'lo everybody.
I got a heated vest and gloves from
http://www.exo2.co.uk as an early christmas present this year, and thought i'd give them a quick review after putting them through their paces this morning.
When i left the house at 6am this morning it was -2 centigrade. I had a commute of 120 motorway miles down to Gatwick at speeds i don't want to discuss on a public forum. Normally this would have had me frozen to the bone and warming up under a hand drier at a service station half way down the M11. However with my new heated gloves and wastecoat i was nice and toasty the whole way there. Infact once the sun came up i had to turn the heat down a wee bit.
Its quite expensive at £180 for the wastcoat and £125 for the gloves, but after looking at quite a few other brands this one is well worth the money. You simply wire a connector to the bike's battery and plug your self in when you get on the bike. I also got an optional battery and charger so i can be warm away from the bike too. Claimed battery life is 3 hours - i left it on to fully discharge and it was still warm after 3 and a half.
The cool thing about the wastecoat is how thin it is. You can wear it with just a t-shirt underneath and a thin jacket on top and be toasty without the normal bulky layers. There are no wires - just a special 'heatconducting fabric layer thingy' so the heat is really even with no hotspots and you can even wash it without voiding the warrantee. The gloves are well made - waterproof and windproof - and look like they would be fairly pricey even without the heating. The sizes are a little bigger than usual though so make sure you use the size guide on the website. I've paid more for winter gloves and heated grips in the past - and these gloves are far more effective - heating your hand right where the wind blast gets them.
Anyway - as u can tell i'm well chuffed with them, and if you're in the market for warm winter gear, have a look at their website before you buy anything else.
