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poc mountain biking |poc index flow review |poc index flow gloves |poc index flow |poc gloves |poc bike gloves |mountain bike gloves |layman's review
POC's Index Flow gloves, coming in at $55 a pair. Eric Lovely photo.
In a sport whose garb is so heavily influenced by the graphically overzealous, color-bashing schemes of road cycling and motocross racing, POC has always stood fast for those searching for a simpler palette. Much like any hallmark of Scandinavian design, POC’s helmets, apparel, eyewear and gloves seek to meld chic profiles and lines with monochromatic color schemes, functionality, and ruthless minimalism.
While it might appear that I’m about to review an IKEA bath set, I’m actually going to talk about POC’s Index Flow mountain bike gloves, tailored towards the growing and amorphous All-Mountain/Enduro/People-Who-Like-To-Ride-All-Kinds-Of-Stuff-But-Really-Like-Downhills category.
The Index Flows are perfect accessories for trendy enduro-width bars. Eric Lovely photo.
At first glance, the Index Flow gloves reek of the same vein of minimalism that prompted the country to reject outright the idea of hosting the Winter Olympics again–totally unnecessary, they retorted. The breathable tops of the gloves host little more than a company logo and a stitched section of padding to protect the outermost knuckles from trees, while the underhand area repeats the same process, with silicon gel padding only on the heel of the palm and crease of the thumb, with a cross-hatched thumb profile for grabbing at shifters and small strips of rubber on the index and middle finger for snagging the brakes and shifting into harder gears.
Velcro straps on the wrist–functionally worthless on this scale–are done away with for a tighter elastic, and the raised rubber ridges of so many moto-inspired hand-holders are nowhere to be seen. Whichever Swede designed these in their mock turtleneck sweater in between stuffing wood pellets into the hyper-efficient stove of their tiny house has earned my applause.
Perfect for beginner to intermediate bike-parking, too! Jon Grinney photo.
After a full summer of use, it’s hard to say much about these gloves beyond the fact that I barely noticed they were there. Extremely well-fitting and secure, no one part of the Index Flows has given out more than the other, and besides some crinkling of the POC logos and some pilling of the fabric, there’s not much to notice as far as wear and tear is concerned. They gripped great and felt cool.
Holding together after a summer of use, minus the sweat accumulation. Ryan Dunfee photo.
That being said, given the temperate summer temperatures in and around the Tetons, it’s hard to vouch for how the Index Flows’ might perform in the absurd humidity of the East Coast. But as you might expect of the hygienic Scandos, they did dump body odor better than any glove I’d previously owned, even after being stuffed in a bike bag for days on end. I suppose they could have done as Michael Jordan did and get rid of the huge tags, but now we’re just starting to split hairs.
At this point it’s assumed several of you have already discounted this as a glorified advertisement, so in the interest of keeping it real I’ll say that you can get gloves for your after-work rides for a lot less than $55. But if you’re the kind of person who gets anxious about over-frilled products and turns around at the end of every season to realize every piece of apparel you bought was solid black, then you’re the kind of bro, or bro-dette, who can appreciate what the Index Flows bring to the table.
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About The Author
stash member Ryan Dunfee
Former Managing Editor at Teton Gravity Research, current Senior Contributor, current professional hippy at the Sierra Club, and avid weekend recreationalist.