With so many different brands and features to chose from, searching for a new set of Dual Sport gloves can be a daunting task. Prices range from low cost to quite expensive and if you look at your local dealership, choices may be limited. The number of options online can be overwhelming, to the point where it becomes difficult to decide which features you really need and how much you should spend.

Rocky Mountain ATV/MC house brand A.R.C. is trying to make that decision a whole lot easier with the introduction of the Battle Born Gloves. Built with high-quality goat aniline leather, the Battle Born gloves are not only comfortable but also quite durable and offer good abrasion resistance in the event of an accident. Hands often take the brunt of abuse in a fall and these gloves have impact absorbing padding on top of the hand, on 3 of the fingers, and on the palm to help keep you protected.

Some of the other nice features are a moisture-wicking polyester comfort liner, a nylon stretch panel on the back of the hand and reflective piping to help make you more visible to other motorists. One of the more unique features of these gloves are the touchscreen-compatible finger tips that make using a GPS, smart phone or other touchscreen device possible while wearing gloves. With all of these features, you might expect the Battle Born Gloves to have a huge price tag. Surprisingly they are actually relatively inexpensive for what they offer, coming in at just $34.99.

How They Performed

While testing the Battle Born Gloves, we experienced nearly every type of terrain and condition that adventure riders might experience. Temperatures ranged from the mid thirties all the way up to the low eighties Fahrenheit and the terrain ranged from long highway stretches to technical trail riding. Throughout it all, the gloves performed quite well and proved comfortable for nearly all of the temperatures that we encountered. Leather gloves may not offer the breathability of a lightweight off-road glove, but they do have a nylon stretch panel on the backhand and moisture-wicking liner that help keep hands cool and dry in warmer weather. The only time swapping to a warmer glove was necessary was on one of the coldest mornings in higher altitudes.

Like most leather gloves, the Battle Born gloves do take a little while to break in, and get more comfortable with use. These gloves do seem to run just a bit small, but the goat skin material will stretch out a little bit with use. If you are close to the limit on a certain size, you may want to consider going up a size. Luckily, we did not get a chance to test out the crash protection features of these gloves, but they do feel like they offer better than average protection if you were to go down. It is important to point out that these dual sport gloves have more of a dirt focus and don’t offer hard palm sliders or hard knuckle protection that may be found on some of the more touring-oriented dual sport gloves.

With more GPS units adding touch-sensitive screens and smart phones becoming more useful as navigation and photographic tools, touchscreen fingers are a great feature to have. Being able to use these devices on the move, or to be able to use them without taking your gloves off is a huge time saver. We found that while the touch screen feature usually works, it’s not flawlessly. It takes a firm press and some practice making the gloves interact with the screens correctly. I was able to access most of the major features with the gloves on, but some of the more finely-tuned actions did require taking the gloves off.

Who Are They For?

Adventure Riders that spend significant time in the dirt and want good protection, comfort and high-end features in a dual sport glove, without the huge price tag.

With premium features like goat skin leather construction, touchscreen finger tips and a moisture-wicking comfort liner, the Battle Born gloves offer value that’s hard to beat at $34.99.

Our Verdict

At $34.99, there really aren’t many other gloves out there that match the value these offer. The only downside that we were able to find was with the accuracy of touch screen fingers. Some device screens worked better than others, so if this feature is the main reason that you are buying the gloves you may want to test them at home on your device before taking them on a ride. Rocky Mountain ATV/MC has a great return policy, so if you aren’t pleased with them for any reason, they will exchange them once for free.

A.R.C. Battle Born Gloves Specs

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Photos by Chad Berger

Author: Chad Berger

He’s a freelance journalist, photographer and tour guide from Wisconsin. Since 2004, Chad has been riding dual sport and adventure bikes all over the Midwest, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Moab, Baja, Alaska and many other places in between. He shares his experiences through the photography, videos and stories he produces from his trips. In 2008, Chad created a 600-mile dual sport route called the Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail (TWAT), which eventually led to his becoming a tour guide for RIDE Adventures.