Heated gloves...?

[stevewestern]

Yup, I'm a soft southerner who finds that heated grips do little to really keep hands warm so I'm wondering about getting some heated gloves.
I don't do a lot of long distance rides so my feeling is battery powered rather than plugging into the bike battery and forgetting to disconnect.
Any suggestions ?

[SimonW]

I won a pair of wired heated gloves at the London MCN show a few years ago. I was talking to the folk on the Gerbing stand and one of the things they said was that the trouble with the battery powered gloves is that, like all batteries, the glove batteries need to be kept in good condition. People naturally regularly charge them over the winter when they're in use, but neglect them for the other 9 months of the year, causing them to fail the following winter. Worth bearing in mind.

[Rixington43]

My missus has the Gerbing gloves that you plug in to the bike and they've lasted her years (although I have had the soldering iron out more than once). You can't really forget to disconnect them as such, unless you spend a lot of time sat on the bike with the engine off and even that could be sorted by wiring them in through a switched relay box. Once the wire is run through your favourite winter jacket, they seem very unobtrusive to use with break connectors for each glove and then one between the heat controller and the tail which stays on the battery.
As a side note, we also recently fitted BarkBusters to her bike and she hardly ever uses the heated gloves now as taking the wind chill away has meant standard warm gloves are enough in all but the coldest weather.

[Brockett]

Heated grips are more effective with handguards and even better with overmits. I have heated inner gloves that plug into my heated jacket but require a larger size outer glove and I can feel the somewhat lumpy heater wire . I have considered Gerbing and so I'm interested in following this thread.

[SimonW]

Grips are great when it's chilly, but on really cold days there's nothing quite like heated gloves.

[stevewestern]

I have bad circulation which is my excuse for needing them despite hand guards and heated grips. I also have a lot of power tools so am used to charging batteries every few weeks and from what you all say gloves are worth the cost.
I'm going to have to find a shop and try some on.
My possible issue with plugging then in to the bike battery is me forgetting to unplug them when I get off rather than running down the battery.
I'll update if I get along to a bike shop over the next couple of days, I'm not sure my local place has much of a range to try..

[Ian P]

I too suffer with bad circulation in my hands, Reynauds syndrome, and I use a pair of heated inner gloves from warm n safe if I remember correctly.
They plug into the bike and once you have faffed around running the wires down your jacket sleeves they are simple to connect and disconnect when getting on and off the bike. I have forgotten before and they just unplugged as I walked away.
There are 5 heat settings and I have never needed more than 3. That said being just outside Sydney it doesn’t get that cold, but I have used them down to 0deg C.
I find the advantage with liners is that when it warms up I just take them off, store them on the bike, and use my normal gloves.
Over here the temps can vary from 0 to 20+ in the same day, so liners provide a better level of versatility.
The other issue with battery packs is the degrading life cycle, and if your out bush for a few days may not have the opportunity to charge them.

[stevewestern]

A quick and slightly pointless update - I ordered a pair of Gerbing XRL's having measured my hands in the way they suggest. I also ordered a pair of 1ah batteries so I can see how I get on with both wired and battery powered.
My hand measured 22.5cm, so I went up a size to XL, which is 24cm.
They arrived and were almost too small to get on, so I've sent them back for a pair of 2XL which should arrive tomorrow.
They certainly look and feel like a quality item, but get a bigger size if you order some - sportsbikeshop are an excellent company to deal with as I'm sure most of you know.

I'm almost hoping for some cold weather asap as a shoulder operation late November will keep me off the bike for much of the winter