Riding gloves have two main reasons. The first is to protect your hands in case of an accident on your 4-wheeler or motorcycle. The other reason is to provide good grip on the handlebars and prevent accidents like that from happening, especially in deteriorated weather conditions. If the handlebars get wet or slippery, gloves will enable you to keep a good grip.
If you ride a 4-wheeler or motorcycle, you will want to pay special attention to the palms of your gloves, since in case you take a spill the natural human instinct is to spread your palms and attempt to break your fall. If you aren't wearing gloves, you will generally have a really nasty abrasions on your palms. 4-wheeler gloves will help prevent this.
For either type of riding, flexibility is an important concern. You need to be able to grip your handlebars of your 4-wheeler or motorcycle tightly for good steering control and you need to be able to have lever control at the same time. Check out the styles of riding gloves available at Raceway and you will notice not only are they made of lightweight materials, many have pre-curved fingers to insure a good grip.
Previous styles of riding gloves had fingers that would bunch and prohibit the rider from getting the best grip possible on the handlebars of their 4-wheeler or motorcycle. Keeping your hands warm is a job most good riding gloves will do for you. Thor makes some great gloves in their line for this purpose that are well within anyone's price range. 4-wheeler and motorcycle gloves are affordable and will save your hands from unnecessary injuries - if you don't already have a good pair of riding gloves, invest in a good pair today so your next ride will be even safer!