I have found when it comes to temperatures below 45 degrees not winter glove really does the trick (not including headed hear). You either buy really warm gloves and sacrifice dexterity or semi-warm gloves that freeze your hands out super quick.
If your going to go the heated gear route, I highly recommend Gerbings. Their gloves are crazy warm and don't compromise dexterity. Unfortunately I did not know about them before spending $125 on winter gloves so I decided to go the Oxford Grip route (best decision I made so far). I had $20 revzilla cash so I think they set me back about $45.
The installation is easy and they are really effective.
I was sort of surprised at how quickly I could feel the cold through the ultra-expensive Dianese gloves that I bought. LIke I said, the guy at the revzilla store said that they are just about the warmest that you can get.
Hand guards are also very effective. Keeping the wind off helps a lot for me.
Any idea where we can get some hand guards for our FZ8s?
I just installed some Heat Demons heated grips. I got fancy and used a relay hooked up to the tail light, going to a little fuse box I bought then to the switch beside the passenger seat keyhole. Took forever and hopefully worth it. I have a feeling gloves are better. I haven't ridden since but it takes a few minutes for the heat to come through. And it's not crazy hot which I was hoping for. Wires are very small.
I think I may be leaning toward the heated grip route for the time being as they are a good bit cheaper than heated gloves. I already put in a relay when I connected my cell phone charger. I also planned ahead and put in a terminal strip so that I can easily connect accessories in the future. I was already thinking about the possibility of heated gear and/or some lighting accents.
does everyone here know that mittens are warmer than gloves?
it seems that with mittens, the fingers share the warmth.
ok, that said do not run out and get a set of mittens, just remember that when looking for those rain proof over gloves that you put over your winter gloves, mitten types work better.
some of the warmest gloves I ever owned were thick winter gloves made from leather with those nylon mittens over them. I do not go for high tech material inside. I look for some type of fur, ah, not like rabbit but like sheep, and real sheep. and leather that is sewn tight. Then I get a set of waterproof mittens made for motorcycle gloves and those, if you can find them easily, are worth their weight in gold.
good luck, it took me a few years to find a good set and they are not for sale. no way Jose. noppers, absolutely not. I value warm fingers more than warm toes.
I thought about mittens, but the idea of wearing mittens over gloves while riding seems to me like you would have zero dexterity. And forget about lever feel. I definitely agree about the fingers over toes thing. I really don't like when I can't feel my fingers, especially when I'm using them for things like braking!
I have always used SYMTEC on my road bikes and enduro bikes (so you can wear thinner gloves in winter) very good and never had a problem
Heated Grips and Clothing > Winding Roads Ltd
I'll definitely look into them. They are probably light years ahead of the link that I posted earlier.
Heated grips or gloves are the way to go, personally i like the heated grips better because you don't have wires to worry about or batteries to recharge. I ride my sled at -40C at 100 mph+ and my hands are nice and warm with heated grips and normal winter gloves ie skiing gloves. As mentioned before the hand guards make a big difference also.
So far, I think I'm leaning in the same direction. If I can find some cheap hand guards and heated grips, they seam like a good compromise. I also am not a huge fan of having to worry about wires for only about a 40 minute commute. The only reason I can really see the heated gloves being significantly better is that they heat the whole hand as opposed to just what is touching the grip. I've never used either though, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it really makes.
I have the Icon Patrol gloves for cold weather riding. There good till about the freezing mark then my fingers start to go numb after about an hour. Everybody tolerates the cold differently though.
Yeah, I definitely thought that I could tolerate it better. and for the most part, I was fine, it was just my fingers that were really bothering me. Both my jacket and pants have windproof/waterproof liners and thermal liners, and my boots seem to be doing a pretty good job. My toes got a little chilly, but nothing that some thicker wool socks wouldn't solve.
Thanks for the replies. I'll start researching my cheaper options. I'm almost regretting spending what I did on gloves and paying Rabbitman for a HID retrofit; I'm out of money and need to figure this out as cheaply as possible. I'm dieing to get an exhaust too, but that will have to wait until next year some time I think.
