There's no shortage of reasons to wear long-fingered gloves in seasons other than winter. When it's in the 50's and above, you don't need the warmth. But what you can use year-round is the hand protection offered only with full-fingered gloves. Most of us live in a Blackberry/Excel/Firefox/Photoshop world where our Mavis Beacon-like 60-words-a-minute fingers serve as our essential interface to the digital world. If you shred your fingers in a bike crash, your inability to manipulate your STI levers will be the least of your worries. Good luck trying to work and trying to communicate.

Make no mistake, the Assos longSummerGloves are built for warm-weather usage. They offer virtually nothing in terms of insulation (though if you're descending the Col du Galibier in July, you'd be better off wearing these than short-fingered gloves to stave off the chill). The upper hand fabric is a super-light micromesh -- lighter, in fact, than what Assos uses on their standard summerGloves. The palms are identical to the summerGloves, with vibration-killing padding strategically in place to prevent your hands from going numb during a long ride. The bottom side of all the fingers have the same moderately thick mesh used on the non-padded sections of the palm. If you hit the deck, the pavement will need to burn through the mesh before getting to your skin. A little protection goes a long way.

The longSummerGloves are available in 5 colors, in 5 sizes.