” Falling and crashing are not the same.” As one of the major proponents of not just racing but safety in all aspects of riding, Timeship Racing has been producing safety related products for skating as long as they have been in existence. With their racing-based attentiveness to safety they have release a line of products suited to that end; to provide durable performance-minded gear. In the past we reviewed the Bear Paws gloves by Timeship Racing . This time, we get to take a look at the formidable Tracers .
Tracers Slide Gloves By Timeship
Price: $79 |  |
Construction:
The gloves themselves appear just as the Bear Paws did; formidable. The back hand is studded with carbon fiber, recessed in sealant on the knuckles. The majority of stress points on the glove are primarily a leather-like material with breathable material surrounding. The logo on the back hand pops and all of the material joints and stitching looks clean and tight. The palm is reinforced in all the tight points and the thumb, especially, is covered with a grippy and durable material. The pucks are a good size and the surface of the pucks seems to follow a mild curve. The wrist is large, designed as such to accommodate wrist guards and it comes down the arm a decent distance.
Sliding
The gloves themselves are comfortable to wear and the pucks are small enough to enable most basic hand configurations without inhibiting movement. Nabbing a rail and hopping into a tuck is simple. The pucks are still large enough to spread friction and permit solid slides at speed. The material is slick and slippery, and produces a high-tone when the pucks are sliding or clapped together. The slight curvature of the puck faces seems to help accentuate cornering at high speeds. It's a puck style I had never encountered but found it quite comfortable when leaning out on the toeside for a quick trajectory change.
The slide itself is fast and drag free. The majority of the wear on the pucks is similar to what you would find on most High Density pucks, no snowing or melting of the puck. Typical wear is speedlines and edge fraying --no undue failure of the material ,either during speed runs or sliding. With pucks coming in at $7 a set for Velcro replacements the wear issues on the pucks seem well taken care of and the durable nature of the gloves would allow them to outlast many pairs of pucks. All points of stress on the gloves survived sliding with no wear. The only minor area of wear on the gloves was a minute point from thumb contact which, even with the repetitions of runs in the hallowed halls of the So Cal speed runs, still has yet to effect the integrity of the gloves in any way.
Conclusion
In the Tracers Timeship has delivered exactly what they are known for: high quality, safety inspired race gear. Although the price tag is above all the other gloves on the market, you are getting quality for your dollar.
The high points of the gloves have to be the durability and attention paid to details. The only improvement I would like to see is a wrapping wrist strap. However, that is just a preference point and these gloves were built to accommodate a wrist guard.
There are quite a number of true to style sliders I have ridden with that swear by the tracers even though their primary impetus for development was racing. As a racing glove the Tracers own, both in construction and attention paid to making sure the glove would last. As sliders it comes down to personal preference if your preference is the pinnacle of whole hand durability and lasting performance the Tracers are where it’s at. Check out the full line of Timeship Racing Equipment; including the Tracers at http://www.timeshipracing.com.
