Crash Tested: Alpinestars GP Pro Motorcycle Gloves
When you’re buying motorcycle gear and reading the reviews about how well the material performs during impact and abrasion testing, you quietly hope that you never have to find out if the product lives up to the promise, but unfortunately that’s not always the case. Sometimes, you get to put it to the test and see if the marketing team at your favorite gear brand is actually telling the truth.
Lets break down what made me choose the Alpinestars GP Pro Gloves over the rest of the competition before we get into how they performed.
First off, I loved how they look. With plenty of color options and the unique design on the fingers, I was pretty sold on this pair of gloves as long as the they were protective (at least on paper). The other thing I loved about them is the DFS cuff system that aids in ulnar protection during a crash…and looks pretty damn cool, too. With plenty of technology taken straight from the top echelons of racing, the GP Pro packs a ton of protection into the construction. Cow, goat, and kangaroo leather are featured around the gloves to ensure the highest level of protection without compromising tactile feedback. The hard knuckle area and added sliders to the palms and tops of the fingers help to prevent your hands from catching on the asphalt, and the perforation and stretch paneling all seemed to be well enough to keep me relatively cool during hot weather riding, but not enough that I felt it would impede on the protective quality of the GP Pro. They also have a key feature that I look for in every glove; a pinky bridge. If you aren’t aware, pinky bridges help keep your digit from dislocating and bending back in the event of a low-side, and should be a staple of any glove you think about wearing.
If you want a quick bullet list of features the Alpinestars GP Pro offers, here’s a summary from Revzilla’s website:
Mix of cow and goat leather with kangaroo leather on the palm
Outer seam palm construction
Long cuff
Hard knuckle
Knuckle panel perforated gusset for better ventilation
Print on finger
Finger bridge
Double closure system with Cuff DFS protection
Side reinforcements with palm hard slider
Accordion panels in leather on fingers thumb and backhand to increase fit and direct comfort
Thumb and palm reinforcement for a superior grip
TPU finger protection
Soft padding protection on finger tips
Ergonomic stretch insert on palm
CE certified CAT II Level 2
Let’s get to the crash testing part!
After hitting a patch of gravel mid turn I took a pretty fast dive towards the asphalt. If it wasn’t for these gloves, I’m not sure I’d have a lot of skin left on parts of my hands, and I sincerely think I would have broken a number of bones in them as well. The pinky bridge took some damage from the harsh low-side crash, but my pinky wasn’t sore at all. It makes me think the bridge and extra lateral material reinforcements did their job exceptionally well.
You can see that the seam busted on the knuckle of my left ring finger, resulting in some abrasions on the skin underneath it. Unfortunately, busted seams aren’t an uncommon occurrence for Alpinestars gloves. I’ve worn Alpinestars for most of my decade plus of riding, with the exception of a couple Dainese gloves thrown in the mix, and this isn't the first instance of seams displaying as a weak point. Overall, the glove performed exceedingly well and kept my hands safe and able to type this article, which is all that matters in the end.
You can see for yourself how well the sliders, mix of leather, and strategically placed reinforcements on the palm took the brunt of the force and sliding, and handled it exceedingly well.
If you’re in the market for gloves and you’re serious about protection, I would keep a pair of Alpinestars GP Pro Gloves on the short list of considerations, but ultimately it should come down to what fits your hand best. Gear manufactures try to make things fit a general hand, but each develop a distinct fitment over time that they become known for, and I’d say the GP Pro is a classic Alpinestars fit - a bit narrow and with longer fingers.
So now I have an added piece of gear I can add to the crashed shelf until I find someone that may be able to fix the knuckle seam. In the meantime, I picked up another pair of GP Pro gloves, as well as a pair of Alpinestars Morph gloves…but let’s hope I don’t ever have to crash test those.
Until next time!
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