Saturday 22 November 2014

What To Wear?

Weather is changing everywhere now, but I'm determined to get my bike groove on to the very last day. I often wonder how bikers doing round-the-world tours stay warm travelling through snow. For me, snow or icy roads are the only two conditions that'd keep me off my bike. Luckily, we don't get snow really here where I live, and if we do, unless it's some freak weather, it melts within hours.



But for those who ride in snow, my research suggests that they layer and layer, plus thermals and ultra-warm outerwear. That is exactly what I do too for colder times. I also find wearing a hoodie works really well as part of layering, especially when I put the hood top on and my helmet on top... really toasty. I recently mail ordered a hi-vis armoured version from GoGo Gear in Los Angeles. Looking forward. 



What I'm having challenges with is keeping my hands warm. Friends suggest I get heated grips installed but they have such varied reviews all over. Thing is, I ride with my left hand's index and middle fingers propped on the brake all the time. I'm thinking that heated grips would be useless if my fingers aren't continuously totally wrapped around it.



So I recently tried out some cheapie heated gloves. These ones use a massive D battery which is installed on the other side of the wrists. Quite heavy, I think, and perhaps because they were a cheap trial, they only nominally changed the temperature. I'd say though, to be fair, that the although the heat was low, it did take the edge off from the nipping cold.  I will most likely now upgrade to a pair of heated gloves with a little higher spec. Nothing too pricey, as the Burgman 650 comes with heated grips. I'm thinking with the Burgman's heated grips and decent heated gloves, that should cure my hands in the cold. So yeah, I've got something specific to hunt for at the Motorcycle Live Show in Birmingham this weekend. 

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