100% Brisker Hydromatic Gloves review: Proper winter gloves on a budget?

Good review, thanks. Though washing merino and anything else together… are you insane? 😉 In fact even washing it all? Mine gets its annual wash right about now. 20deg, hand wash cycle, drip dry: done for another 12 months.

I have some of these – worst gloves I own by a decent margin. In my experience they wet out extremely quickly in any sort of actual rain and rapidly become a heavy sponge (minutes) due to the amount of material in them. The cuffs are too short and not well elasticated so they allow cold and / or water in – I constantly want to try and drag the cuffs of my jacket down to cover them. Finally – if you do actually get wet hands (and you will) then take them off, you can forget putting them back on. Avoid IMO. They have been relegated to my emergecy ‘oh shit I have nothing left’ glove (raynaud’s sufferer, lots of glove experience).

Mine have been decent, still use them as a winter glove. The lining became detached from the fingers though which I absolutely loathe though. They were a pain to get on when cold & wet at the best of times, now impossible..

Couldn’t understand mine, bought the largest ones available for layering underneath but still quite tight. On maybe the first cold day of the year last year went out in them and ended up with painfully cold hands, almost felt better without the gloves on, baffling. My only theory was that maybe they weren’t very breathable which meant my hands ended up damp from sweat and then got chilled. Hasn’t happened with ancient waterproof Alturas though or more recent waterproof Galibers

I love my standard Brisker gloves, the pair I am using I have worn through late Autumn into early Spring for the last 3 seasons, mountain biking and ski touring. No significant signs of wear, stitching holding up. Lasted longer than any other make of glove. Fantastic value for money.

See also winter gloves from decathlon, planet X….

£37 for gloves s not “on a budget”, it’s distinctly mid range at best….

Do you wear your £5 Aldi gloves while riding a carbon Santa Cruz, or are you rocking a 20 year old entry-level GT on the trails? I understand the need to do things on a budget, but IME my enjoyment of riding is improved way more £ for £ with clothing than bike bits.

My Brisker gloves are fantastic – I love the normal ones for Spring / Autumn and the hydromatic ones (NB: despite the similar name they’re a totally different glove) for when it gets a bit colder. It’s true that the Hydromatic ones aren’t the absolute warmest gloves I own, but they’re MUCH thinner in the palms than my Fox winter gloves so I will wear them in all but the absolute worst weather. Both Hydromatic and non- pairs have held up really well for me including loads of MTB and regular commuting (I wear one or other pair daily from ~Sept through April). I honestly can’t recommend them highly enough – especially for people like me who can’t stand thick palms affecting grip on the bars.

And no, I wasn’t paid for my glowing review. But if 100% are reading this, I am not morally against being given free kit to review 😀

You could almost get three of the below for the price of those briskers

Zenith 4 Seasons DWR Gloves – Dark Olive

One significant advantage of almost any “branded” glove over the Lidl and Aldi budget option is that they are available whenever you want to buy them. Unless Aldi supply STW with a pair of gloves ahead of the one-week window they are available in no reader will benefit. The other option is STW buy them, review them and then next year you have to hope you can get a pair if they happened to be any good and havent changed.

FWIW I have some hydromatics and I’d say they were snug fitting personally.

I like mine, they have good feel through the palms, however, they’re not actually that warm, smart phones can’t be used with them, and as with most 100% gear I’ve used, the time before the product falls apart is great, it’s just a very short timeframe.