This page is about style as much as spec: the classic, old school leather glove that has looked right on a V-twin for eighty years, and still does. If you want the touchscreen and material comparison instead, read our companion page on gloves for Harley-Davidson riders. Every glove below is cut and sewn in the USA from American hide.
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These four are not our four highest-rated gloves. They are the four that look and feel period-correct on a cruiser, which is a different question. We picked one for each of the traditional silhouettes a Harley rider actually chooses between: the classic full-finger short wrist, the fingerless, the heavy welted work-glove build, and the vintage gauntlet. Between them they cover the whole old school vocabulary, and one of them has the widest size run we make, which matters if you have a smaller hand.
| Product | Why it fits the classic look | From |
|---|---|---|
| Churchill Classic Deerskin Gloves | The most traditional pattern on the wall. Churchill is a long-standing American glovemaking house and we carry the line as a dealer. Plain deerskin, no logos on the back, no perforation, no touchscreen. This is what a riding glove looked like before riding gloves had features. Rated 4.87 from 31 reviews. | $120.00 |
| Fingerless Deerskin Gloves | The single most recognizable biker glove there is, and the cheapest way into real American deerskin. Palm and back coverage with the fingers cut at the first knuckle. Rated 4.92 from 126 reviews, one of the largest review counts on our wall. | $60.00 |
| Haymakers Super Welted Deerskin Gloves | The heavy old school build. Fat welted seams stand proud along the fingers the way a mid-century work glove was made, which gives the glove a substantial, blocky profile on the bars. Rated 4.89 from 114 reviews. | $125.00 |
| Classic Deerskin Gauntlets | The vintage gauntlet, and the most versatile pick here on fit. This is the only glove in this table that runs XS, so it is our usual recommendation for riders with smaller hands, women included. Rated 4.88 from 112 reviews. | $75.00 |
If you want one classic glove and you ride in mixed weather, take the Churchill. If you want the look for the least money, take the Fingerless. If you want the gauntlet, the Classic Deerskin Gauntlets at $129.00 are the best value on this page by a wide margin. Prices shown are current at time of writing. Orders over $150 ship free.
What makes a classic old school motorcycle glove?
Old school is a real set of construction choices, not a marketing word. A period-correct riding glove has four things in common, and once you know them you can spot a costume glove instantly.
It is plain. No molded plastic on the knuckles, no contrast panels, no visible branding across the back of the hand. The back of a classic glove is one clean piece of hide with the fourchettes, the strips between the fingers, cut in. Anything printed, embossed or bolted onto the back of the hand is a modern addition.
It is short at the wrist, or a full gauntlet, with nothing in between. The mid-length cuff with a velcro storm flap is a modern touring shape. Traditional gloves either stop at the wrist bone with a simple elastic or snap closure, like the Churchill Classic, or flare into a full gauntlet over the sleeve, like the Classic Deerskin Gauntlets.
The seams are visible and structural. Welted seams and outseam construction are older techniques than the smooth hidden seam. The Haymakers uses a deliberately fat welt for exactly this reason, and the ILL DOZER at $129.00 puts the seams on the outside entirely.
It is unlined natural hide. Deerskin or goatskin, tanned and left alone. A lining is a cold-weather feature, not a classic one, and a synthetic shell is not in the vocabulary at all.
Classic cafe racer and vintage riding gloves
Cafe racer style pulls from a slightly different tradition than American cruiser style, and the difference is worth knowing before you buy.
The British cafe racer glove of the 1960s was a driving glove adapted for a bike: short at the wrist, close-fitting, often perforated across the back for air, sometimes in a light colour rather than black. It was cut for feel on clip-ons rather than bulk. That is a real distinction from the heavier American biker glove, which was built around a wider bar and a relaxed grip.
The pieces in our range that read cafe racer rather than cruiser:
- Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Driving Gloves, $100.00, rated 4.89 from 83 reviews. The closest thing we make to a period driving glove, perforated across the back and cut close.
- Tan Short Wrist Deerskin Gloves, $94.00, rated 4.88 from 98 reviews. Tan rather than black is the more period-correct colour for a sixties European glove, and it ages into a genuinely good patina.
- Cadbury White Touchscreen Gloves, $109.00, rated 4.87 from 77 reviews. White gloves are a real vintage racing reference. They show every mark, which is either the point or the problem depending on your taste.
- Spitfire White Touchscreen Gloves, $135.00, rated 4.90 from 26 reviews. Runs XS through 2XL, the widest size range in our white gloves.
Honest note on the touchscreen fingertips: they are not period-correct. They are also invisible from two feet away and they mean you do not have to peel a glove off at every stop. Most riders buying vintage style still want them.
What are the best fingerless gloves for Harley riding?
Two answers, depending on colour:
The Fingerless Deerskin Gloves at $91.00 are the standard and the best value glove we sell in any category. American whitetail deerskin, palm and back coverage, fingers cut at the first knuckle, rated 4.92 from 126 reviews.
The White Fingerless Ventilated Gloves at $91.00 add perforation across the back for hot weather, in white. Rated 4.85 from 40 reviews.
Fingerless gloves do three things well: they keep your palms off the grips in heat, they give you bare fingertips for a phone or a fuel cap or a cigarette, and they look like nothing else. They are a hot-weather and short-ride tool, and we would rather be straight with you about where they stop working.
Do fingerless gloves work for long motorcycle rides?
Not really, and here is the specific reason. On a long ride the problem is not your palm, it is the back of your hand and your fingers taking direct sun and wind for hours. Fingerless gloves leave the fingers fully exposed, and on a five-hour day in summer that means sunburn across the backs of the fingers and a hard tan line at the first knuckle. In cool weather it means cold fingertips long before the rest of you is cold, because fingers lose heat faster than any other part of the hand.
There is also a wear point. Without a finger tube, the cut edge of the leather sits directly against your knuckle joint, and on a long ride that edge can chafe where a full-finger glove would not.
Our honest recommendation: fingerless gloves are excellent for rides under about two hours in warm weather, for parking-lot and around-town riding, and for riders who genuinely cannot stand full-finger gloves in heat. For a day-long ride, wear a perforated full-finger glove instead. The Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves at $94.00 are the same warm-weather idea with the fingers covered, rated 4.95 from 117 reviews, and they are our highest rated glove.
Are fingerless motorcycle gloves dangerous?
They cover less of your hand than a full-finger glove does, and that is simply a fact rather than a debate. A fingerless glove gives you leather over the palm and the back of the hand, and nothing over the fingers. If you go down, your fingers have no covering.
What we will not tell you is that a full-finger unarmored leather glove is crash protection either. Full-grain deerskin and goatskin give real abrasion resistance, which is a genuine and worthwhile thing, and it is why leather beats textile or mesh on a slide. None of our unarmored gloves are impact protection and none of them carry a CE rating, and we do not describe them that way. If certified impact armor is what you are after, that lives in a different part of our catalog: the Bohn Airtex armored shirt, the Unik armored flannels, the Knox CE knee armor set, and the armor-ready jackets built to take CE inserts.
The reasonable way to think about it: a fingerless glove is more coverage than no glove, less than a full-finger glove, and the right call for short warm rides where you would otherwise ride bare-handed.
What are the best motorcycle gloves for women riders?
The real problem for most women riders is not styling, it is that a lot of motorcycle gloves simply do not start small enough. A men's Small in many lines corresponds to roughly an 8 inch palm, which is larger than a good number of women's hands.
Four of our gloves run XS, which covers roughly a 6 to 6.5 inch palm, and those are the ones we point women riders toward first:
- Classic Deerskin Gauntlets, $129.00, rated 4.88 from 112 reviews. XS through 2XL. The best value on this page and the widest useful size range.
- ILL DOZER Outseam Gloves, $129.00, rated 4.90 from 99 reviews. XS through 2XL.
- Spitfire White Touchscreen Gloves, $135.00, rated 4.90 from 26 reviews. XS through 2XL.
- ILLEST DOZER White Outseam Gloves, $143.00, rated 4.79 from 48 reviews. XS through 2XL.
Two pieces of fitting advice that matter more than the size label. First, measure your palm circumference just below the knuckles and buy to that number rather than to a letter, because letter sizing is not consistent between makers. Second, deerskin stretches considerably across the palm during break-in while finger length barely changes, so if you are between sizes take the smaller one and let it come to you. Our commuting guide has the full measuring method.
We do not currently cut a dedicated women's pattern, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise. What we do have is a genuine XS in four gloves and a deerskin that molds to whatever hand is inside it.
Why Harley Riders Choose Deerskin
Deerskin is softer than cowhide from the first ride, it molds to your hand over time, it breathes in heat, and it stays supple in cold. For a rider spending six to eight hours in the saddle with hands low and relaxed on wide bars, that matters more than any spec sheet. It also damps handlebar buzz better than a stiffer hide, which is a real consideration on a big V-twin. Every Legendary USA glove is cut and sewn in America from American whitetail deerskin.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are classic old school motorcycle gloves?
A period-correct riding glove is plain across the back of the hand with no molded knuckles, contrast panels or branding; it is either short at the wrist or a full gauntlet with nothing in between; its seams are visible and structural, welted or outseam rather than hidden; and it is unlined natural hide, deerskin or goatskin, rather than a lined synthetic. The Legendary Churchill Classic Deerskin Gloves at $99.00 and the Classic Deerskin Gauntlets at $129.00 are the two most traditional patterns we carry.
What are the best cafe racer or vintage leather riding gloves?
Cafe racer style comes from the sixties driving glove rather than the American biker glove: short at the wrist, close fitting, often perforated and often in a light colour. From our range, the Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Driving Gloves at $120.00 are the closest to a period driving glove, the Tan Short Wrist Deerskin Gloves at $94.00 give the more period-correct colour, and the Cadbury White at $94.00 or Spitfire White at $94.00 reference vintage racing whites.
What are the best fingerless gloves for Harley riding?
The Legendary Fingerless Deerskin Gloves at $91.00 are the standard, rated 4.92 from 126 reviews, and they are the best value glove we sell in any category. For hot weather in white, the White Fingerless Ventilated Gloves at $91.00 add perforation across the back, rated 4.85 from 40 reviews. Both are American whitetail deerskin with palm and back coverage and the fingers cut at the first knuckle.
Do fingerless gloves work for long motorcycle rides?
Not well. On a long ride the exposed backs of your fingers take direct sun and wind for hours, which means sunburn and a hard tan line at the first knuckle in summer, and cold fingertips well before the rest of you is cold in cool weather. The cut edge can also chafe at the knuckle joint over a long day. Fingerless gloves are excellent under about two hours in warm weather and for around-town riding. For a full day, wear a perforated full-finger glove such as the Ventilated Touchscreen Deerskin Gloves at $94.00.
Are fingerless motorcycle gloves dangerous?
They cover less of your hand than a full-finger glove, which is simply a fact: you get leather over the palm and back of the hand and nothing over the fingers. It is also worth saying that a full-finger unarmored leather glove is not crash protection either. Full-grain deerskin and goatskin give genuine abrasion resistance, which is why leather beats textile on a slide, but none of our unarmored gloves are impact protection or CE rated. For certified armor, see the Bohn Airtex shirt, the Unik armored flannels, the Knox CE knee armor set and the armor-ready jackets.
What are the best motorcycle gloves for women riders?
The main obstacle is that many glove lines do not start small enough, since a men's Small often means an 8 inch palm. Four Legendary gloves run XS, covering roughly a 6 to 6.5 inch palm: the Classic Deerskin Gauntlets at $75.00, the ILL DOZER Outseam at $129.00, the Spitfire White Touchscreen at $129.00 and the ILLEST DOZER White Outseam at $129.00. Measure your palm circumference and buy to that number rather than a letter, and if between sizes in deerskin take the smaller one.
American-Made. Old School Right.
Every Legendary USA glove is cut and sewn in the USA from American whitetail deerskin. Orders over $150 ship free.
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