Preparing for winter...

[yaigi]

Hey guys, just a quick question - I'm wanting to prepare for winter more than the OH did last year to avoid frozen fingers and whining, which is what I assume comes when you don't prepare, as that's all I heard about last year from him

Sooooo, for my burfday the folk at work got me a voucher for the local bike shop, and I'm thinking of going to get some heated gloves or heated grips. My question is, what would you go for? At the moment I only have summer gloves so anything would be an improvement
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[koolio]

All I do is heated grips.

I've done 70mph 2 1/2 hours in -3 Celsius and intermittent hail

This was with no special rider gear just a barbour wax jacket, jumper, normal trouser, boots and a thick pair of gloves.

Mainly it felt like my feet and outside of hands were getting frost bite. But without the heated grips no way I would have made it.

It was really stupid going out in that weather but I had no choice.

[yaigi]

Yeah it's the outer of my hands I would think are going to get most cold, which is why I was thinking heated gloves would be better than grips but would like to hear what people think as this may not be the case, perhaps gloves are only heated on the inside anyway? And grips seem to be cheaper...
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[J4mes]

I'd take heated gloves if you can afford them!

[Andy_Pagin]

Tucano Urbano muffs are better than any gloves in winter. I rode all through last winter with these and didn't even need my warmest winter gloves - they made me sweat too much.
____________________
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa, hey-hey,
the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

[Bendy]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - heated grips and muffs. Probably the best thing I've ever bought for any of my bikes.

Heated grips on their own are okay, but nothing compared to the joy of heated grips in muffs. I haven't tried heated gloves but it all sounds like a bit of a faff and won't be keeping your hands out of the wind and rain as effectively as a good set of muffs.

[yaigi]

Thanks guys, I've just been checking out muffs and this idea of muffs plus heated grips popped into my head, then I read the above comments and I think that's pretty much confirmed it for me, looks like the way to go! Cheaper than gloves too!
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[yaigi]

Ok, so I went to the shop.... and my GOD i didn't realise how absolutely mahoosive muffs are! They're enourmous! They'll look ridiculous on my bike, like two big elephant ears flapping in the wind! Having second thoughts...maybe it's just the brand they had, it was these ones:

https://images.esellerpro.com/2189/I/121/14/Oxford-Bone-Dry-Handlebar-Muffs-1.jpg

coupled with the fact that at the moment I'm only on a YBR Custom, so it's not exactly a big bike to balance it all out.

Also, the guy seemed to think fitting heated grips is a pain in the arse, especially if I'm trying to sell the bike at the moment anyway, and it didn't actually work out cheaper to do the muffs plus grips combo compared to the heated gloves, like I originally thought.

Thoughts!? Are heated gloves shit?
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[BigDan1190]

Heated gloves are amazing, if you get the decent ones, but also expensive.

You don't want to be spending less than £100 on heated gloves, or they will either have shit heating or be made of shit quality.

£50 for some heated grips and £20 for those oxford muffs will do you reet

[yaigi]

But muffs are gunna look well silly on my little YBR Custom, flapping about way up there on the sticky out handlebars lol! They really are quite massive.... I might shop around, see if I can get some smaller ones, spend my gift voucher on a bike cover instead, seeing as I'm moving somewhere without a garage

Plus the shop I went to were charging a lot more than £20 for the muffs, if I remember right, they were more like £50, and the grips more like £60. They had a pair of heated gloves for £110, just didn't have em in a small so was thinking of going back later in the week to try em on when they get them in....

Oh I don't know what to do now... hmmm....
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[P.]

You do not want oxford bone drys.

You want Tucano Urbano R361.

The bone drys are huge, not bone dry and push on the levers at anything over 15mph.

Ebay Tucano Urbano - £38
Ebay Roxter grips £20

£58 for the warmest winter.

[Noxious89123]

Had some of those oxford muffs, they were total shit, pretty much nothing to actually attach them to the bike. They'll just push on the levers like nobodies business.

The tucano urbano ones are what I would get if I was looking for some muffs. They attach to the bar-ends and I think they also have something semi-rigid inside to keep them off the levers?
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[yaigi]

Oh excellent thanks guys, so it wasn't just me and my limited knowledge of these things that made me think they were massive and a bit shit looking!

Ok, I think I shall find a shop with a better stock and perhaps still go for this muffs + heated grips thing. Gift voucher can be used for bike cover

Those optical Tucano Urbano R361's are a bit mental though....but something of the raver in me wants them
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[yaigi]

Ooo one more question (sorry!)

Heated grips - hard to fit to the bike?! I'm not a total dumbass, and I've got a mechanic and a pretty motorbike and electronics savvy boyfriend to hand...
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[P.]

[Reppyboyo]

Heated vest ftw!

[RichieZX6R]

Glad this thread was started cos I've been wondering about keeping my hands warm also!
____________________
Current: Kawazaki ZX6R 51
Past: Kawazaki ZX6R 96 - Honda CBR 600F4 05 - Dragstar 125 02 - Honda CB 400 SF 94 - Honda NSR 125 51 - Gilera Runner XV125 04

[yaigi]

The weather today is making me want to get a move on with this heating myself whilst riding malarkey cos MAN it's cold, and blinking windy! So much so I must confess I came in the car cos I hate riding in high wind on my 125, I wish someone would buy it so I could get a big bike!
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[koolio]