Help! Impossibly small hands!

[colorisnt]

Okay, so all of my life I have had the tiniest hands of anyone I know. It is a family issue on my Dad's side. I have trouble finding gloves. I wear and XS in cycling gloves, but only certain brands' XS's aren't too big. I usually spend $$ on regular gloves because they are impossible to find for my small hands.

I have been to tons of cycling stores and have yet to find a type that isn't huge. I have tried everything. They all have plenty of WS gloves in a size small, but that small is about 2 sizes too big most times! I would probably be able to do an XS but no one has them. I am also hesitant to order them if I don't know whether they will fit

I figured this is the place to ask. Help me, ladies!

ETA: I have regular gloves. They took ages to find (in fact I need a new pair) but I need WINTER gloves.

[zoom-zoom]

We got these for our son...he is 9.5 and slim-framed with very delicate hands (takes after some of my tiny-handed relatives):
http://www.realcyclist.com/louis-garneau-0-calory-glove
They fit him pretty well.

What about children's gloves? We only got him the ones above because they were cheaper than kids' gloves and he tends to lose stuff.

[colorisnt]

Oh, I meant to add in the OP that these are winter gloves, so they have to be fall/light winter friendly.

[OakLeaf]

You might check motorcycle shops for kids' dirt biking gloves. They might be easier to find than small bicycling gloves. I kind of doubt that they have girls' specific gloves though (shape not color :rolleyes:), so if you have the thumb placement that most women do, you might still have the same problems with boys' gloves that I do with men's.

[limewave]

I have to buy children's gloves because I have small hands too. But for winter I don't use cycling-specific gloves. I just have children's winter gloves and they work well for cycling. I've gotten my gloves from Sierra Trading Post.

[Roadtrip]

Sorry I don't have any incite for your glove troubles, but wanted to commersiate a little, as I have huge hands for a woman. I have trouble finding gloves... Not in fit, but styling... To get gloves that fit me I normally have to buy mens gloves and most of them are not exactly something I'm grooving on.

[colorisnt]

My mother also has big hands, too. They are proportional to her tall frame, but still she has trouble finding gloves. I guess I have just had trouble finding something that is not cycling specific to use for commuting. I need to be able to use my hands to get around and to get my school supplies, etc on/off my bike. Frustration!

Limewave, do you have any suggestions in kids gloves? Also, I need support on my hands. Do you wear your regular cycling gloves underneath?

[malkin]

I don't wear cycling specific gloves anymore ever.

[OakLeaf]

Just remember that cycling gloves are primarily a piece of safety equipment, so whatever you wear, make sure the palms are abrasion-resistant and that there's some kind of wrist closure to keep them from pulling off in a crash.

Depending on your riding position, studded motorcycle gloves probably wouldn't work if you like to ride on the hoods of drop bars, but anything else should be good, and studded gloves should be fine if you ride flat bars.

[Biciclista]

this may or may not help, but i've found that for protection, I can wear my husband's gloves (one size + too big). Better too big than too small.

[moonfroggy]

like a lot of people here i wear kids gloves

when i wear gloves that are two big if they have fingers and are not the fingerless sometimes te extra fabric has gotten caught n the breaks or shifters:eek: i can wear bigger gloves on my mountain bike without this problem but on my road bike they are not safe for me to wear.

[Roadtrip]

Here's my hand.. from pinky to thumb nine inches.. if I reach.. ten inches. Palm to end of index finger is close to seven inches.

http://cincylights.com/images/hand.jpg

On the "glass" half full, at least I do have the OPTION of a mans glove... so in tiny hands trump Godzilla hands :eek:

BTW: the shifters on my WSD bike are HIGHLY irritating as they're too small... grrrr

Shannon

[OakLeaf]

the shifters on my WSD bike are HIGHLY irritating as they're too small... grrrr

Shannon

Shimano or Campy? If they're Shimano R700, you can get smaller shims (and may be able to use them without any shims, I'm not sure).

[colorisnt]

The problem is that without cycling specific gloves with SOME padding my hands really take a beating. Fit is fine (on the bike), but not all the roads are great on the way into campus. I really need something to dull it, but something that is warm. I didn't even go to work today because of a horrendous migraine, but if I would have, it would have been necessary to get some gloves.

[Roadtrip]

It's a Trek Pure with SRAM MRX "Twist" shifters... me don't like due to size and acerbated by my larger hands... tho I think I know why... see below.

It's not necessarily the twist shifter itself (even tho I prefer the standard type shifter), it's the crappy setup to begin with. OK, they prob ASSUME your on this bike and most likely not doing to be shifting much. WHY give you 21 gears if they assume you won't be changing.

Honestly, I'm not sure what part I've been having issues with... I hate the shifters. Trek seems to have put the cheaper version on this bike. the version I find on Amazon looks totally different-- better-- longer "grip" portion. Plus the shifter for rear derailleur still has seven or eight "clicks" even tho it's a triple in the back-- so-- click-- click-- click-- ok-- I'm finally there. It's like they got an overstock on right shifters and someone in accounting said use then, just change display 1-7 to 1-3. In order to go into my big gear for flats I have to mash the thing well above "1" in order to get it to change gear.

Rear derailleur is a Shimano Acera that seems to need constant tweaking and last night nearly killed me on a hilly ride when it WOULD NOT let me change down a gear. Not to mention it often likes to buck me so hard it has more then once threw my right foot right off the right pedal when changing gear.

Ended up riding as far as I could and felt like I was going to cough up a lung-- ended up pushing my bike up the last hill. Enough to make you want to leave the bike at the side of the road and just walk. Nothing like grinding away at JUST barely faster then you can walk because when you try and shift all you here is grrrrr grrrrrr grrrrrrr and chain stays right where it was.

Really need to learn how to make these adjustments myself.

Sorry for the rant!!

Shannon

[OakLeaf]

@colorisnt, what about putting extra padding on your bars rather than trying to find padded gloves? Grab-Ons or a second layer of cork might help you out, particularly if gloves don't fit well.

@Roadtrip, the rear shifter is that way on purpose, so you can trim. Trimming is especially important with a wide gear range. Sheldon Brown (http://sheldonbrown.com/) and Park Tool (http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/categories/derailleur-systems) have pretty much everything you need to know about maintenance and repairs, and Shimano (http://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs/index.jsp)'s own website has technical documents for most of their products. Sounds like your RD cable is just in need of a serious tightening (try the barrel adjuster first, but if it's so far off that it won't shift off the small cog, you'll probably have to reposition the cable in the clamp).

[colorisnt]

Oak,

That is a great idea.

Also, my parents, noting the rough week I had with students and my stress over gloves sent me some nice Cabela's gloves. They actually FIT and I think what I will do is take your advice as well as wear my lightest cycling gloves under. I also bought a lighter pair from nashbar for the "cool" days. So, despite my awful migraines, I am happy to have gloves.

MY Cabela's order also arrived and I got a baselayer, softshell jacket, fleece wind resistant pants, and rain pants for under $100.00. So, if you need some quality basics, may be worth looking into the "bargain cave". I am sure Dad got the gloves with his "cabela's points" (we spend WAY too much at that store as a family).

I can't wait to do BikeMO tomorrow! I now have a pair of pants to wear there OVER my shorts and back home so people don't stair at me in my race wear haha!

[Becky]

Louis Garneau's Winddry Eco (http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product2_10052_10551_1091249_-1)gloves in the women's sizing are ridiculously small. I normally wear a medium in WSD long-finger gloves, and I couldn't even get the women's large the whole way on.

I have the men's version, and they work well for 35-50 degrees. Below that, and I'm wanting something warmer.

[Aggie_Ama]

I often wear my short finger gloves under a pair of Descente "Cold Out" (http://www.amazon.com/Descente-19101-Mens-Coldout-Glove/dp/B002DGSVWI) long finger padless gloves, it isn't very practical in Texas to have beefy gloves. The Descente gloves are wonderfully comfortable. I won a pair of Kona Supreme Mountain Bike (http://www.amazon.com/KONA-Kona-Supreme-Glove-Womens/dp/B003YCCSME) gloves for women and they run very small, mine are just like the link but pink and black. I usually wear a medium and these are snug at XL. I haven't gotten to try them in action yet.

[cricketk]

ETA: I have regular gloves. They took ages to find (in fact I need a new pair) but I need WINTER gloves.

I don't know how cold/wet your winter is, but over our most recent winter I wore a pair of thinsulate liner gloves under a pair of 1-size too big fingerless gloves and that kept me warm and toasty down to 0 celsius (and solved the problem of the gloves being too big).