Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves: exceptional value but not great with touchscreens

Van Rysel’s reputation for producing high-value products extends to the RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves.

They’re warm and windproof, will resist a shower and feel comfortable to wear. Drawbacks include a slight lack of breathability versus the best winter gloves, while the touchscreen compatibility could use refinement.

But for £29.99 / €30, I’m hard-pressed to think of any low-cost deep-winter gloves that perform as well as these.

Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves details and specifications

The Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves are thickly lined gloves with a softshell outer fabric.

Van Rysel hasn’t bought in a branded fabric and this could be contributing to the notably low price of £29.99 / €30.

The outer has a DWR (durable water repellent) treatment applied, while the softshell fabric is said to be windproof.

Underneath, Van Rysel has employed its own ‘Softhermic’ insulation to provide warmth, and there’s ‘Technogel’ padding on the hypothenar and thenar areas.

A cut-out from the palm fabric has been used to help with upper-palm/knuckle flexibility, and the gloves are fastened by a Velcro tab around the long cuffs.

There are also reflective strips on the third and fourth fingers, while the thumb features a towel-like nose-wipe zone, which covers the whole of the back of the thumb.

Added silicone patterns on two of the fingers and the thumb are there to aid touchscreen use and brake-lever grip.

I tested a size XL, which fitted me well across the palm, while the fingers felt wrapped up with little spare wiggle room. Fit is subjective, of course – it’s likely my relatively long digits are a contributing factor.

There are five sizes on offer – S-2XL – and the gloves are available in high-visibility yellow as tested, or black.

Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves performance

The Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves excelled in cold conditions, keeping my hands well-shielded and insulated from biting windchill (which displayed as 0ºC on my bike computer).

The windproofing of the outer fabric is excellent, therefore, but the slight downside is the Van Rysels feel marginally less breathable than gloves such as the Castelli Espresso 2 (£110 / $99.99 / €99.95) and Assos Ultraz Winter Gloves (£105 / $135 / €120).

I was generally left with damper hands than I was with either of those two gloves, accepting that conditions are never identical from one ride to the next.

Of course, the Van Rysel gloves are less than a third of the price of both those alternatives – a massive difference that doesn’t tally with the overall performance.

Light rain showers are dealt with well, although the DWR treatment isn’t quite as effective as the Assos gloves or slightly more rain-specialist Scott Aqua GTX LF Glove (£69.99 / $74.99 / €74.90). Again, the bang-for-buck argument applies, unless you value wet-weather performance above all else.

I found dexterity to be adequate, with only occasional snagging on my Shimano levers when I went for a lazy shift.

The grippers on the fingers helped with adhesion on the brake levers though, making for confident braking in the wet. That said, they’re poorly positioned for touchscreen use because they’re positioned on the lower part of the finger pad, rather than at the fingertip (where you’d typically have far more precision).

The design of the fingertips doesn’t lend itself to precise inputs anyway, given they’re flat-ended. However, it’s worth noting I could just about work my Garmin’s basic touchscreen functions, which is all many will need to do.

Although I personally prefer to ride without palm padding, I found the included padding unobtrusive – it’s impossible to say if this will work for your hands, but those who desire extra cushioning should be catered for well enough here.

I also appreciated the full thumb-length nose-wipe zone – it's very soft and offers plenty of real estate.

Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves bottom line

Overall, the Van Rysel RR 900 Thermal Cycling Gloves are very good – viewed in the context of far more expensive competition, they perform as well as many will ever need.

There are drawbacks – they don’t feel quite as breathable as some (albeit this is fine in the coldest weather or if you’re not working too hard) and the touchscreen compatibility needs work.

That said, at such a keen price, they are a very cost-effective solution.