No Glove, No Love

Gonna be another quick one today.  Short on time and need to get outta here so I can finish up my costume for tomorrow's annual Halloween day/party extravaganza.  And, the Pats are on tonight and they'll be kicking some Dolphin ass up and down the field - hopefully!  Lynner will owe me a beer if we win!

So anyway; on to the glove thing.  The tan fingerless riding gloves I've been using for the past 6 or 8 years have pros and cons.  The pros are that they look great (I think), and I've never seen anyone else wearing a set like them, which I like even more.  The cons are that, to be honest; they are kinda thin and wouldn't offer much protection if I went down.  Being thin also lends to them wearing out sooner than a sturdier glove would.  And one more con; I've always had a tough time finding replacements when the ones I have, finally wear out.  The only place I could ever find them was at the Keene swap meet.  On-line?  Oh believe me; I've looked.  I had the brand name, size, model, etc.  And all I could ever find was huge lots of the Medium size.  I wear the Large size (thanks Dad)  :-D

But anyway, after yet another trip up to the swap meet and having no luck finding them once again, I realized that I needed to improvise.  So, I began searching hardware stores, on-line welding supply places, etc.  Looking for a beefy leather glove, in tan, that would work for what I needed.

Low and behold, I found what I was looking for at my corner Ace hardware store.  Sweet!  But they needed a little tweaking...

First up; the latest pair of the gloves I've been using for years...

They look mummified!  Like they were peeled off of some ancient Egyptian biker or something.

Next up; the new gloves...

Now what the F...the pic is loading upside down.  Let me try and fix it...nope, no luck.  Sorry...

The tweaking they needed was to measure the angle of the finger/fingerless and cut the new gloves to match.  Voila!

Dammit...this one's upside down, too.

Oh well, if you click on 'em to expand 'em, you'll get the idea.

These gloves are thick and sturdy.  And the stitching is top-notch.  I meant to put a few drops of Super Glue onto the spots where I'd scissored right through the stitching, but I didn't get around to it for a few months (yes, that's how long ago I made these gloves).  The stitching held for quite a while, even though it was no longer tied off at all, since I'd cut the fingertips off.  Only about a week ago did I finally break down and get some Super Glue, because the seams had started to spread just a wee bit.  I just lined up the seams, applied a little line of glue, held them in place with a binder clip for about a minute, and they were rock solid.

There ya go.  No need to drop a ton of dough on a good set of gloves when for short money you can pick up a set of normal work gloves and turn 'em into something that nobody else has...

...unless they read this blog and decide they like them.  Or that they're gonna make a pair of these just to bust my chops...

Not that I know anyone that would do that...

Ride Hard, Take Chances