We’ve had a few customers come into the shop asking about these gloves. I’ve always had my eye on them but never really picked them up properly to have a good, long look and see what makes them so special. So I decided I’d have a sit down, take that good look, do a bit of research and see what I make of the Knox Handroid Motorcycle Gloves. And I have to admit that I’m impressed with them.
To me, Knox is a brand that is very similar to Rev’It in status. Their products typically have high price tags for what the product seems to be on the outside but when you dig deeper into the meat of that product and see what its made of and all the features they have- those price tags are usually justified. The Knox Handroids are no different, to anyone just looking at them on a shelf next to a bunch of other gloves, people may wonder why the Handroid MKIIIs are so expensive at £169.95. They may see it as your usual leather glove just with a bit more plastic protecting you in places. But there is more than meets the eye to these gloves.
The first thing anyone is going to notice about these gloves is obvious- its how they look like a pair of armoured gloves taken right out of science fiction. The different panels of leather combined with the areas of solid armour truly make this glove one of the most unique things I have ever seen and it’s really hard to not be tempted to buy them for that reason alone. The areas of armour on this glove, called the exoskeleton, provide protection to just about everywhere that I can think of. The flexible armour on the backs of the fingers and thumb are probably the most notable as they’re something I’ve never seen before on any glove. Those “spines” and the harder anchoring points down the fingers provide excellent slide protection in places that most gloves either overlook completely or provide a lesser degree of armour coverage.
The armour on the back of the hand appears to be nothing hugely special. Its a cool shape and is used to anchor three of the finger spines in place but armour on the back of the hand isn’t all that uncommon until you discover this glove is CE Approved protection. On top of that the back of the hand has a Knox Gel Metapod beneath the armour that keeps everything comfortable. The more I dig into this glove, the more science fiction-like it gets!
The glove really was designed to protect racers and people travelling at a more sporty speed. The gloves have sliders just about everywhere, a system designed to make sure that in the event of a slide, the sliders are taking most of the abrasion and as little of the leather makes contact with the ground as possible. The leather is still strong enough to save your skin but Knox have built a glove where, ideally, it won’t need to.
Speaking of leather, the gloves are made from Japanese race quality Aniline leather and are stitched together using high tenacity threading to ensure a tough glove as a platform for all that armour. But that’s not all the leather it has, the palm is made from Kangaroo leather and features an Amara grip pad with silicon printing to give you the best protection and control over your ride. The palm also has a Scaphoid Protection System that’s designed to reduce the risk of hyper-extension when leather on the palm makes contact with the road, helping to avoid a broken Scaphoid.
All of that protective technology in on pair of gloves is hard to believe, so you may be wondering how it all stays on your hand. The Boa closure system on the wrist is a small dial that allows the wearer to fine tune the fit of the glove to them. But there is a small downside to all of the features this glove is packing- many of the people who ask about this glove intend for it to fit underneath the sleeves of their jackets. It’s not really something I understand, though- it’s a race glove, designed to be worn with race gear such as race jackets that are naturally quite a snug fit with aerodynamic sleeves. So getting the bulk of the cuff of these gloves underneath the sleeves is going to be a tough feat to achieve. Its certainly doable if you want to wear these gloves with a good touring jacket that has a wide aperture cuff on the sleeve but for you who what to try to fit them under a tighter sleeve I suggest trying an alternative.
That alternative is the Knox Handroid Pod Motorcycle Gloves. At £149.95 they offer almost the exact same level of protection but they don’t feature the bulky cuffs. They’re a bit of a shorter cut and they should fit under sleeves but the Boa Dial closure may still cause a bit of an obstruction. So while I say the Handroid MKIII will definitely not fit under sleeves, I would suggest giving the Handroid Pods a try before committing to them.
I’d better stop myself here, I could go on and on about my opinion of these gloves but the features all over them speak for themselves. They’re some of the most advanced gloves with the best protective technology you can get. For £169.95 for the MKIIIs and £149.95 for the Pods its well worth it knowing your hands are covered by the best gloves out there.
Thanks for reading everybody! Until next time!
-MattW at Ghostbikes.com
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