Ive realised that its a must now to have heated grips or heated gloves for winter riding....I was kinda thinking surely as the wind hits your fingers how can the heat underneath from teh grip keep your fingers warm or does it, any one who uses em and can tell me for sure how brill they are??
I was thinking maybe it would make more sense to buy heated gloves as also then its not a mod to the bike, but i see some say its a pain with all the wires (i have image of kids and mittens with the string hanging through arms to keep mits on!!) ... so i dont really want to go ahead and buy any gloves without finding some peeps who recommend them
so which would we say is best heated grips or gloves or any other options plllease?
I've got factory-fitted heated grips and they're great. Looking at the price of aftermarket grips, they're a lot cheaper than gloves. Anything from about £30 to £60 for grips, leather gloves £100-plus, with heated inner gloves £40-plus.
Add on to that the cost of either fitting the grips (Ok if you're a DIY person, but not everyone's that way inclined) or a power take-off for the gloves.
Yes you're right about the grips just heating the palm, But the warmth spreads right round and does make a difference.
ooh heated grips.......there the future I've seen it...... i have factory fitted grips and there ace. I did retro fit some grips to another bike. A liitle bulkier than the original items but still worked ok. Just beware how you get them wired in. i'd have them wired in on the switched 12v side of the ignition, no chance of leaving them on and draining the battery :-)
Hello people, just noticed this one...'at Wills, or anybody else for that matter...:)' you mentioned heated 'inner' glove is that the normal design then - like buying a small electric blanket to fit inside any other glove, you may already have?! I thought the heating system would be installed into the glove itself - thus when they've seen better days, that's it throw em away?! But, if you can put the element into different pairs, obviously if the size is right; that sounds like what I'm looking for! I don't suppose you know if they make any that come with their own small battery supply do you / rechargeable!!! or am I just thinking ahead! :/
I had heated grips......didn't work well for me at all, probably because my winter gloves were too thick ???? Not tried heated gloves, I just don't ride in the cold any more
Ann-Marie x
My 'new' bike came with heated grips and I love them to bits. I used to last for 100miles, pull in for fuel and go to the Little Thief (chef) for a brew and dunkin' doughnuts. Heated grips keep your hands warm and don't make you fat! What a result!?
I like heated grips, havn't tried gloves yet. It started a few years ago when I bought a bike with heated grips fitted. I liked them so much I bought a set for my next bike. I use wrap round grips, for a couple of reasons. Firstly the're cheaper plus they are a lot easier to swap from bike to bike.I got my wrap round grips from M and P.
Good point from Spesh...someone I know bought a Yam the other day and couldn't work out why the battery was discharging. Turned out that every time she put the waterproof cover on the bike, it dragged down the switch on the heated grips.
JPH, Shell has had a heated waistcoat from Maplins for about £20 and I know she's very happy with it. Runs off AA batteries and I don't know if it can be adapted to connect to the bike. I feel an experiment coming on...
I've mentioned in other threads on the subject that the faired mirrors on my BMW RS keep the wind chill off my hands brilliantly, and those combined with my heated grips mean I can ride in thin summer gloves even in winter.
So the way to go on all future bikes for me is a combination of heated grips and hand guards every time.
Ok Heated gloves or heated grips.
I have had and have both.
Grips are great for your sunday ride out or cummuting but once it gets down to 0.5 and below dont cut it you have to have big heavey gloves and the heat just dosnt transmitt.
Heated gloves ( Klan ) I have both iner gloves and big heated winter ones http://www.klan-heated-clothing.com/. now they are truly warm and I just rode 20 miles home at -2 and hands where lovley and tosty nuts on the otherhand were frozen as I forgot to put the inners in my trousers but anyway back on topic. As has been said the cables are a faff mine are wired into the battery driect as you carnt leave them plugged in anyway.
As to the cables I have a winter jacket I feed the cables though the liner and they just stay there.
So its really about how cold/ when you want to use your bike and ease of use.
Gloves are better at colder temps but more of a faff
i fitted heated grips this year, first time i have tried them, why oh why did I wait so long, I don't have to wear heavy winter glove in fact they seem to work better with lighter gloves. I can't recommend them enough.
as promised in the "what have you done on your bike today" thread the results of the "handguards experiment"
think i can say they were a resounding success had
to scrape ice off the seat of the bike last night before the ride home
from work, so it was f'ing cold, and could still feel my fingers when i
arrive home so taking into acount the 30-40mph windchill factor i'd say they did the job not perfect but a BIG improvement might consider the belt n braces approach and get some heated grips too just coz i'm a wuss when it comes to getting icy digits
I have used the same Oxford heated grips with adjustable thermostat since 2005 and I only wear race gloves all year round .This is my third R1 just keep swapping them over each time I change bikes.
I bought the fleecy heated bodywarmer from Maplins for 19.99. I'm sitting here in my bl**dy freezing kitchen test driving it and I have to say I'm a tad disappointed.
The heating elements are in the (ahem) chest area either side of the zip...now this may be fine for the blokes but I'm afraid all it's doing is heating up the padding in my bra and it hasn't worked through to my bazookas yet!
The one that shell wears has the element in the back I seem to recall...wish it was like that