Enduring Cold Weather
That’s what 18º F looks like to me on a cold ride to work. My wife Kim enhanced the image to help better reflect how cold I felt.
My friend Paul bought me a pair of Gerbing Mens Classic Electric Gloves for Christmas. Nice surprise. He probably was tired of my whining about cold hands and second guessing electrical assistance – so he figured he would just shut me up. Yesterday morning was the first day cold enough to give them a fair test with the thermometer hovering at 18° F.
I’ve heard electric gloves are cumbersome to use. Depending on your tolerance for detail and process there may be some truth in that statement. If you like slip-on shoes and pullover jackets you probably won’t like dealing with electric gloves. I’m used to getting on and off the Vespa quickly and the departure ritual is second nature. Acquiring electric gloves means I have to develop another ritual.
Burned Hands
Before going into the nuts and bolts I should comment on the most important issue – warmth – and a few lessons I have learned. I read a post on the Modern Vespa site where it was suggested that a thermostatic control was necessary lest you burn your hands. I like to rest my hands on our hot water radiators or park them in front of the heating vents in the car, nice and hot, so I was quite excited at the prospect of burning heat at my fingertips.
UPDATE: MARCH 6, 2016 — Lesson One ONLY applies if you are riding in cold weather (below 35F, and you have no wind protection for the gloves. I found out recently that with hand grip mitts the gloves aren’t subject to the rapid cooling from the wind and I ended up with a small burn on my right hand. The gloves are hot. So I had to purchase a Gerbing Controller. With that in mind read on.
LESSON ONE: The gloves aren’t going to burn you. I don’t know where someone would get the idea that you could burn yourself with these gloves. At 32° F the elements are supposed to heat to 130° F. And the elements are insulated from directed contact with skin so no burning is going to take place. Using them at 18 ° at 50 MPH you can barely tell they are heating. At sub-freezing temperatures I don’t want a thermostat, I want full power.
LESSON TWO: They do keep your hands warm. Or at least not cold. Like I said I like feeling heat. My hands remained comfortable but not warm and performed much better than the expedition mittens I used last winter where my hands would go numb after 15 to 20 minutes of riding. I stop a lot to take pictures and have to take off the gloves. Holding a frozen camera my hands freeze fast. One of the nice features of the electric gloves is that they will slowly restore numb hands to relative comfort.
LESSON THREE: They are cumbersome to use. Running cables through the jacket every time I gear up, plugging in gloves and connectors, making sure the engine is running before plugging in or disconnecting before turning off in kindness towards the battery, it’s a lot of fussing around. And you need to do things in order. If you put the gloves on before you make those connections you have to start all over again. Since I stop and start a lot it means a lot of extra steps. I can deal with it in return for warm hands but I bet some would find it bothersome if not flat out irritating. I liken the process to putting an infant into a car seat. Once you are practiced it is a piece of cake. To the unwashed outsider it looks like hell.
LESSON FOUR: The gloves are nice. Well made, soft, luxurious on the hands, warm on their own, I really do like them. I fought the cold hand battle a long time, convincing myself it was a badge of riding honor to function in the cold by warming my hands on the headlight. I remained stubborn in the face of many suggestions to get electric gloves. Now I have them and I am ruined. What’s next? A windshield? Electric gloves? A motorcycle? I fear the bigger is better trap or which technology is a part.
At least my hands will be warm as I think about this stuff.