Winter glove question

[red66stang]

I'm riding in Phoenix, AZ and while you all might laugh, it's starting to get "cold" here, 40* (f) mornings. I went out and bought some insulated overpants and insulated gloves today cause my current leather stuff wasn't cutting it. I love the pants but I'm not sure the gloves are really cutting it either. I was curious if when it's cold and you guys have winter gloves on, do your hands still get cold, but not freezing? They're deffinitely better than my leather gloves I was wearing but I was kind of expecting my hands to stay about the same temp as when I put them on the whole ride home. Just curious if I should return them and go for something else. They're some firstgear gloves with thinsulate and hypora fabric. Thanks for any input.

[BuzZz]

Yeah, that's normal. No glove will keep your hands the perfect temp if it's actually cold out (40* ain't actually cold ), even heated gloves will only keep your hands warm, leaving your fingers to feel the chill. I use snowmobile gloves when it gets down to 30-35* and the best you can hope for is to retain feeling in the fingertips, really.

Anything that keeps the wind off your hands is worth it's weight in gold. Anything from a full fairing or extensions to off-road hand guards... as long as it blocks the icy blast of the wind.

We have a cure for the worst of it up here. It's called 'suck it up'.

[Sev]

LAUGH

I wear a couple layers of gloves, and I'm negotiating for the family for either heated grips, or heated liners for x-mas.

Otherwise I just suffer. Erm Suck-it-up.

And BuzZz is right, I've been out on the highway at below freezing a couple of times. 28-30 degrees F and it isn't fun (I shudder to think of what the windchill worked out to), but there is always a way to get through. I try to avoid doing that sort of thing to myself now though.

[TechTMW]

Might want to research some heated grips ... or a fairing (Or handguards) that take the windblast off the gloves. Both are pretty effective, though I prefer a full fairing in winter.

You might designate one bike to be your winter rig and get a nice fairing for it - I used a National cycle plexifairing on my Yamaha xj650. It covers the hands and takes the chill off, and is easily removable for the summer.

Check it out http://shop.nationalcycle.com/perl/cycl ... del=hd-020
(Scroll down to plexifairing)

[sapaul]

I use liners inside my leather gloves, works well for me. And we are not laughing, Africa can get F@#$ing at night and in winter goes well below freezing. Tech's idea of handgrips is also good. I had those on my Kawa KL250 in the UK. Really does keep the wind off.

[cb360]

Like Sapaul, I wear glove liners. I actually just got them the other day. It was sunny and cold (40F) and I just had to ride. Afetr a few minutes my hands were pretty cold so I just decided I'd ride to the motorcycle shop about 25 miles away and I picked up some liners for about $6.

[paul246]

I'm still riding (or was until recently when the roads have become just too icy) in temperatures well below freezing.

To me, the secret is wearing layers. If some of those layers happen to be Gortex (or similar) all the better.

I even wear insulated Gortex hunting socks over my regular socks inside my riding boots.

For legs and trunk area, underwear, long thermal underwear, pants, Gortex bib ski pants and finally Gortex wind pants.

Up top, a light turtle neck knit shirt with a knit neck tube are all I really need under my regular leather jacket.

Finally, the best hand protection I've ever used are my Gortex and thinsulate snowmobile mitts, with the real sheepskin backs. The gauntlets go almost up to my elbows. Bought these from Cabela's in the U.S. about 15 years ago and they stll perform like magic.

I ride my '73 Honda CL350 until just about Christmas if the roads permit. To prevent salt and chemical corrosion I spray the whole bike down with CorrosionX, the alloy parts still look like new.

I get a charge out of cagers peering through frosty windows and either thinking I'm crazy or possibly feeling sorry for me.

[cb360]

Do you have any knobbies on that bike paul426?

[paul246]

No knobbies, just the standard pattern Bridgestone up front and a slightly aggressive looking Chinese tire at the rear. I stay pretty much to dry pavement, some snow and ice patches are OK as is packed snow.

Frost in the early morning or late evening are my biggest concerns.

I used to ride my bicycle all winter when I was a kid, delivering newspapers...never fell. All you have to do is compensate and turn with weight shifting while keeping the bike as upright as possible.

[storysunfolding]

I used a few jersey gloves under my winter riding gloves. That was fine for short trips but on my 2 hour weekend trips between D.C. and Charlottesville Virginia at night... it hurt.

I tried suck it up, but I could only find the cheap over the counter brand.

Then I finished my heated glove liners. Now I wear those, one pair of the jersey and the winter gloves. Add that to my off road hand guards and my hands feel nice and toasty the whole way in 25 degree weather.