Richa Bobber glove in brown

When this glove was first presented to me by the Richa importer, I dismissed it out of hand; no pun intended. I hated the name, as I don’t want to be told what gloves to wear on what bike. Knowing that it was yet another copy of the original Roland Sands Diesel glove, knowing that just about every ‘hipster’ glove maker had a glove like it in their range, and knowing that the faux-distressed leather it was constructed from is normally dry, stiff and uncomfortable, I put on the kind of bored, get-me-out-of-here face that my godson always presents to me when I suggest that we pay a visit to somewhere really exciting like The Imperial War Museum. But out of sheer politeness, I agreed to try it on; and found myself, whilst attempting not to lose face, having to transition into a state of mild enthusiasm.

Now Richa, as I have often said before, is not really a core brand for us here at Motolegends. We usually, however, find a couple of pieces within their collection that we quite like, although we have always acknowledged that they punch above their weight when it comes to gloves. (Another subtle but clever pun there for those who are keeping up).

The glove is made from cowhide on the back with goat skin on the palm. The distressed leather on the Bobber doesn’t actually feel stiff, but the secret to the gloves exceptional comfort is the fact that down the fingers you get some kind of Lycra-style inserts. These really do turn the Bobber into the kind of glove you could happily wear all day long.

The spec., of course, what you might expect. You get a hard knuckle protector that is backed with some kind of memory foam. The palm is also padded with what feels like the same stuff. You get concertina banding on a couple of the fingers and at the wrist. There are a few perforations for airflow. The wrist fastens by means of a short zip and a poppered strap. You get black Scotchlite reflective piping on the back of the hand. You also get touchscreen-sensitive index fingers.

Obviously, as there’s no membrane involved, this is very much a summer glove, although it’s not the type of high air-flow glove you’d wear off the beaten track. Rather, this is a lightweight, easy-to-wear glove that, despite its dubious genealogy, is still pretty cool looking. You wouldn’t wear it on a race bike. You wouldn’t wear it on an adventure bike, but on any kind of upright, cool, retro, cruiser or classic bike, these gloves would probably look dead right. You could even wear them on a bobber!