Gloves vs No Gloves

Yesterday, on my bicycle ride, I decided to try an experiment. On the ride out, I wore my cycling gloves, and when I reached the half way point, I took them off, threw them in my bag, and rode back without gloves at all.  Why would I do such a thing? Well, for starters, I'm not entirely sure the gloves are doing anything for my hands and wrists.

Riding gloveless on the return ride home

I've noticed recently that, even after purchasing a smaller size of gloves, there seems to be a lot of movement of the gloves on my hand; so much so that it creates strange blisters that are highly uncomfortable. I also don't believe that the gel gloves are reducing any vibrations or road shaking to my hands.  I wasn't sure if this was all in my head, so I thought I'd try riding without them.

Because the Hillborne is a steel bicycle, the vibrations are pretty minimal. I don't notice having aching in my hands from vibrations, though I do, at times have pressure issues (this is true on all of my bicycles though, including upright style bikes). The verdict on the gloves vs no gloves question?  I'm not sure they are making any kind of difference, and in fact, I may be better off without them. Time will tell, but I thought this was an interesting aspect to find about longer distance rides.