SQlab’s ONE10 isn’t like most serious mountain bike gloves, at first glance it looks pretty normal but peer closer and you’ll see a waterproof lobster mitt clever discreetly tucked away in the cuff. Don’t let that put you off though, this is no commuter gauntlet, instead it’s an innovative and versatile winter wonder.

SQlab’s glove comes in two width options, which is essential for big handed riders like me who want to avoid a tight fit

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Most products from SQlab cost a bomb, and the One10 glove is no different, at £65. It’s simple enough in design though despite the high price, with a claimed waterproof Clarino X fake suede palm, without padding or silicon grippers. The best mountain bike gloves like the 100% Brisker have thin, tactile palms like this.

Touch-screen finger tip means you don’t have to leave one hand out in the cold to mess with your smart phone

Then there’s a thin, stretchy fleece backed soft-shell fabric is used for the back, thumb and over-mitt stash. There are Clarino reinforcing tips on fingers two, three and four, while the index finger gets a touchscreen compatible tip.

The waterproof lobster mitt lives in the cuff, and it covers your middle, ring and little finger when in use. The neoprene cuff also gets a velcro closing tab for a snug fit. There are reflective SQ Lab ‘hyopcratic’ snake and crutch logo’s on the sub glove and mitt. There’s no snot wipe though and they only come in black.

The lobster cover unfurled from its resting place in the cuff

Performance

As someone with paws like a badger, having a wide sizing option in gloves is awesome. It meant I could get a large size that fitted me perfectly, rather than having to get an extra large and put up with saggy, empty fingertips. There’s enough stretch in the palm and the upper that the simple cut still fitted me, well, like a glove.

A thin and tactile palm gives the ONE10 glove a great connection with your grips

With temperatures at the higher end of the single digit range, the thin fleece was enough to keep my hands warm. The unpadded palm means excellent connection and feedback when dry too. The connective tab on the finger works as well as most too. By which I mean it’s like handing your phone to your nan to show her a picture/video, at which point she somehow scrolls onto the dark web or turns it off entirely. They’re not as warm as an intermediate weight glove like a 100% Brisker either, so I definitely wouldn’t call them a winter glove.

The 100% Brisker is still the best winter glove out there, and our pick for anything below 3°C

The lack of silicon traction strips also meant my hands slid about if the gloves or grips got wet. Whether it was seeping through the untaped seams or just soaking through the ‘waterpoof’ palms the SQ’s don’t stay dry long on the underside in wet weather either.

Happily the pull out mitt is much more effective at bouncing showers and windchill. That let me go several degrees colder without my fingers freezing. The downside is that my unprotected thumb would really complain. The mitt isn’t very breathable either so the gloves can get soggy with sweat if you’re working hard, but they do dry quickly. Apart from a bush related knuckle hole (why does that sound so bad?) they’ve also proved tough. Not least because the wider sizing means I haven’t burst most of the seams apart in just a few weeks, like I do on most gloves.

Ideal for bouncing imaginary basket balls too