Cold Hands

[boris]

Unlike me (wimp), my good lady rides her bike come sun, rain or snow. As the cold descends (in Scotland anyway), cold hands ensue. Does anyone out there have any recommendations regarding heated grips/gloves that would help her out. I'm buying! Thanks for reading..

[PaulV]

Boris,
I've got a set of Oxford that have a battery charge meter built in so only come on if the battery is healthy, 4 settings I think and because of the battery monitoring you can wire directly on to the contacts, no need to wire through the ignition switch or other switched circuits. Come in around the 40 quid mark I think.

[Mr.Number]

Hi Boris.

From a glove perspective I can strongly recommend the following.

A pair of merino wool base layer gloves ( about £20 ). These are very thin but act to block the cold. These are to be worn under your choice of bike gloves. Alpinestars Polar gloves are fantastic. Gore-tex and incredibly comfy on the inside. These at the moment run at about £100.

This combination does the business on the longer runs when the cold has the opportunity to bite in.

[gregski]

I went through some gloves and heated grips and always got cold finger tips I'm going to try the EXO² Heated Motorcycle Gloves as soon as Infinity gets the stock some people on here say they are the dogs b..... a bit price but worth it
http://www.exo2.co.uk/

[Nickj]

Keep your core temperature up and the blood coming out of your body is warmer to start with.
Start with silk or merino, any serious outdoor shop for trunk and legs.
Good gloves and not too tight with silk or merino gloves underneath will buy a bit of extra time before it all starts to hurt. Gloves
Electric gloves have to be the ultimate, the exo's do eat 1.6 A a pair so battery needs to be good

[J.P]

I've got the EXO² Heated Motorcycle Gloves and used them for a few years. Much better than heated grips but you'll also need the thermostat control as they get really hot on full power.
I've got heated grips and they aren't as good.

[He11cat]

Im ditching my heated gloves too hot for me!!! wore them once on a short trip in freezing conditions they work!! but too well for me... gone back to heated grips... this was in minus temps !

Gloves work better and keep your whole hands warm however I get off the bike and forget I am conected and stuff.. not to mention wiring myself up wrong...I felt like a kid with those mittens with string that goes through the arms.

Wool is amazing stuff it keeps you warm when your cold and can keep you cool when your hot which I know doesn't make sence but is true and it wicks away moisture .
You can lanolise wool to waterproof it and it still does it job ie wicking.

So thats another tip
Lanolin in warm water a couple of tablespoons immerse the wool and squish in the water leave for a few hours roll it in a towel to get out moisture then hang to air dry .
would help if you gloves leak a bit and you had a merino glove layer.

[Mark Taylor]

I use Oxford heated grips (about £40) they have a thermostat to controll them up to 55deg C - proper toasty! wish I'd had em years ago, I ride 12miles to (and from) work but I still get freezing cold thumbs, am toying with fitting some dirtbike type 'brush guards' to combat wind chill.

[boris]

Thanks for all the tips and pointers. Guess now it's down to my good-lady and my plastic. Regarding our bonkers weather, on Monday I had to scrape the ice from the car windows, air temp was 0c. and there was a 2in fall of fresh snow on the Cairngorms. Today at 10am it's 15c??????

[animaluk]

I have Held freezer Gloves never had to turn on the heated grips since i had them which is a few years

http://www.getgeared.co.uk/HELD_2570_Freezer_Winter_Motorcycle_Glove

[He11cat]

What your crochet ones with the string through the arms????

No decent gloves and hot grips work well.. less restrictive I find .

[Scotty]

I am toying with fitting some dirtbike type 'brush guards' to combat wind chill.

its a good look, perticulary in yellow. :)

[boris]

He11cat, If your looking for a home for your heated gloves i'm (we're) interested. My good lady has small hands..

[simon_g]

I use Oxford heated grips (about £40) they have a thermostat to controll them up to 55deg C - proper toasty! wish I'd had em years ago, I ride 12miles to (and from) work but I still get freezing cold thumbs, am toying with fitting some dirtbike type 'brush guards' to combat wind chill.

I got some of the Acerbis ones (designed for street bikes - attach at the bar end) last winter and they do keep the windblast off your hands nicely at higher speeds. Adds a bit of width for filtering though.

Might put them up for sale, I'll be away all winter so no point fitting them this time!

[Mark Taylor]

Could be interested, how much?what colour?(red please) does the fitting prevent a bar end mirror being fitted?Any photos?

[simon_g]

http://ukmonster.co.uk/monster/showthread.php?t=35659&highlight=acerbis

Not red (although could be sprayed I guess), and will prevent a bar-end mirror being fitted.

[Mark Taylor]

You have a PM.

[boris]

Good lady reports that the gritters have been out overnight, so probably mean that'll the Duc will be hibernating soon. At the weekend i fitted a pair of Motrax handlebar muffs to her bike. Not exactly asthetic but on her 1st use to work today (+1deg C), she said they were great, made a whole world of difference. Happy Bunny..

[He11cat]

Oxford do like a heated cuff that goes over your grips.
That's another option .

[utopia]

I made a pair of fibreglass hand guards. They fit via a couple of bolts and some short lengths of rubber petrol pipe fastened to a short length of stud through the lever pivot point.... neater than it sounds and they're removable in seconds. No fixing at the bar ends, so no extra width and no problem with bar-end mirrors.
Definite improvement from reduced wind chill, and they're not obtrusive at all.
I'll try and post a pic.
Might even consider a short production run if there's enough interest.......?

[PETE.AKO]

Unlike me (wimp), my good lady rides her bike come sun, rain or snow. As the cold descends (in Scotland anyway), cold hands ensue. Does anyone out there have any recommendations regarding heated grips/gloves that would help her out. I'm buying! Thanks for reading..

Try some of these hand gards thay work so well i left them on in the summer,there from KTM at £40 the best ££s iav spent,http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj13/Bikerpete_photos/1000BIKESME005.jpg

[Phatty]

Oxford heated grips are rubbish. The throttle grip gets hotter than the left grip and your clutch fingers get too cold if you're doing a lot if stop start town riding.

[He11cat]

You may have a duff pair:(
I had daytona hot grips and they ran on start up to hot then when you put them on run stone cold .
As I said I got Oxford heated sports grips .sports grips are so much less bulky! And the temp control is superb.

I know there was a few problems with the Oxford standard grips just over 2 years ago but think they ironed it out.
How old are yours and are they standards?

[lisyloo]

I have the "hot hands" (the wrap around ones).
On the whole I think they are very good.

However one does get hotter than the other for sure.
Also I find whilst they warm the main part of my hands, the fingertips get cold (because my finger tips hang down and don't wrap around).

I am going to get some hand guards (barkbusters) to keep off the wind chill.

I have some big muffs but they fill my mirrors - the left one in particualr.
I ride with my left arm high than my right and I can't see much in my left mirror so I don't like them much.

On the plus side my feet are toasty and there is some heat coming through the seat on a long ride.
There is definitely a benefit from the air cooled engine in the feet department. I used to get cramp in my feet on my old bike, but never had cold feet on the monster.

[Nick_M]

I have used the Exo heated gloves for the last two years and they are toasty when its mildly cold and gently warm when its freezing.

If the sun comes out and the windchill dies down they can make your hands sweat though....

On my new bike I have fitted Oxford heated sports grips and a lead for the Exo gloves so that I can pick and choose. Sometimes the day is warm enough for summer gloves, but then gets cold when the sun goes down, then I can use the heated grips to take the chill off.

The Exo gloves do heat all of the hand and fingers though so it doesn't matter where you have your fingers, they are still warm. I think the gloves would have the edge over the grips as they are heating the top of your hand where the cold air would normally hit, and therefore stopping it chilling you in the first place, whereas the grips are trying to warm your hand up from the inside out whilst the back of your hand is still getting the chilled air on it.

Nick

[cairojay]

I just bought some BKS Gloucesters and they feel really warm and comfortable. I guess it depends on the length of your daily commute; anything over half an hour and I think that you need some kind of heated something or other as I don't think there is any winter glove that stops the cold completely.