moving from Charleston, SC to Astoria, OR this summer. I am in need of new riding gloves. I'm guessing that waterproof, lightly insulated (I have heated grips) gloves will suffice the majority of the year. I want to avoid buying gloves now, only to replace them in a few months time. Any opinions or advice would be much appreciated. My glove budget is up to $125. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum and to the Great Northwest. Side note: A Coastie friend introduced us to a great Coastie-friendly bar and grill near the North end of the bridge in Depoe Bay, central Oregon coast. Great place where the owner plays fun tunes by blowing on partially filled (with water) wine bottles. Fun place and owner. Great ride down there along the coast from Astoria. Thank you for your service, too. You guys do good work.

I suspect that any lightly insulated, leather glove with some waterproof treatment will suffice pretty well here, especially if you have hand guards on the bike like the 1000s do. More important is some type of two-layered shield on your helmet to help keep it from fogging. It's pretty damp here and fogging on a face shield is a big problem along the coast. At lease in my experience. One system is the "pinlock" system that seems to work pretty well.

I have heavy gloves and lighter insulated gloves and rarely use the thick ones because of the bulk. I don't have heated grips, but did recently purchase some electric gloves that I have not tried out yet. So my hads have gotten pretty cold in the past. You can get "bottoms" for your hand guards too which help keep the air off of your hands. I would think that with heated grips, any pretty normal riding glove will work well here. Low temps rarely get much below freezing. I do not ride in temps anywhere close to freezing because we get black ice and frost on the roads very readily with the humidity we have here in the winter.

I think you will love it here. We have thousands of retired military in the Northwest because of the beauty and climate. Bobby

Thanks for the support!
Coming from the Costal plains of SC, I'm looking forword to topography. There are a few fun roads here in the Low Country although it is often choked with traffic or oppressively hot. We're excited about our next five years.
Thanks for the solid response. The thought of a perpetually foggy shield wasn't even on my radar. I may need to add a visor to my shopping list.
Thanks again for the assist.
-Joe

I realize this is over your stated budget, but I just bought the Klim Element long gloves now on close out and discounted from $230 to $184 until gone. The element short gloves also on close out and closer to your budget at $136. The longs are over the cuff Gore Tex waterproof gloves. They fit well over my Badlands jacket. Just returned from a 225 mile ride today and the last hour was pouring rain. That sucked, but my hands remained dry. Actually, Badlands jacket, pants and new Sidi Adventure boots all kept me dry today. First real test and I'm happy with my new riding gear investment!

Klim Element Long Gloves - RevZilla

Klim Element Short Gloves - RevZilla


Good luck and welcome to the great Northwest!

Good buy here

FirstGear TPG Excursion Gloves - 2013 :: MotorcycleGear.com

I use regular leather work gloves for most of my riding and have an old pair of First Gear water proof, now water resistant gloves.
There are rubber over gloves that worked fine for me in the past.
I really can't see paying the mega bucks for some of the named gloves.
But, folks like to convince themselves, these are the Bees Knees!

Right. Back in high school I also wore non-protective, non-MC specific clothing for street riding, either because it didn't exist or I couldn't afford it (i.e. a ski jacket and snow gloves). Decades later and a couple of life-altering MC street crashes, I choose to invest in and wear what I consider the best MC specific gear I can afford. YMMV.

You'll need two sets of gloves, heavily insulated gauntlets and a pair of mesh gloves for those rare hot days. I ride to Lincoln City often and the coastal weather is cool and windy most of the time and of course wet. It's a rugged place but mighty beautiful.

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I gave up decades ago trying to keep my hands warm & dry with any glove. M hands sweat with gore-tex, & heated gloves are out of the question for me. During the winter season I use handle bar gauntlets (hippo hands). My hands stay dry & the control switches stay dry, too.

If you're planning to ride as a commuter year round as I do, I'll second Solo's recommendation of Hippo Hands for the cooler and wetter months. They work great with heated grips.

Welcome to the NW. You're gonna love the riding we have available here.