Cortech Scarab Winter Glove Review

FZ1riderNY

FZ1riderNY

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I picked up a pair of the Cortech Scarab Winter last week. My initial impressions were that they were very nicely made. They fit great and have a natural bend in the fingers from the factory. The day I received them I was suffering from the flu and had severe chills at work. When I left work my hands felt like ICE! I left my thoughts on hold until I got better. Now that the flu is gone and the weather is dipping into the upper 30's and low 40's here in NY when I leave for work, I'm finally getting a chance to see how they work.

This morning was 39 degrees when I left the house. Rather than use a silk liner, I chose to use a regular cotton brown jersey glove that we sell at work. I can tell you that the Scarab will not be sufficient in lower 30's without the liner. Trust me on this one as I love the cold weather and have a high tolerance to cold temperatures, so when my hands are cold, the gloves aren't fitting the bill. With the liner in place, it makes all the difference in the world. I felt absolutely nothing on my hands in the form of discomfort while on the parkway traveling at 60mph. My hands were toasty warm. With my other gloves at this temperature, I would have had frozen fingers by the halfway mark.

I don't know how to figure out the wind chill factor while traveling 60mph in 39 degree weather but its got to be down there. Maybe 35 or so, I'm not sure, but I do know that these gloves with the liner should be good for at least 35 degrees. For how long remains to be seen. This weekend will have temps rising to the mid 50's so I guess I'll have to find that out later on in the month. I'll post a follow-up at that time, but for now, I am extremely happy with the Cortech Scarab's.
 
good luck. I had a pair and they were great for me untill it got to the mid to upper 30's. Even with a silk liner my fingers were still cold. The fit and protection that these gloves have is great just not warm enough for me. Maby just being a southern boy I can't deal with the cold as well as you guys up north.
 
joker80 said:
good luck. I had a pair and they were great for me untill it got to the mid to upper 30's. Even with a silk liner my fingers were still cold. The fit and protection that these gloves have is great just not warm enough for me. Maby just being a southern boy I can't deal with the cold as well as you guys up north.
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I think thats the truth Joker. Thats why some people like certain gloves and others don't. It's tough to buy something like gloves since everyone has a different tolerance to cold temps. It's kinda like a crapshoot unless you really know the person who's reviewing the item. I guess I'll find out for sure in a few more weeks but preliminary observations are looking good.
 
I agree and as long as the warmth is good enough for you I'm sure you will enjoy them. I finally broke down and got a pair of the alpinestars SR-2 drystar gloves. They dont have the armor as I would like but everything else is very good for me.
 
Updated Review

Well, I had a chance to finally ride in "below 40" weather this morning using the Scarabs. In just four words....Don't Waste Your Money!!! These gloves aren't any better than my 12 dollar gloves that I bought at Englishtown two years ago. Just some background.....I've been living in NY my whole life and Winter is definitely my time of year (minus the snow). I am accustomed to the cold and I definitely have a high tolerance to low temps. This morning it was 38 degrees when I left my house for work. It's only a 7 minutes jaunt with no traffic at that time of the morning. With literally only 5 exits to run, my fingers were very cold just three minutes into the run. By the time I reached work my fingers were frozen. The rest of me was fine. That was with glove liners!! At almost 80 bucks they are NOT worth the dough. Add another 100 or so and buy yourself heated gloves. Thats what I'm gonna do. So there you have it, two thumbs down for the Scarabs!
 
never heard good things abt the scarabs.. i hv teknic thunder and with schampa liners i hv gone 18F .. . I got them for $30 on closeout at MS
I love Teknic stuff. Donnow why they are not available any more.
 
Business

CrazyBiker said:
I love Teknic stuff. Donnow why they are not available any more.
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Quality and good management do not always go hand in hand. Some excellent products are no longer around because of inabilty to compete in the world market or many other typical business problems. Certainly not a reflection on the actual quality in many cases. Take Micron pipes as an example.
 
I actually picked up a pair of these today. We rarely get below 40 so I hope they hold up well for me in this SE Texas climate. My A* shorties and my JR full cuff gloves just are not good enough in cooler weather. We will just have to see.

I do love the fit and build of the gloves. Most XL gloves have fingers way to long for me. These are just right in the fit dept.

Good news is I got them at 15% off and used a gift card for most of it so I am not out of pocket much ($15).
 
Haileyan said:
I should have asked if you wanted to sell yours! :)
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I actually am going to buy some heated gloves that CanonFuji sent me a link for. I love the fit of the Scarabs and will probably use them come Springtime. They are excellent quality, they just aren't warm enough even with a liner, to be used below 40 degrees. They really need to just put more of that fill material in the fingers. My palm, both top and bottom, and my wrist area, are perfectly warm with the Scarabs, even in 30 degree temps. Its the fingertips that are lousy. I am drawing a blank as to the name of the insulation at the moment, but had they insulated the fingers a bit more, they may have been better. I had no problems with a liner at 40 and above so you should be good. It's a shame because they are not cheap. I paid 74 bucks for mine with the discount. For another 80 dollars I could have gotten the electrics and still been able to ride comfortably. Oh well, live and learn.
 
I can say the gloves worked wonderfully for me in my moderate climate yesterday. 40 degrees out yesterday morning and I was very comfortable the entire time.
 
Haileyan said:
I can say the gloves worked wonderfully for me in my moderate climate yesterday. 40 degrees out yesterday morning and I was very comfortable the entire time.
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Well it's funny that you brought this thread up again Brad. I just this second walked in from the store. The temp here is a whopping 16 degrees with a biting 25mph wind from the North. With the wind chill it's about 1 to 2 degrees. I used the gloves to walk up the block (600ft). I figured that if I'm not going 50mph I should be fine.....WRONG! My hands were still iced over by the time I got to the store. I'm really disappointed with these. They are definitely not "Winter Gloves". They should knock the price down to $39.95 and classify them as "Spring/Fall Gloves" instead. They suck in anything below 40 degrees.
 
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