I made a vow to ride my GT200 to work through the winter any day the streets were clear of snow/ice.
My commute is about a half hour long, through moderately fast city traffic for 11 miles.
Yesterday I was sorely tested, O my brothers and sisters. It was 20F degrees (without factoring "wind chill"), and I was well warm in my jacket with liner, fleece neck warmer, thermal underwear, and a "scooter skirt" covering my legs... except for my fingers. Even with two layers on them, a liner under heavy winter riding gloves, within 10 minutes the tips of my fingers were quite numb. Which is not a good thing for doing things like operating brake levers and turn signals, and distracting from watching road conditions.
Today it was even colder... 15 degrees on the mercury. I forswore myself and took the train.
I'd been riding fairly comfortably (with only "cold" fingers, not "numb and tingly" fingers that need a half hour to thaw the feeling back into them) earlier this winter, when it was a relatively toasty 35-40 degrees. What's the word for keeping fingers warm in freezing or sub-freezing conditions?
"Hippo hands" style handlebar muffs? (They look so bulky and, well, ugly, but if they work...)
How about electric gloves? Heated grips?
Are there electric/heated gloves that don't require tapping into the bike's battery? You would think there are literally battery powered (i.e., with an alkaline 9V battery) heated gloves out there that include finger warming, but I have not found them.
How hard is it to get heated grips installed on a GT200? What models are compatible? Has anyone done it to good effect?