With cold and wet weather looming, Prologo has just dropped a reshaped their neoprene glove – the Drop 01 – to keep your hand protected in some of the toughest weather conditions to keep riding. Around freezing on wet roads and trails always seems like the hardest time to keep my hand warm, so I tried out the new Drop gloves. They aren’t perfect – neoprene never really is in my book – but for a few hours in cold & damp conditions, my fingers did stay comfortably warm.

Prologo Drop 01 waterproof neoprene autumn/winter gloves

(All photos/Cory Benson)

Prologo’s second-generation neoprene gloves have been refined together with Bahrain Victorious WorldTour team cyclists to offer better protection from the elements when the weather is miserable.

What’s new is a more rubbery 3mm neoprene that offers great grip, more anatomic shaping for good road bar fit, and longer coverage to keep wind and water out of your sleeves. Plus, they get wider, flat heat-sealed seams to improve durability and make sure cold water stays out. Prologo describes the 3mm material as “relatively thin”, but that’s still thicker than many other neoprene cycling gloves.

The new construction has also been “designed to meet the demands of both road and off-road cycling, where keeping hands protected and functional is essential for maintaining precise control of the handlebars and bike controls.“

First Impressions – How do they feel?

I’m always a bit leery of neoprene gloves, I kinda have a love:hate relationship with them. I’ve often struggled to find their best use case – even though I ride a lot in the cold and in the wet. So, seeing Prologo had a new take on theirs, I was curious to put them to the test.

Three things were most notable to me: the long narrow cuff of the Drop 01, their stitched & oversealed seams, and the relatively thick 3mm neoprene.

The cuff is 4cm longer than the previous neoprene gloves I’ve regularly worn – and longer than Prologo’s original Drop. That did make them a little trickier to stretch on, and quite a bit more difficult to take off after a long ride with sweaty hands. It did mean great overlap with my various jackets, but also interfered with wearing any type of watch while riding with these.

Doubling up stitching and wide heat-sealing the seams feels like a good choice, though. I’ve used stitched-only and thinly welded-only gloves before, and neither survived more than a couple of seasons because of the abuse of roughly pulling them on and off when wet. I’ve only used these for a couple of weeks now. But I feel pretty good that they seem to be much more durable than most.

But really it’s the thicker neoprene than I’m used to that makes the biggest difference.

A bit of good and bad, though…

Thicker neoprene is warmer, but limits movement

I’ve spent more time wearing thinner 2-2.5mm neoprene gloves, which often weren’t quite warm enough for me. The Prologo Drop 01 with 3mm thickness is noticeably warmer and feels more structured. As for real-world usability, the extra insulation does a lot to keep my hands comfortable in the cold. I’ve ridden these in the dry down to -2°C so far, on wet trails from 0-5°C, and in the rain on the groad at around 7°C. All three times, my hands were put into the gloves dry & warm, and then stayed comfortable for 2+ hours.

All three times though, my fingers and palms were wet from sweat, wrinkled like I just got out of a long bath at the end of the ride. I call that the accepted casualty of wearing neoprene. (And you really need a boot dryer to dry these out after any ride!)

My real trouble though, is the limited anatomic curve of the new Drop 01 gloves. The pre-shape is one of their best features, and apparently a bit of improvement over the previous generation. But unfortunately, still a sticking point for me.

While they work pretty well when sitting on the hoods of a road or gravel bike, gripping a round bar was actually quite a lot of work. Riding a mountain bike on frosty trails, my hands literally got tired from forcing the fingers of the glove to wrap all the way around a thin round grip. And I relished the long climbs where I could release my grip and just rest my hands on the bar.

In the drops on the gravel bike, it was a lot better. Which is not surprising, since these were developed with WorldTour road riders. But off-road riders could also surely benefit. And yet, they’re still not quite perfect.

Unsurprisingly, best on dropbars

Leaning on the hoods, the Drop 01 gloves fit nicely over the controls.

And it didn’t require much effort to wrap my two middle fingers behind the brake levers. Sitting on the tops on climbs was also fine. But riding in the drops (or even on the hoods over rough sections) for longer periods needed a lot more force to fully wrap around, gripping the bar. At first, the extra effort to ‘fight’ against the structure of the anatomic curve felt minimal. But after a long ride, my hands were noticeably tired.

My guess is that if I ride in them enough, my hands will actually get stronger. That’s training, right?

But my hope is that I don’t have enough cold & wet rides in a row to ever fully strength-train my hands. If only Prologo had made the anatomic curve of the hand more closed (possibly on all but the index/braking fingers), maybe that would have reduced hand strain? Or maybe a thinner neoprene material on the palm-side for flexibility, and thicker on the back of the hand (and outside of the fingers for warmth?

In any case, I’ll still now reach to these new neoprene gloves for wet and cold riding this winter – both on road & off.

And maybe I’ll come out with stronger hands by springtime?

Tech Details

• 3mm neoprene for insulation and waterproofing
• extra-long cuff to ensure overlap under a rain jacket
• anatomically (partially) pre-curved shape to wrap your handlebar
• flat, heat-sealed seams
• 4 sizes available (S-XL)

• 132g actual weight (size L)

Prologo Drop 01 gloves – Pricing, availability & suitable weather conditions

The new Prologo Drop 01 neoprene gloves sell for 55€, and come in four sizes (S-XL). The same price and size range as the previous generation.

Prologo recommends the new gloves to keep your hands warm down to -5°C/23°F in mostly dry conditions, or down to around 10°C/50°F in constant rain. Of course, how warm your fingers get can be a pretty subjective feeling. But my personal experience so far in wet, but not rainy, sub-freezing temps, suggests that I could probably stay comfortable at least a few °C colder than that range. Your own results may vary.

Get them now directly from Prologo online, or through their dealer bikeshop network.

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