Racing Gloves in Sim Racing - Do you really need them? 

An aspect I rarely see talked about, but that in my testing makes a fundamental difference is one of the biggest cons: *Gloves reduce force feedback fidelity - especially if padded.* These gloves are MADE to LESSEN vibration effects on the hand - the literal opposite of what we want by buying high quality wheelbases. Sim wheelbases aren't real cars. We don't need cushion against abrasion or fire protection at all. We can simply correct the force feedback so it doesn't rip our skin off. However, even increasing force feedback strength will never recover high frequency force feedback effects. Especially in the range of 2500hz or more. With gel cushion it's even worse and goes down to 200hz even. If you have a high quality wheelbase you should just think about if all you want is a workout, then sure, go sweaty, wrestle your wheel at 18nm+ and buy rims that don't fit your hand because... "immersion" or whatever. Or alternatively just use it's qualities to transfer fine details, use as little cushioning as possible and buy a correct rim that fits your hand. Especially gel padded bike, motocross or similar gloves are the cheapest but most efficient wheel base force feedback quality reduction you can buy, aside from just a hammer and smashing the wheelbase itself.

Honestly, the immersion factor alone is enough for me to wear gloves, I feel a little bit more like a racing driver when I wear them lol 😂 But still, very valid and objective arguments in the video to wear gloves, thumbs up 👍

I wear a cheap pair of mountain biking gloves - and really only so I don't have to clean my Alcantara rims as often.

I’ve always thought wearing gloves was lame. Well I just cleaned all my alcantara and now I’ve been trying some gloves. Currently just tried one of the crappy cotton sets my GF uses for gardening. To my surprise I actually caught a lot more slides and sawed at the wheel more aggressively when I need to with little to no hesitation. With that said I’ll now be racing in gloves and gotta find myself a decent set.

Winter Golf Gloves; come L/R pairs, fitted better than most and available.

I like wearing gloves, but you don't need "Simracing Gloves", in fact I wouldn't recommend any so called "Simracing Gloves" as they tend to be quite expensive and poor quality. I use cycling gloves as they're designed to be hard wearing and the quality has always been a lot higher than that of the "Simracing Gloves" that I've tried

I don't like stitches biting into my hand. Mechanics gloves will just work fine. They won't last long against alcantara though. I had couple of Puma Motorsports gloves for real racing purpose. They felt good but they were cumbersome and became quite hot to wear. I've tried motorcycle glove from AlpineStars but the seam was biting into my hand. They didn't feel comfortable. I'm still looking but until I get another option I'll be running through Mechanics.

I started wearing gloves when my G25 was still fairly new. I found batting gloves at second hand stores like Marshalls where the cheapest most effective way to go. You left one important fact out. You can get real racing Gauntlet style gloves far less expensive, without the nomex. Kart gloves are generally on the level of the more basic racing gloves, but they don't have to be Fireproof. I got a pair a couple of years ago for a real car. Street use.. I needed no FIA approval 😂. Once I put them on, I knew I'd never go back to anything else to drive with. Those Pumas, if I'm not mistaken, are all made in Italy, by a glove company. Mo Money. There are plenty of quality karting gloves available, even from some of the major manufacturers. Typically about $60-90

I buy the cheap Harbor Freight mechanics gloves and cut the fingers off below the knuckle as I like the padding/protection on my hands/palm and thumb web area but like my fingers bare for pushing buttons, using a keyboard or mouse and on the shifter paddles. Super cheap and works perfectly.

Motocross gloves are my current favourites. Tonnes to choose from and they are designed to be well ventilated but still give your grip some help.

I thought I don’t need em…but I like to let the wheel slide through my hands and I get soar spots so, yeah, now I wear a pair of cheap ones 😄

Hi Shaun. What button plate are you using with your MPI Mazda wheel?

For me dirt bike gloves have the best combination of grip/breath thickness and price relation. And also because I have lot of them 😂

Trakracers are great but they’re not that breathable, virage are pretty much perfect.

i tried my motorcycling gloves, snowboarding and karting gloves too. ended up using no gloves. i don't need the fire protection doesn't add much immersion imo to me i just drive, and don't have alcantara wheel so all is good. if going butt naked bare hands is good enough for verstappen and most other pros in the home sim, it's good enough for me.

okay so what I'm hearing is that I should probably stop using my Marigolds....

I just use light leather tig welders gloves.... not thick, made from thin leather and you don't loose touch. And are cheap

Your gloves are not inside out seams correct? I bought a pair of sim rim brand gloves and the outside seam just isn’t for me, too lose of a fit, lose on the back of the hand and bunches up when racing. Weren’t cheap @$70+. Prefer a race glove but after an hour race my hands do get sweaty. I wore out my impact racing gloves due to the sweat and not they’ve got holes lol.

I use a Fly racing glove and they work great for me. I love MX5 racing, where did you get that wheel. I looked through your past videos and didn’t see a review. Great video, thanks

no gloves? no racing suit? no helmet? no pit crew? not a sim racer! xD Yes to many things. But gloves bother me when sim racing. It's probably about immersion and since I always drive real cars without gloves, I get closest to reality without gloves. Completely different with shoes. These don't bother me at all, but with socks you have a much better feel for the pedals. It's just sim racing, so I don't have to make everything conform to reality. I don't want to adjust the room temperature to the track temperature so that I can be closer. Sometimes you'd rather have the comfort of your home and sim racing instead of trying to recreate everything.

I use garden gloves. Cost me 3.99

Gloves make you faster.

Murder Ram can't find gloves for his hooves. Peace✌️

No you don’t need gloves period! Never used a pair and play just fine and never lose grip on the wheel