Five Stunt Evo review: tested at 0 to 500 km
5.8.2020
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
Five Gloves claim to make the best gloves for bikers. And that’s not just marketing speak. Five are refreshingly no-frills when it comes to communication.
Gloves are important. Particularly if you ride a motorbike. Gloves aren’t just for protecting your hands against the cold, heat and the weather but also for giving you the grip and sensitivity you need. With the Stunt Evo, Five have come up with a glove that claims to not only comply with all safety regulations, but also to offer exceptional comfort.
Our craft: we are glove specialists.
A word about the biker scene's love of detail: when it comes to their equipment, details are crucial. Safety, comfort and your physique. Anything can be crucial when it comes to riding the streets safely. No matter how much of a laid-back mood I’m in when I’m out riding my Harley, I can always be sure that my equipment works and provides me with the highest level of safety. And that’s because I’ve done all the prep work before I kickstart my bike. Personally, a sentence in a product description such as «guaranteed perfect fit and outstanding wearing comfort for motorbike aficionados» just doesn’t cut it for me. I’m not prepared to put my life into the hands of marketing babble. That’s why this review is primarily a product description minus the marketing.
Time to turn to Five, the glove brand. Five is a company solely dedicated to making gloves. And it’s been going strong with this concept for ages. That kind of success can’t be sustained on the strength of sentences such as «unique wearing comfort» or «The development of FIVE gloves is based on real feedback». So how much marketing is behind the gloves? And how much is genuine quality? I slipped my mits into a couple of Five Stunt Evo Leather to find out.
Five fingers, one block
Five’s Stunt Evo gloves have a fairly moderate look when you buy them in leather. They’re available in many different colours and patterns. Most of them look like a Disney movie was sick all over them. It’s a problem that plagues the biking community. But Five has been nice enough to make less elaborate versions of their gloves. Total minimalism isn’t possible due to the basic architecture of the glove. Five obviously took the time to investigate which finger does what when you’re riding your bike.
Allow me to explain: the majority of experienced bikers I know never operate the clutch with all fingers and rarely brake with all of them. They usually have their index and middle finger on the clutch and their ring and little finger on the handle.
That’s why Five have divided the glove fingers into two parts. For the index and middle finger, there’s no leather reinforcement on the underside. Instead, it’s made of thin, tightly woven fabric with a grip rubber pattern that looks a bit haphazard. Both the ring and little finger are made of leather.
There’s no padding for the index and middle finger on the back of the hand of the Stunt Evo, but there’s a stretch panel for both fingers. The other two fingers are padded at the top and completely made of leather.
The thumb has a leather fingertip; the rest is made of stretch fabric. The area between the index finger and thumb is additionally reinforced with a material that feels like suede. According to the manufacturer, the back of the hand is made of cowhide and the palm is made of goatskin. Perforations, both on the ball of the thumb and on the fingers, and ventilation grooves in the protectors create a nice draught for your fingers.
The fastening is narrow and barely half a centimetre wide. A leather tongue helps you put the gloves on.
Five has paid particular attention to the ball of the thumb. They’ve added an extra element in that area. Five uses the somewhat cumbersome description «Protective Carbon/TPR palm slider» for it. Essentially, it’s a block of carbon covered with a transparent layer. It makes you feel like your palm is locked to the handlebar grip. The slider makes it difficult to cram your gloves into your trouser pocket, but it’s a useful feature.
After 0 km: tight but…
I unpack the Five Stunt Evo and they look small to me. They’re cut to fit snugly. Too snug perhaps? Surely not. After all, I once tried them on in a shop. My size is XL. I remind myself that this model is made of leather. And leather takes a while to adapt to the shape of your hand. So I give the gloves a chance.
The gloves radically change my grip on the handlebars. This is not something I’d anticipated. The carbon slider on the ball of my thumb totally changes the feel of my Harley. I start to doubt whether these gloves are a good idea. The steering feel is totally new. The resistance of the handlebar is now directed in the area between the ball of my thumb and my wrist.
When I stretch my fingers, the index finger and middle finger feel unpleasantly constricted. Fortunately, my ring finger and little finger have more room. There’s a tiny bit of space left around my thumb. When I clench my fist, I feel the protectors press against my knuckles. This is when I remind myself that the gloves are made of leather. I’ll just have to break them in.
After 50 km: we might become friends after all
Following a few spins in Aargau, I notice that the leather has adapted to my hand – or is in the process of adapting to it. The pressure on my knuckles has gone, but the gloves are still a little tight around the fingers.
Meanwhile, it’s the small velcro fastener that bothers me most. When you’re putting on one glove, it works fine. But the second one, which you have to close with the first hand, is annoying. The fastener’s too small and maybe even too short. I get that Five wanted to design a glove that’s close and tight around the wrist, but I would’ve removed the strange padding on the outer instep before slilmming down and reducing the velcro.
Having said that, my steering technique is closer than ever to what I was taught at driving school. Push, don’t pull. In other words, when you’re taking a right-hand bend, you should push the handlebar with your left hand instead of pulling it with your right. The carbon slider improves my grip on the handlebar and results in better and smoother steering. The urge to pull has almost vanished completely. However, every now and then, the slider gets on my nerves. Particularly when I’m operating the clutch, I need to push my left hand against the slider and can feel resistance.
After 500 km: my second skin
I ride up the Klausen Pass a few times and cross the Albis Pass with friends. The longer I wear the Stunt Evo gloves, the less I notice them. Fast forward 500 km and I’m happy to leave my other pair of cheap gloves at home. The Five gloves are still a tight fit around the index and middle finger when I clench my fist or stretch my hand. But they're definitely no longer uncomfortable. And I’ve understood what Five have done:
- Your index and middle fingers are on the clutch or brake lever. Those fingers are never totally spread or clenched.
- Your ring and little fingers grip the handlebar. This position is definitely closer to a clenched fist than what the middle and index finger are doing. So you need more space to grip.
It also explains the thin panels on the index and middle fingers. Moving should come easily, and the gloves should give you as little resistance as possible. By contrast, your ring and little fingers need that resistance or support.
I’ve learned to love the slider. It’s by far the best invention Five have come up with. Steering has never felt this easy. What was slightly awkward squeezing at 50 kilometres has now turned into a smooth and gentle affair. Now that the leather’s adapted to the shape of my hand, the distance between my finger and the slider has increased by just enough to make operating the clutch comfortable.
Meanwhile, my thumb almost perfectly fits into the glove, which makes indicating a piece of cake. But there’s still a little resistance there. Maybe a small stretch panel between the thumb and index finger would’ve helped?
The velcro fastener is still annoyingly delicate. Nothing’s changed there. When I’m feeling lazy, I don’t even bother to do them up, as the gloves are no longer loose around my hand. Quite the opposite. They’ve molded around my hand almost perfectly and have transformed from a purely protective element to a connecting element between the hand and bike – as weird as that might sound. We’ve become one.
Another thing I like is that I can spread my fingers and that the thin membrane between the fingers cool my hands immediately.
With the Stunt Evo, Five have made a glove that is comfortable because it adapts. The glove doesn’t serve the purpose of simply looking stylish while keeping your fingers warm. Instead, it’s a tool. A tool that’s optimised for human hands in the context of working the handlebar of a motorbike.
Right, that’s all from me. By the way, the Stunt Evo gloves aren’t waterproof. A single drop within a 100 km radius and your hands are wet. The gloves also stain a bit. Especially the index finger.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
E-mobility
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