It's almost spring, but my hands were COLD this morning!

303mike · Post by **303mike** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:46 pm

Hi all,
I am a seasoned Buddy rider of... almost three weeks now. I changed over from a motorcycle and couldn't be happier. I love it! Part of the deal with made with my fiancee to gain the approval for the scooter purchase was that I would commute on the scooter and ditch my monthly parking pass. No problem. However, although spring is almost here and I won't have to worry about cold weather again for a while, I want to avoid the pain from this morning if at all possible.
According to Weather Underground, it was 11 degrees at home and 21 degrees at work upon my arrival this morning. I have a pair of really nice windproof down mittens that I wore in conjunction with glove liners and thought I'd be cold, but okay. Yeah, not so much. My fingertips and thumbs were almost numb after my 20 minute ride and it felt like tiny icicles were invading my skin on the elevator ride up.
I'm wondering what you all use to stay warm. Poking around on the interwebs, it seems like battery operated heated gloves don't work. I've read that 12V heated gloves work well, but are really expensive with a starting price of around $150. I have narrowed my search down to two main options. I would love to hear from you if you have experience with either one, or if you have any other suggestions. My two options are:
1. Hippo Hands or equivalent. This would be a relatively inexpensive option that is supposed to work fairly well. Unfortunately, they are hideously ugly.
2. Oxford Hot Grips or equivalent. I like these in particular because they are removable and inexpensive. However, has anyone installed them on a scooter? Does the little scoot pump out enough juice to power them? I'm also skeptical that holding on to something warm will keep the rest of my hands (and fingers!) warm in the face of a constant 40mph wind.

Apparently I have a condition that prevents short posts. Sorry it's so wordy!

Mike

LisaLisa · Post by **LisaLisa** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:48 pm

tourmaster polartec gloves

MikieTaps · Post by **MikieTaps** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:51 pm

welcome to the forum... i feel your pain.. it was 26 degrees when I rode into work today, and all I wore were my summer leather gloves... def had NO feeling in my hands by the time i pulled into my parking garage...

I have heard the hippo hands work pretty well, I dont have any experience with any heated gloves.

I am thinking about using my snowboarding mittens over my leather gloves tomorrow...

Readonly · Post by **Readonly** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:24 pm

Gerbing is a big name with the Adventure riding crowd. Their glove liners would work pretty well for a scooter. They draw 27watts @ 12v. At $80 the price doesn't seem too bad for all the good praise they get. They do not come with a thermostat at that price though, so you would have to wire up a switch for them.

http://www.gerbing.com/Products/Gloves/liner.html#

-Readonly

KABarash · Post by **KABarash** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:55 pm

I find that wind is the enemy there, although my hands are almost ALWAYS cold when I'm out side for any reasion when temps are below 50* wind makes it even worse. I have found that any leather glove works best for me, I'm a Land Surveyor and work out doors. I have been wearing the standard hardware store insulated leather gloves while riding. When the weather is milder I have been wearing those latex coated 'Mud Gloves' over top of cotton work gloves, either lined or unlined, depending of the temp. Grip is great, blocks the wind, a little funny looking though.

Tocsik · Post by **Tocsik** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 1:13 am

Hey, I feel ya 303Mike! My reply is also going to be a bit lengthy, so here goes:

I am also in Denver and I have determined that my cut-off is about 25 degrees for riding my scooter to work. I live in north Thornton and work at The Children's Hospital in Aurora so my commute is about 22 miles on some pretty fast back roads (Quebec) at 6 a.m.

My gear is the following:

a really warm jacket (Fieldsheer with a ThermoPilot liner),
Winter riding gloves
hiking boots
a cold weather base layer under my jeans
a full face helmet and a Schampa face mask
When it is cold enough, I wear ski pants over my jeans

I was able to keep everything warm with this set-up except for my hands! About half way to work, my fingers were in serious pain and this was a distraction which I did not feel was safe.
So, I came up with a cheap solution to block the wind and let my gloves do their job (click here). I have since made a version 2.0 of these things and added a little sumthin extra: Oxford Heaterz!

These things are fantastic! I originally wanted the Oxford Hot Hands since they are cheaper (~$40) but the folks I purchased from accidentally sent me the Heaterz (~$60) but charged me for Hot Hands so I went with it.
Now, I already had the deadlight-to-running light mod and I knew the Heaterz would probably tax the anemic electrical system of the Buddy so I added a switch to the running lights so I can just run the Heaterz by themselves. Each grip requires 2.1 amps or 28 to 30 Watts, so practically speaking the total draw should be around 60 Watts (says the review on webbikeworld). What happens is this: when your electrical system's voltage falls below about 11.5 V, the Heaterz shut off. I was finding that this happened on my commute so I added the switch to leave my running lights off when I wanted to use the Heaterz and will be changing the incandescent bulbs to LED to minimize the draw of my running lights.

The combination of the bags I made to keep the wind off my hands/gloves and the Heaterz is just the ticket!

Now, if anyone knows how we can pump up the power of the elctrical system on the Buddy 150, it would be a huge help because even though I can run the Heaterz at their max setting, I have to keep them on a lower setting for anything over ~20 minutes or they shut off (I guess they are draining the battery to less than 11.5 volts).

Lostmycage · Post by **Lostmycage** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:27 am

Rev'it Farenheit gloves are my new best friend. I got them a little over a month ago and I've ridden down to 19 degrees in them with only a little numming after about 20-30 minutes of hard riding (my commute). They have what they call "phase change material" which is basically a layer of paraffin wax beads. In a nutshell, what it does is solidify when it's cold to block wind and better insulate and when it's hot, they liquefy to help cool. I've found that they're comfortable in a wide range of weather. Oh, and they're completely badass looking!

Over the course of the spring/summer, I plan on modifying the headset on my Blur and adding a wind guard (fingers' biggest enemy when it comes to cold).

Tocsik has a really clever home made solution to the problem, I especially like the clear panel over the turn signal cut-outs. Well done man!

The rest of my (hopefully soon to be retired for a few seasons) cold riding gear include an Armadillo Parka (soon to be replaced by a Rev'it Dragon jacket) my Redwing boots (8 years and 2 soles, still going strong) KBC Modular with a Turtlefur Balaclava (probably will get replaced with a better version next winter) and home made lap-blanket/chaps (each with it's own design of skull fleece).

My weak point has always been my hands. I've gone through 4 pairs of "winter" gloves before just saying to hell with it, get the expensive ones. Rev'it impressed me enough to look into more of their gear (hello Dragon jacket).

I've suspected for a long time that the Blur doesn't have enough electrical umph to support a heated solution, but there's always other alternatives. I prefer home made to purchased any day of the week. It's just more rewarding.

At any rate, you'll have plenty of time to plan for next winter pretty soon here. Unless it's an outright emergency, hold off on any new cold weather gear purchases. Come June/July you'll start seeing some killer deals on winter gear as shops try to phase out the 08 gear so that they can sell more 09 gear when it starts hitting their shops in September/October.

Oh, and a home made hippo-hand type thing has got to be the easiest thing ever to sew. So easy that I haven't even bothered yet (not sure if I can make that make sense to anyone but me...).

Let us know if you find any better solutions or come up with alternate ideas. Necessity is awesome for making you come up with ideas! (How's that for a paraphrase?)

MikieTaps · Post by **MikieTaps** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:59 pm

so i tried riding to work this morning with my normal leather MC gloves, and I threw on a pair of my Burton Snowboarding Mitten over them. The difference is night and day! I could actually FEEL MY HANDS when I got to the office!!! whoa!

the only drawback is it takes a few miles to get used to the way the controls feel under 2 layers of gloves... other than that... it was great!

303mike · Post by **303mike** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:50 pm

Awesome! I've been lurking on the site once I decided to buy a Buddy. I'm thankful to have such a great resource.
I had to stop by Sportique yesterday anyway as my mid-size Givi case finally came in (it's great, btw). While I was there I talked to the ever-helpful staff about my dilema. I picked up a pair of the Genuine hand covers. They were only $18. That seemed like a no-brainer. If they worked, great. If they don't, I'm out less than $20.
So, did they work? Kinda. Today was about 3 degrees warmer than yesterday - about 24 when I left. I'm calling that cold enough. I wore my standard down mittens with no liners. My hands were already a little cold when I started off... and were a little cold when I arrived. Success! Well, except that I had to take my hand out of the cover to work the blinker. That part sucked. I think I'll be able to correct that by cutting down the seam, adding some more material to make the thumb access bigger, then sewing it back together again. When I say I'll be able to, I mean my fiancee, of course.
I like that they are small and easy to take on and off. They will be easy to store in the pet carrier. I agree with Lostmycage that this will be a good time to assess my options over the warmer months and come up with The Perfect Solution for next winter.
Tocsik - did you install the Heaterz yourself? They look awesome. Also, the insulated lunch bag idea is inspired. I love it.
Thanks for all the great advice everyone! We will have to revive this topic in October.
Yay for spring!

Witch · Post by **Witch** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:59 pm

I thought they didn't offer those Scooterworks hand covers anymore. I'll have to see if Sportique has any left while I'm down in the area Saturday. I don't seem to be good with the DIY stuff as of late. And I've tried and tried to find covers that fit my GTV, with no luck (the way the instruments are set up, something always conflicts). Maybe the cheaper pair will work!