effective yet inexpensive ways of saving hands?

[abdul.aziz]

This winter I've only taken the bike out only when I've absoultely had to. When I ride the bike I feel my hands are oing to fall off! it's that cold.

I know I can get heated grips but I really dont want to bother with all that. Besides, it'll remain this cold for a few more weeks only.

After I get off the bike I have to heat my hands on the exhaust for a while.

I've got leather gloves, but I dont like the winter gloves because they are too thick.

Anyway, any ideas on what I can do?

[Son of a beesting]

If you want to keep your gloves, then heated grips and some sort of hand guards are your only option.

Yes winter gloves are thick but it only takes a few minutes to adjust to them, better big gloves than frozen fingers

[joshmac]

Have you tried wearing some thin, thermal inner gloves?

[Alpinestarhero]

ow about handlebar muffs? These will keep the cold wind off your hands and increase the amount of time it takes for your hands to get cold. They are unsightly, but they do work very effectivly if you get them on correctly.

Incidentally, what puts you off fitting heated grips? Surely one afternoons work is worth it to enjoy many more hours out on the road, even in cold tempuratures? Also, by keeping your hands actualy warm, rather than just functioning, you will have greater control over the bike and therefore be safer :)

anyway, handlebar muffs - great idea

[abdul.aziz]

Have you tried wearing some thin, thermal inner gloves?

Haven't tried my self. While I was on training some of the other trainees were using them and said they were ineffective, which put me off.

Maybe a second opinion won't hurt; are they any good?

ow about handlebar muffs? These will keep the cold wind off your hands and increase the amount of time it takes for your hands to get cold. They are unsightly, but they do work very effectivly if you get them on correctly.

Incidentally, what puts you off fitting heated grips? Surely one afternoons work is worth it to enjoy many more hours out on the road, even in cold tempuratures? Also, by keeping your hands actualy warm, rather than just functioning, you will have greater control over the bike and therefore be safer :)

anyway, handlebar muffs - great idea

Alpine, I guess you have an excellent point. I saw the wiring diagrams the other day and that kinda put me off. the cheapest ones on the market were £50...which only had one level of heat; and to be honest the heat didnt penetrate my leather gloves so i couldnt even feel it. Plus they would have been very easy to steal off the bike.

I think I might need to get some winter gloves after all. Thanks guys :D

[Ploppy]

Heated grips are great :) ive been told (not experienced as i have yet to own a pair) that heated gloves are the only option for long distance winter riding. On my previous bike i had a pair of oxford heated grips fitted, i ran this bike for three years and used the same pair of summer gloves all year round. Im like you, i like movement in my fingers when riding so the grips were great. Grips arnt only good for winter though, just think when spring comes around, it will be fine during the day but then will drop cool in the evening, if youve been doing allot of miles then your fingers will still get it, with grips its as easy as pressing a button :) your can get some for £30, fitted simply in an afternoon.

[Stu]

Have you tried wearing some thin, thermal inner gloves?
Don't delude the guy! You with your heated gloves as well! :p




I know you're just trying to come up with easy solutions given the restraints stated, but IMO they don't do a lot.
You need a thick layer of insulation, and even thin inner gloves are just going to be compressed even if they can fit under well fitting summer gloves.

Muffs, or overmittens if you want to avoid electrical solution.

[Sid Squid]

Muffs and heated grips.

[Littlepeahead]

I have heated grips and got silk inners for Christmas. Not bad, but the ends of my fingers still get cold. Stu has a Dakar with heated grips and the hand guards and I think the hand guards are what make all the difference, so I may try and fit some of those.

[Vindaloo]

The over-grip options are quite cumbersome. As they wrap around the grip itself, you obviously lose the sensitivity, and feel of control over the throttle in particular (similar, but worse to that of wearing thick winter gloves (which you may still want to be wearing). The heated rubber grip, or heated glove option always seemed a better solution to that.

If you fit them directly to the battery (rather than to the lights system) and have a habit of forgetting to switch them off for a month or two then you'll get quite used to fitting new batteries.

I reckon (though I've not tried it) that the mitt / hand guard option is likely the best. It's the wind on the fingers that really chills the ends of the fingers ... and that's the worst bit for me.

Adrian

[joshmac]

Haven't tried my self. While I was on training some of the other trainees were using them and said they were ineffective, which put me off.

Maybe a second opinion won't hurt; are they any good?

They're better than nothing IMHO, but after a while your hands will get cold, takes a bit longer though. Heated gloves are the ideal but they are quite expensive. Looks like muffs and hot grips could be the best solution. Even muffs on their own would help keep the windchill off your hands

[instigator]

Muffs and heated grips.

I have this combo and am somewhat disappointed in the outcome. Not as good at combating the cold as I thought it would be. I wonder how much the heat output varies depending on which grips you use (me = tech7 cheapo stuff)

Once I get my silk inner gloves I reckon I'll be a happy chappy. A lot to buy though just to keep the blimmin hands warm. And yes, my witner gloves are fairly decent!

[christopher]

I have some silk inner gloves... my hands get colder quicker when I wear them compared to if I didn't have them on! Maybe I'm just weird but that's what I've found with them. Used them loads in the summer months as easier to slip gloves on and off with them on rather than sweaty hands.

[joshmac]

An inexpensive way would be to wear lots of thin lays of clothing. This will keep your body warmer (as air's a good heat insulator) which will in turn keep your hands warmer. Just a thought

[rictus01]

the art isn't how many layers, but the gap between them if that's the way you're going, I have two sets of both winter gloves and boots, both one size larger than my summer ones, this means extra layers don't squash down limiting any benefits they might give.

decent winter gloves and heated grips work fine most of the time, muffs to go over if the distance is over an hour(on the S4), the Superduke has deflectors, which help keeping the direct wind blast off your hands but I do use inner gloves for the sub zero stuff.

Cheers Mark.

[Thingus]

I love this muff idea but i want to go on record saying that inner gloves are USELESS and just provide false hope that you can go more than 20 minutes without being in absolute agony when you take them off.

[rictus01]

but i want to go on record saying that inner gloves are USELESS and just provide false hope that you can go more than 20 minutes without being in absolute agony when you take them off.

Definitive statement, wrong but defiantly definitive, I'll grant you personally may not benefit from them, but a sweeping statement like that is one of two things, either extremely informed or naive.

what pray tell do you base the statement on?

Cheers Mark.

[Thingus]

I wouldn't say wrong. I'd call it useless upon reflection :P Useless because you can go for higher quality and be fine i guess.

I base it upon my own experiences. Plenty of evil ones :O

[rictus01]

cross section of one then..............:smt082

[instigator]

Make that two. Inner gloves, as the only heat retaining method for riding in winter, are not sufficient in my experience. And I've tried too many different kinds to care for.

Rictus, are you sure you don't live in the south of France or something? :p

[rictus01]

Make that two. Inner gloves, as the only heat retaining method for riding in winter, are not sufficient in my experience. And I've tried too many different kinds to care for.

Rictus, are you sure you don't live in the south of France or something? :p

Hmmm, Thingus states inner gloves are useless, unlike you he doesn't qualify the statement, and I wouldn't be riding in just those even in summer...;), but being serious they have a place and with my larger gloves (so as not to compress them up) they are fine for about an hour or so in sub zero temps with decent winter gloves; add deflectors or muffs and it's possible to extend that, and just to throw a spanner in the works I've had electrically heated inner gloves before which were extremely good, but I digress.

So are you now qualifying the original statement or just supporting the fact they are just USELESS as a covering statement for everyone ?

Oh and no London mate, just and old guy with injuries that hurt in the cold and the circulation of a diabetic, so I just don't get cold by dressing correctly and/ or stopping when needed.

but i want to go on record saying that inner gloves are USELESS and just provide false hope that you can go more than 20 minutes without being in absolute agony when you take them off.


Cheers Mark.

[carternd]

Inner gloves apparently DO work, but, like I found last year, if they compress the lining in your outer gloves, you get colder. I suppose winter gloves need to be bought larger, and tried on with liners.

As a quick fix, petrol station plastic gloves do help, don't compress your outer glove, but need to be changed regularly or they smell rank. Why it took me a month to work out it was the plastic gloves that made my jacket smell I'm not sure, but maybe the reason my face hasn't got cold is due to a lack of sense organs above the neck!

[boot]

Last year I bought a pair of cold killers inner gloves for my wither gloves, bought at the same time and tried both on in the shop, to make sure they were comfortable.

I believe they do make a difference compared to wearing my winter gloves without them. Last year I did not have heated grips or deflectors, but still managed to get about with only a few days where I felt pain.

Silk inner gloves maybe an option. I've seen these recommended in photography publications many times. Supposedly retain heat well for a short time if removing the bigger outer gloves.

J&S had their re-branded Oxford grips - "Dr.Bike" for sale for £25 for the set before Christmas. I bought the set for the replacement controller. That way, when the SV is relegated to winter hack, the grips can go next bike and the controller will be switched between bikes (if it still works by then). :p

I have heated grips, deflectors and winter gloves, hands are toasty warm.
I'm with Rictus on the sensible gaps between layers. I also can heartily recommend long sleeve Janus merino base layers available from the Norwegian shop in Keswick (http://www.norwegianstore.com/index.html), and Bridgedale Endurance Summit Knee (http://www.bridgedale.com/Products/Product.asp?ProductID=1) socks and a polar buff.

Keeping the body warm helps the extremities stay warm for longer, if you can, put your gear on a few minutes before you leave, to ensure you're toasty warm, keep the neck warm and limit the ventilation to the lid by using some sort of mist retardant - like a pinlock. As you lose heat, you feel it in the hands and feet first.

[MattCollins]

Keeping the body warm helps the extremities stay warm for longer,... As you lose heat, you feel it in the hands and feet first.


I agree. I'll add that something like 40-50% of the bodies heat is lost through the noggin so keeping that warm helps enormously.

I'd say think the whole package.

It only gets down to about -2 to -4C out in the desert (further south) during the winter months and only for a couple of hours a day. I have to admit that it doesn't quite have the bite of a UK winter but you're all probably much more tolerant of sub-freezing temperatures. My comfort range is almost cold blooded.

The work bike has heated grips plus hand guards. Most of the time I forget that I have them with DriRider merino underwear, balaclava (sometimes two which is a bit of a squeeze in the helmet) and inner gloves. Over the top of that I wear Knox body armour (Crossshirt, Contour spine protector, chest pad and cross shorts) which helps a lot, DriRider Alpine textiles with zip out liners, a couple of pairs of wool socks and medium weight gloves.

I may occasionally shove the heavy sheepskin off my seat fleecy side towards my body down the front of my jacket - that sheepskin is a real chill breaker. The missus made a heavy sheepskin vest for me (front and rear with velcro down the side) to go over the Knox gear, but it is so hot that it is almost useless and a bit of a squeeze under the jacket.

When the weather warms up, I'll lose the balaclavas, inner gloves, a pair of socks, put on light gloves, remove the liners from the textiles and open the vents otherwise the kit is the same.

[barwel1992]

inner gloves are great if you only have race type gloves :) i use football gloves (player gloves not keeper)

[speedplay]

I use a silk liner inside my gloves.

Nice and thin but they do a great job of trapping warm air between them and your skin.

I dont like bulky winter gloves myself so prefer layer up on my hands as well as the rest of me.

The other option is to find something like the old "lobster" style gloves.

The picture is cycling specific but there are motorbike versions out there (I just cant be bothered to find an image)
http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/images/endura_lobster_gloves_lo.jpg

Something like these keep your fingers in pairs, sharing the warmth between the 2 fingers and letting less body warmth escape.

Ive used them in the past and although they look odd, they work really well.

[maviczap]

I use a silk liner inside my gloves.

Nice and thin but they do a great job of trapping warm air between them and your skin.

I dont like bulky winter gloves myself so prefer layer up on my hands as well as the rest of me.

The other option is to find something like the old "lobster" style gloves.

The picture is cycling specific but there are motorbike versions out there (I just cant be bothered to find an image)
http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/images/endura_lobster_gloves_lo.jpg

Something like these keep your fingers in pairs, sharing the warmth between the 2 fingers and letting less body warmth escape.

Ive used them in the past and although they look odd, they work really well.

Skip wore a pair similar to these on our EAR rideout in November, whilst I had cold hands in normal gloves, his were warm :p

[yorkie_chris]

Inner gloves can make things worse if your outer gloves are too tight, that way they compress the insulation and restrict circulation. A double whammy which means you'll freeze.

I've got a set of halvarssons dry level gloves which are awesome for the price, some oxfords heated grips and some motocross handguards.

The handguards still let your fingertips get cold but I've ridden a couple of hundred miles in freezing temps and snow without too much discomfort.

[veefer]

Heated grips all year round and handle bar muffs is the way to go.:thumleft:

I use the grips all year round, when the temp gague on the bike reads 15 degrees or lower they go on, regulated to suit conditions.

If i'm off for a good long journey the muffs come out and they do the job.
If it's going to be wet also the muffs have the obviouse other benefit of keeping the rain off your hands.

I was caught out once when it rained that hard, the rain ran down my arms and into into the muffs filling them up quicker than the drain hole could cope, I had trouble to start wondering why my hands were warm but wet:thumleft:

Don't forget to put your gloves inside your jacket sleeves when it's wet, it stop the rain running into your gloves:smt101

Ian