Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Gerbing Controller for Heated Gloves

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Gerbing Controller for Heated GlovesControlling the Heat

Just purchased a Gerbing Single Temperature Controller for my Gerbing electric gloves.  After a burn on my hand from direct power it was a necessary change.  The reason was simple — in past years I wore the gloves without any wind protection.  In cold weather the wind would render the gloves ineffective at below freezing temperatures so burns seemed an impossibility to me.  Looking back a a post from 2008 — 18º F and Gerbing Electric Gloves —  it seems I need to make a modification to Lesson One:

LESSON ONE: The gloves aren’t going to burn you. (They can burn if your hands are shielded from the wind) 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. 

With the Tucano Urbano mitts shielding the wind the gloves get hot and will burn.  In that case I don’t always want full power.  I do want the controller.  Riding today at 35F I had them set to about 1/4 power and my hands were toasty.  It’s late in the winter riding season so I don’t know how much experimenting with low temperatures I’ll have but I’m ready for next winter.

Now on to some Vespa maintenance — oil and filter change to start.

Heated Gloves or Grips?

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For a long time I’ve struggled with this winter riding question — heated gloves or grips?

journal entry about heated gloves and gripsHandwritten Notes

Heated gloves and grips were on my mind while sitting in a waiting room writing.    I often start posts with notes, ideas corralled and collected for use later when I’m at a keyboard.  On Sunday morning I conducted some research on heated gear.

Gerbing electric glovesGerbing’s Electric Gloves

I’ve not tried my Gerbing electric gloves in over a year — dismissing them in favor of heated grips and Tucano Urbano muffs which keep the wind off my hands.  The question of heated gloves or grips didn’t surface until my hands started freezing at 10F.  Frustrated, I began looking at options and after some input from members of the ModernVespa.com site I decided to try the gloves again.

Vespa and Ducati on the roadOff to Breakfast

A Sunday morning ride to Lock Haven for breakfast and a 37F temperature presented the opportunity to try the gloves despite being convinced they wouldn’t keep my hands warm. I was also convinced the generator on the Vespa couldn’t power the grips and the gloves simultaneously but some experts on the Modern Vespa forum informed me otherwise.

So I plugged them in and was pleasantly surprised that they were hot.  Wired directly to the battery without a thermostat I had full power at my fingertips.  Poor Paul, despite heavy gloves and heated grips on his Ducati was suffering loss of feeling in his thumb and fingertips.

Market House restaurant in Lock Haven, PennsylvaniaMarket House Restaurant, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania

By the time we finished the 45 mile breakfast leg of the ride Paul was frozen and I was sporting hot hands.  So much so that I had a burn on my right hand — a small round burn that looked like someone put a cigarette out on me.

Still — hot hands!  That was reason to celebrate despite the burn.  I’ll track down that problem — perhaps a thermostat is in order.  But I’m convinced now I can ride in some pretty cold temperatures again.  Concern now has migrated from my hands to my feet.  If I can get them warm I’m set.

Onward!