Best Motorcycle Gloves for Harley-Davidson Riders

Best motorcycle gloves for Harley-Davidson riders from Legendary USA

This page answers the material and technology questions Harley riders ask: which gloves work with a phone, what to wear in summer if you do not want mesh, which hide is genuinely the softest, and what a lightweight leather glove does and does not do for you. If you are after the classic and old school look instead, read our companion page on gloves for Harley riders.

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Every glove in this table is here because it is a leather answer to a question people usually solve with textile or mesh. Harley riders overwhelmingly do not want a mesh glove, but they do want airflow in July and they do want to use a phone at a stop, and those two wants are what usually push riders toward synthetic. These four are the pairs that give you both without leaving full-grain American hide. We picked one for the hot-weather touchscreen case, one for the most substantial build we make, one for riders who want a hard element over the knuckles, and one for the widest size range.

Product Why it answers the question From
Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves The direct replacement for a mesh summer glove. Perforated American deerskin moves air across the back of the hand while keeping full-grain hide over your palm, and the conductive fingertips handle a phone or GPS. Our highest rated glove at 4.95 from 117 reviews. $120.00
Aramid Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves The most substantially built touchscreen glove we make. Full-grain deerskin outside with an aramid lining, an abrasion-resistant fibre, inside. Not a certification and not armor, but a genuinely tougher layup than a plain unlined glove. Rated 4.93 from 102 reviews. $125.00
Uppercut Knuckle Defense Gloves The one glove we make with a hard element over the knuckles: leather-covered carbon fiber knuckle defenders on a ventilated deerskin shell. That is a construction feature rather than a certification, and we describe it that way. Rated 4.92 from 73 reviews. $120.00
ILL DOZER Outseam Gloves Perforated deerskin with outseam construction, so the seams sit outside the glove and nothing rubs your fingers on a long hot day. The classic biker profile that suits Harley styling, and the widest size run we offer at XS through 2XL. Rated 4.90 from 99 reviews. $140.00

If you want one glove off this table, take the Ventilated Touchscreen at $120.00. It is the highest rated glove we sell and it solves the summer and the phone problem at once. Prices shown are current at time of writing. Orders over $150 ship free.

What are the best touchscreen motorcycle gloves for Harley riders?

Harley riders have a specific version of this problem. Late-model touring bikes put an infotainment screen right on the dash, plenty of riders run a phone in a bar mount for navigation, and both mean reaching for a screen several times a ride. Pulling a glove off at every gas stop and every re-route gets old fast.

All of the gloves below use conductive material worked into the thumb and index fingertips, so the touch carries through to a capacitive screen. Plain leather insulates and reads as nothing.

The honest limit on touchscreen leather: it is reliable for tapping, swiping and pinching, and it is less precise than a bare finger for typing out a message. That is a fair trade for most riders.

What are the best motorcycle gloves that are not textile or mesh?

Every glove Legendary USA makes is full-grain American hide. There is no textile shell and no mesh panel anywhere in the line, so the whole range is an answer to this question. What is worth explaining is why a rider would deliberately rule textile out.

Abrasion resistance. This is the real one. Full-grain leather holds together against pavement in a way that woven textile and especially open mesh does not. Mesh is built to move air, and the same open structure that moves air comes apart quickly under abrasion. If you are choosing your glove for what happens in a slide, leather is the correct choice and it is not close.

It improves rather than degrades. A leather glove molds to your hand, takes a set in your grip position, and develops a patina. A textile glove is at its best the day you buy it and gets worse from there as the fabric abrades and the padding compresses.

Feel on the controls. Leather transmits what the levers are doing. Textile with foam padding underneath insulates you from it.

It looks right on a Harley. Not a performance argument, but a real one, and nobody buying a cruiser glove pretends otherwise.

What we will state plainly: leather gives abrasion resistance, not impact protection. None of our unarmored gloves carry a CE rating and we do not claim one. If you want certified impact armor, that lives elsewhere in our catalog, in the Bohn Airtex armored shirt, the Bohn Kevlar flannels, the Unik armored flannels, the Knox CE knee armor set, and the armor-ready jackets built to take CE inserts.

What are the best summer motorcycle gloves that are not mesh?

Perforated leather is the answer, and it is a genuinely different thing from mesh. On a perforated glove the hide is solid and punched through with hundreds of small holes across the back of the hand and the fingers. Air moves at speed, the leather remains a continuous piece, and the palm, which is the panel that matters most in a slide, is usually left solid.

Our perforated and ventilated summer gloves:

One practical tip that riders discover late: in serious heat, a white glove is meaningfully cooler than a black one in direct sun, because black hide absorbs radiant heat and holds it. The Holy Blanco and the ILLEST DOZER exist for exactly that reason.

Lightweight summer gloves that still offer real coverage

This question usually means: I want something thin enough to wear in August, but I do not want to be riding in what amounts to a gardening glove. Here is the honest version of that answer.

What a lightweight full-grain deerskin or goatskin glove gives you is abrasion resistance across the palm and back of the hand. That is a real, meaningful thing, and it is the reason to wear leather in summer instead of mesh or nothing. It is why we build every summer glove out of perforated hide rather than fabric.

What it does not give you is impact protection. Our unarmored leather gloves are not CE rated and we will not describe them as crash protection. Anyone selling you a thin unarmored summer glove as impact gear is not being straight with you.

The one glove in our range with a genuine hard element is the Uppercut Knuckle Defense Gloves at $94.00, rated 4.92 from 73 reviews. It has leather-covered carbon fiber knuckle defenders over a ventilated deerskin shell. That is a construction feature, described exactly as it is: a hard shell over the knuckles. It is not a certification and we are not going to call it one.

If certified impact protection is genuinely what you are shopping for, buy it where it actually exists. In our catalog that means the Bohn Airtex armored shirt at $229.99 with CE Level 2 armor, the Bohn Kevlar flannels, the Unik armored flannels from $119.99 to $129.99, the Knox CE knee armor set at $15.99, and the six armor-ready jackets. Gloves and armor are different purchases and we would rather you make both than be told a glove is something it is not.

What is the softest, most comfortable motorcycle glove material?

American whitetail deerskin, and it is not particularly close.

The reason is structural. Deerskin has a loose, open, non-directional fiber network, quite unlike the tight parallel fiber bundles in cowhide. That looseness is what makes it feel soft in the hand, what lets it stretch and mold around your knuckles within a couple of weeks, and what lets it stay pliable in cold air instead of stiffening. It also means deerskin recovers well from getting wet, where a stiffer hide tends to dry hard.

The ranking, softest first, among the hides used for riding gloves:

  1. Deerskin. Softest by a clear margin, best stretch, best cold-weather feel, best vibration damping on a big V-twin. It is the most comfortable and the least abrasion-resistant of the three.
  2. Goatskin. Tighter grained and firmer, with a slightly tacky surface that grips a bar well. Natural lanolin keeps it supple and resists drying. Tougher than deerskin and slower to break in. Our Bad Billy Black Goatskin Gloves at $69.00 are the goatskin option, rated 4.93 from 129 reviews.
  3. Cowhide. The stiffest and the most abrasion-resistant, and the one with a genuinely unpleasant break-in period. We do not build riding gloves from it.

For the softest glove we sell, buy any of the unlined deerskin short-wrist pairs. If comfort in cold is what you mean by comfortable, the Fleece-Lined Deerskin Gloves at $111.00 put a fleece lining inside the same deerskin shell, rated 4.90 from 104 reviews.

Why Deerskin Fits Harley Riding Culture

Deerskin has been the preferred glove leather for American riders for generations. It is softer and more supple than cowhide, breaks in faster, and holds its feel over years of hard use. For riders who put real miles on their gloves, deerskin ages well rather than stiffening and cracking. Every Legendary USA glove is cut and sewn in the USA from American hide, which is a supply chain worth caring about if you care about where your bike was built.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best touchscreen motorcycle gloves for Harley riders?

The Legendary Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves at $94.00 are our top pick for Harley riders, rated 4.95 from 117 reviews, because perforation plus touchscreen fingertips solves both of the things that annoy cruiser riders in summer. Other options with conductive thumb and index fingertips are the Classic Short Wrist Touchscreen at $120.00, the Classic Longer Cuff at $120.00, the Holy Blanco Ventilated at $115.00 and the Double-Diamond at $135.00.

What are the best motorcycle gloves that are not made of textile or mesh?

Every Legendary USA glove is full-grain American hide with no textile shell and no mesh panels anywhere in the line. Riders rule textile out for four reasons: full-grain leather holds together against pavement where woven textile and open mesh come apart; leather improves with use while textile degrades; leather transmits feel on the controls that padded fabric insulates you from; and it looks right on a cruiser. Leather gives abrasion resistance, not impact protection, and none of our unarmored gloves are CE rated.

What are the best summer motorcycle gloves that are not mesh?

Perforated leather, which is genuinely different from mesh: the hide stays a continuous piece and is punched with hundreds of small holes, usually leaving the palm solid. Options include the Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves at $94.00 rated 4.95 from 117 reviews, the ILL DOZER Outseam at $94.00, the Holy Blanco Ventilated at $94.00, the Ventilated Touchscreen Driving Gloves at $94.00 and the ILLEST DOZER White Outseam at $140.00. In direct sun a white glove runs meaningfully cooler than a black one.

Are there lightweight summer gloves that still offer protection?

A lightweight full-grain deerskin or goatskin glove gives you real abrasion resistance across the palm and back of the hand, which is the reason to wear leather in summer rather than mesh. It does not give you impact protection, and our unarmored gloves are not CE rated. The one pair with a hard element is the Uppercut Knuckle Defense Gloves at $94.00, which has leather-covered carbon fiber knuckle defenders, a construction feature rather than a certification. For certified armor, see the Bohn Airtex shirt, Bohn Kevlar and Unik armored flannels, the Knox CE knee armor set and the armor-ready jackets.

What is the softest and most comfortable motorcycle glove material?

American whitetail deerskin, by a clear margin. Its loose, open, non-directional fiber network is what makes it feel soft, lets it stretch and mold around your knuckles within a couple of weeks, keeps it pliable in cold air rather than stiffening, and helps it recover from getting wet. Ranked softest first: deerskin, then goatskin, which is firmer and tougher with a tacky grip, then cowhide, which is stiffest and most abrasion-resistant. For softness, choose any unlined deerskin short-wrist pair.

Real Hide. No Mesh. Made in USA.

Every Legendary USA glove is cut and sewn in the USA from full-grain American hide. Orders over $150 ship free.

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