The Lizard Skins Monitor SL Gel and the Lizard Skins Monitor AM are full fingered mountain bike gloves that come in a wide variety of sizing that range from xx-small to xx-large. I was very excited to try these Monitor gloves because they offer nine different styles and such a wide range of sizing to improve your chances of finding the best fit for your style of riding and personal preference.
What I Liked
Monitor SL Gel
Functional features. Both gloves offer silicone prints on the fingers (the red lines on the first two fingers pictured right) and perforated AX suede palms which I felt helped with the grip on the bar. The touch screen compatible fingertips worked well when it was time to take a trail picture or answer a call. The TPR wrist strap was easy to adjust and held the glove on nicely and a snot patch that was soft and did exactly what it was designed to do.
What I didn’t Like
Padding. The Monitor AM ($31.99) is designed to have less padding on the palm which I liked and more padding on the top part of the hand which I didn’t like. I feel like the extra padding made the top of the glove itchy. The Monitor SL Gel ($34.99) is designed to have more padding on the palm which I did not like. It was actually painful and made my hands fall asleep. It also has less padding on the top of the hand which I liked a lot and it felt much better than the SL Gel.
Translating women’s sizing to the unisex sizing was off. I had to guess at the sizing. Since I wear a medium – large in women’s sizing, I picked medium for both gloves. Both were a bit too big. After wearing them once I washed them and found that they tightened up a little. The AM ended up fitting better however, it still bunched up on my palm because it was still a little big. The Monitor SL Gel was still overall too big for my hands.
Consistency. The medium Monitor SL Gel (size range S to XXL with a few colors available in XS) fit bigger than the medium Monitor AM (size range (size range XS to XXL).
Final Thoughts and a Parting Shot
The Monitor SL Gel and the Monitor AM had many features that were great. I felt they had excellent gripping capabilities. I loved the snot patch and the TPR wrist strap. Unfortunately, they don’t have women-specific sizing and that affects the fit. I recommend you try on a pair before you buy.
Testing the Gloves in Cable, WI
