Modern Vespa

Promised myself that this year I would invest in heated grips or gloves and forgot about it as the Spring came around. This Oct. 7 morning proved a chilly commute from suburban Maryland into D.C. on the P200, so back to that train of thought....

Read a lot about grips and gear. Have decided I want some heated gloves. Here is my question: anyone have any experience with the Gerbings or any other brand that have the rechargeable portable battery, as opposed to the ones you wire into your battery? I'm not keen on being attached by too many cords to my bike. Its a convenience thing, not a safety thing, as I realize the cords would come undone should I for whatever reason be thrown from the bike.

I really like my Gerbing's - lithium-ion rechargeable gloves/in the cold the one thing that really makes a huge diff to me compared to all my other stuff that I have tried. Not too bulky so I can use my blinkers and they keep my hands plenty warm at the 50% option. (you can use them at 25, 50, 75 or 100%). Never used wired heated gloves to compare. I haven't used the gloves yet this year so am building up a little tolerance to the cold already (moved to MN from CA about a year and a half ago).

I looked into it from an engineering perspective. You don't get your money's worth from the battery powered gloves. Not enough juice. It's a stupid application to use a battery anyways, as it's a pretty deep draw application. The battery goes tits up faster than you would want, and just never really puts out that much heat--enough to sound attractive when you read the marketing pitch, that's about it. Nothing beats getting wired into an alternator for juice. I also looked into the little chemical heaters and hand gaiters. Hand gaiters are worth the money. Very useful. Chemical heaters are not. Also, those old school pocket warmers kick ass for the money--zippo makes some pretty nice ones now. They can't fit in gloves, though. But they fit in ATV gaiters.



plenty of heat, and up to 24 hours on a tiny fill of lighter fluid. And no, it doesn't stink of lighter fluid unless you get right up to it and put your nose in the element. The element is a platinum catalyst that gets warm, but doesn't actually have a flame. Very cool old school technology.

My gloves are just Carhartt leathers with 150g Thinsulate--very warm, down to almost freezing on the scoot, and I have very sensitive hands (froze them about 45 years ago, being a "macho man" surveyor). The hand grips are somewhat protected by the wings of the Faco windshield, but the gloves are pretty windproof, anyway. Just bought a new pair yesterday (old ones looking pretty ratty). Not so sure I'd want the extra complication of heated gloves, battery or wired, when well-insulated gloves do the job so well.

Cary

On my old P200 I used Warmfit handlebar heaters, the elements push down inside the handlebar ends and routed the wires through the handlebars down to the glove box where the two heat level switch was hidden and it worked well(see www.warmfit.com)