Friday 9 May 2008

Gloves and Forward Planning

I've been told in the past, in fact told a couple of times, that I think about things too much.

So have you ever thought about the order in which you put on your motorcycle gloves?

There are - usually - only two choices, left or right first.*

So why should it make a difference which glove you put on first?

Well, I'd hazard a guess that most riders put their right glove on first. What do I base this guess on? Well, I'm right-handed and I put my right glove on first, but, more importantly I have a 50% chance of being right :)

However if you put your left glove on first - especially on days when the weather's particularly nasty - that the fiddly work of doing up velcro, tucking the glove inside the jacket cuff, and ensuring a waterproof seal, is all being done on the right glove by your less-dextrous hand, made even less capable by already having had all the tucking and sealing done by the un-gloved, dextrous, right hand.

Is it a big deal? Well . . . no. But if it saves a few moments of struggling, especially if you've stopped mid-way through a long, wet, ride, then it might - just - make life a little easier for you.


* Does not include riders who don't wear gloves, one-handed riders (I've known one), and those members of the rich or gentry who have a member of household staff to deal with such mundane matters as 'gloves'.

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