Motorcycle gloves are part of your safety equipment responsible for protecting your hands. Other than selecting the gloves that fit your hands perfectly, you need to take care of them so that they last as long as possible.
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to clean or maintain your motorcycle gloves. That is why I wrote this article to help you with the proper care of your motorcycle gloves.
So how do you clean your motorcycle gloves? You need to determine the type of gloves since leather gloves have a different cleaning process than textile ones. Textile ones can be cleaned with a more aggressive approach, while leather ones need to be cleaned carefully. You need to clean the outside first and the inside second.
If you want to know more about your motorcycle maintenance and cleaning process, you can find it all further in this article. Stay with us to learn more.
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How to Clean Motorcycle Gloves?
Motorcycle gloves can be made from many materials, but there are two main motorcycle gloves types that you can get on the market. These are leather and textile gloves.
Textile, mesh, or fabric motorcycle gloves are made from durable synthetic materials, which means that you can clean them just like any other fabric. On the other hand, leather gloves need to be cleaned more carefully since leather is very sensitive material, and therefore you need to use a cleaning method that is not so harsh to avoid damaging the leather.
Every motorcycle rider knows that buying a good, perfectly fitting motorcycle glove can be a pretty expensive piece of motorcycle gear. That is why you need to take care of it to last much longer than it would if you don’t care and clean it properly.
How to Clean and Wash Textile, Fabric, and Mesh Motorcycle Gloves?
The good thing about motorcycle gloves made from textile, fabric, or mesh is that these materials can be easily cleaned. These materials are very durable, which means they can be cleaned using aggressive methods like scrubbing or washing them in a washing machine.
Step 1: Wash the Gloves
The first thing you need to do is wash your motorcycle gloves. You need to put your gloves in the sink and fill it with water so you can soak your gloves entirely. Use a baby shampoo or similar mild detergent and pour it in water. Make sure that the entire glove is wet so it is easier and more efficient to clean.
Do not apply the cleaner directly to your gloves. You need to use a gentle cleanser because a harsh cleaner can damage the material of the gloves.
Scrub your gloves gently like you would scrub any other fabric material. If you notice any stubborn spots and you see that these stains are hard to clean, take a toothbrush and use it to clean these spots. Another helpful method is to wear your gloves as you wash them.
Don’t rush with cleaning the inside of your motorcycle gloves, and make sure you clean it thoroughly. Your gloves inside absorb grime, skin oil, and sweat, especially during hot summer rides. There is a great possibility that you will need to repeat the process a couple of times if you have never washed your gloves before or if it has been a long period since your last washing.
Step 2: Dry the Gloves
You need to avoid squeezing your gloves during the drying process because squeezing can damage your motorcycle gloves from both outside and inside. What can happen is that some glove parts can be torn if your gloves have developed some weak spots during intense use.
The best way to dry your motorcycle gloves is to hang them up so the water drips from them, and you wait until they are completely dry. When you choose the place where you will hang your gloves to dry, you need to make sure that it has enough air flow and direct sunlight since it will dry the gloves the fastest and easiest way possible, and at the same time, it won’t do any damage to your gloves.
What the sunlight will do is make the water evaporate much faster than it would if you leave your gloves in your house to dry. At the same time, the sun has its ultraviolet rays that, in combination with intense temperature, will disinfect your motorcycle glove, which is another helpful factor in the context of your hygiene protection.
How to Clean and Wash Leather Motorcycle Gloves?
Leather is a very sensitive material, and you need to handle it with great caution, especially when you wash and clean your leather motorcycle gloves. Leather gloves are more sensitive than textile ones are. There are some differences in the cleaning approach of leather gloves, and we will write you everything you need to know, so don’t worry. Here we go.
Superficial Cleaning
So cleaning your leather motorcycle gloves will start with cleaning all the grime, dust, and dirt from the surface of your leather motorcycle gloves.
Note: Water doesn’t do well in the cleaning process of leather motorcycle gloves. It will make the leather gloves stiffen, shrink and shrivel. The gloves will lose their softness, and they will become useless since they won’t be any good as protective motorcycle gloves, and you know that your gloves must protect your hands all the time.
To clean your leather motorcycle gloves, you will need to use an oil-based cleanser and carefully rub the surface of your motorcycle leather gloves. The best material for rubbing the oil-based cleanser is a soft cotton piece of fabric since the cotton is gentle and won’t cause any damage or scratch your leather gloves.
Rub the oil cleanser in circular moves until you remove all the dirt from your gloves. If you notice any stubborn stains on your gloves, there shouldn’t be any problem removing them. All you will need to do is to repeat this circular move a couple of extra times until these stains are removed.
These circular movements will create a lather that you will need to wipe away using a new clean piece of cotton fabric or some soft paper towel.
Dry The Gloves
You need to keep leather motorcycle gloves away from intense heat and direct sunlight because it can damage your gloves. So drying leather gloves is a little bit different process than drying textile ones. Instead of putting your gloves in direct sunlight, the best way you will dry your leather gloves is to put them in some well-ventilated place that has enough airflow.
The sunlight and heat can make your leather gloves stiffen and crack, which will damage the surface of the gloves, making them uncomfortable for wearing, but it will also lower their safety factors.
Condition The Motorcycle Gloves
Once you have cleaned your leather motorcycle gloves and you are entirely done with cleaning the gloves outside, it is now time to condition them. You can choose between many leather conditioners on the market, but it is best to choose a leather conditioner that is the same or close to the same color as your motorcycle leather gloves. You will need to use oil to fill the layers that you may have damaged a bit or rubbed off during the cleaning process.
Note: Use your leather conditioner on all the surfaces of the gloves, but pay close attention to covering the stitches and seams too. These are spots that have the most exposure to your sweat, which means that they dry faster than the rest of the gloves.
After covering your entire gloves with a leather conditioner, you need to leave them for about 30-60 minutes, so the conditioner sets in. If you notice that you need to apply more layers of conditioner, do it.
Clean The Inside
Once you are done cleaning the outside of your motorcycle leather gloves, now is time to clean the inside. The interior is full of accumulated grime, sweat, and dirt which means that you will need to take your time with cleaning it. You need to clean the inside as thoroughly as you did the outside.
The first thing you need to do is to flip your gloves inside out. This will give you complete access to the interior of the gloves. As you are in a cleaning process, it is also a smart thing to disinfect your gloves, and to do so; you can spray the area with alcohol. Alcohol will disinfect the interior of your gloves and eliminate odor-causing bacteria, which make your gloves stink. This means that not only will your gloves be nice and shiny, but they will also smell nice.
A mixture of cornstarch and baking soda will eliminate odors. You need to store your leather gloves in some well-ventilated place since it will air them out and dry them thoroughly so you will be able to use them again.
Importance Of Cleaning Motorcycle Gloves
Cleaning your motorcycle glove has many advantages. Not only will it make your gloves look nice, but it will also prolong the lifespan of your motorcycle gloves.
Better Protection
Motorcycle gloves protection comes in many forms. They protect your hands in case of a motorcycle crash and you falling off your motorcycle. Not only that, but the gloves also protect your hands and fingers from calluses, especially if you are on longer rides.
If you don’t take care of your motorcycle gloves, they will not offer the best protection possible since the accumulation of grime, sweat, and oil can damage the surface of your motorcycle gloves.
Another thing that may happen is that all of these harmful factors “eat” and damage the EPS padding that is responsible for cushioning your hands. Any eroded part of your motorcycle gloves can get easily torn, and it will most likely fall apart, resulting in motorcycle gloves with lousy protection, which means that your hands and skin are vulnerable in case of any accidental scenario.
Sanitation
All of this grime, oil, and dirt will be excellent ground for odor-causing bacteria to bread which will cause your motorcycle gloves to smell bad, and you will need to perform a cleaning process. If we look at wearing dirty motorcycle gloves while riding, there are many disadvantages because all this accumulated dirt, oil, and sweat can make the lining degrade much faster than it would if your gloves were clean. Another reason is that dirty gloves are uncomfortable and unhygienic to wear, even if you are the one only using them, and that is only your sweat inside.
Luckily you have everything you need to clean your motorcycle gloves, both leather and textile.
How Frequently Should You Wash Your Motorcycle Gloves?
The frequency of washing your motorcycle gloves depends on how frequently you use your motorcycle gloves and in what conditions. If you ride every day during a nice hot sunny summer day, your hands will sweat more, and your gloves will need to be washed more often than if you ride during cold winter days when your hands don’t sweat so much.
You should wash motorcycle gloves once a week from the outside and once every month if you are riding regularly. On the other hand, if you have just returned from a long trip and notice that your gloves have a terrible smell, don’t wait any longer but wash them immediately or as soon as possible.
Just follow the cleaning procedure described above in the article, and you will have no problems with cleaning your motorcycle protective gloves.
Final Thoughts
Motorcycle gloves are a very important piece of your motorcycle protective gear. This means that you need to take care of them properly like any other protective gear such as a helmet, jacket, boots, or jeans. I have both leather and textile motorcycle protective gloves, as you may see in my pictures above in this article, since I personally like every known type of motorcycle ride, from street and racing to dirt and off-road riding.
That is why I have every type of motorcycle gloves, and in my riding career, I have already changed some pairs because, with all the care and cleaning, every glove has its lifespan, and it doesn’t matter how hard you care about them and you put the effort in maintaining them, they will wear out after some time. But it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take care of them, because like I said, proper care and cleaning not only care but definitely will prolong the lifespan of your motorcycle protective gloves.
I hope you like this article about cleaning and maintaining your motorcycle protective gloves, and you learned all information you were looking for.