LONG TERM UPDATE: The Tours are still going strong after a few months of daily use. Since the gloves are NOT pre-curved, they bunch up in the palm area which is noticeable and annoying. Durability is good. No sign of threads unraveling or leather wearing through. Of course, the only test that matters is abrasion resistance in a crash, and I’m not going to simulate that and ruin these nice gloves. These are not waterproof of course, so they soak up water like a sponge. It takes one full day to dry them out (don’t apply artificial heat!); so I keep a couple pairs of cheap leather gloves around for ‘after rain’ days while my Tours dry out. STILL: Recommended.
Bottom line: Recommended, if cost is no issue to you.
I bought these for three season, dry weather use. By design, they are not insulated and have no impact mitigation such as hard panels over the knuckles. They also are not waterproof, which allows them to retain good breathability.
They use 2.75 oz US deer skin, with double stitched, doubled panels on the palm and over the knuckles. I have not seen any scientific studies on comparative levels of protection, but rumor has it that deer leather is more abrasion resistant than other leathers of similar thickness. Evidently, the process of natural selection allowed deer with tough skin to resist scratches and/or impalement on the numerous dead branches protruding from dead trees. Especially when fleeing from predators, the deer with relatively thin skin, got infections or fatal wounds which took them out of the reproductive game. Thus, generation after generation, deer with tougher skin survived to reproduce. Their lazy, cud-chewing relatives which we know as cows had less environmental pressure to develop tough skin.
Lee Park's Deer Tours (tan)
These gloves run a little long in sizing. I normally am between a medium and a large in gloves, but these mediums fit me loosely, and the fingers are a little long. This works out well on a bike, since gripping the bar usually pushes my fingertips against the inside of other gloves, effectively reducing my reach to the clutch and brake. These have no such problem.
My one gripe about these gloves is the placement of the seams in the palm. One seam runs directly across the high pressure area which runs perpendicular from the web between the thumb and forefinger. You can see this in the picture of the gloves above. After an hour of gripping and shifting through traffic, the constant awareness of this seam becomes annoying. It would have been preferable for this glove to use the so-called ‘wing thumb’ pattern, which keeps the palm and thumb seam free. Then, use a larger reinforcement panel which comes closer to the first joint.
One requirement I have for all my motorcycle gloves is the addition of a strap around the wrist to keep the glove on during a crash/slide sequence. The crux situation would be if my arm was under my body and I was sliding along the asphalt. I absolutely do not want the glove to come off in that situation. These Park’s gloves do have a strap, but the hook segment of the velcro is only 1.5 inches in length, and only 1/2 inch wide. I dont have much confidence that is sufficient. It would have been much better to use a simple leather strap with double D rings (like you find on motorcycle helmet straps). This would last much longer then velcro, and also give a higher quality appearance to the glove than cheap velcro.
Lee Parks Deer Tours
To be fair, every pair of gloves I have evaluated are lacking in some area. I have not found my ideal gloves with double deer-skin panels, knuckle armor, and back-wrist straps with metal hardware.
At $80 plus shipping, these Park’s are rather expensive. There are many options at less than 1/2 that cost. For example, the ones below have no palm seam (wing thumb), and are now $24.(but no strap). Google ‘deerskin motorcycle gloves’ for other options.
To summarize, if I had this purchase to do over, I’d get one pair of unlined summer, and one pair of lined winter deer gloves for the same price. However, if you can drop eighty bucks without much care, these are good gloves.
I’ll update this review with a long term report after a year or so.
Deer Skin Gloves, an alternate choice
Vir quod Machina 
You must be logged in to post a comment.