It was inevitable. Riding home last night, I had to turn the heated grips on.
Earlier that day, I’d stood in the garage and looked at my short cuff – G701S – Keis Heated gloves. I was telling myself that it was still summer. Technically, autumn had only just started, which was close enough to summer for me to convince myself that wearing my summer gloves would be fine. Not my best decision.
Heated grips are a wonderful invention, and as they are attached to the bike, you can’t leave them in the garage. Yet they only heat my palms. The backs of my hands and especially my fingertips – the parts of me that always get cold first – don’t get any heat.
Perhaps that is why I have a couple of pairs of Keis Heated Gloves. And heated socks too. But don’t get me started on the joys of heated socks. We are here to talk about heated gloves.
Heated Gloves Winter Wish List
Like most motorcyclists, I’m still searching for the perfect pair of summer gloves. I’ve tried several pairs, and currently, I’ve settled on a pair of Five gloves as they were one of the few pairs I could find with hard scaphoid sliders that didn’t require me to sell a kidney to pay for them.
My list of must-haves for winter gloves is long. The gloves must have hard scaphoid sliders and knuckle protection, the same as my summer gloves, and then there is …
♦ It will rain on me, so being waterproof is a must-have requirement, and a visor wipe would be an advantage – although VisorCat is the best solution for keeping my visor clean and clear.
♦ Regardless of whether the gloves are heated or not, they must be warm but not bulky. If keeping the cold out requires me to wear a puffa-jacket on each hand, they are useless. I need to be able to feel the controls and move my fingers.
♦ Extra grip on the palms of the gloves is something I want as it minimises the chances of my hands slipping on the controls while trying not to use a vice-like grip on the throttle.
♦ Velcro straps to give me a precise fit and ensure the cold and the rain stays outside is another must-have. Annoying cold air draughts or ice water trickles will not be tolerated.
♦ And although not an absolute requirement, material that enables the use of touch screens on the index fingers is a great feature. Trying to dismiss a message on the GPS, only to have my screen taps ignored, is hellishly frustrating.
And people complain I’m a perfectionist. I have no idea what they are talking about.
Keis G701
Arguably these are the most flexible of the Keis Heated Glove range, and as they meet my long list of requirements for winter gloves, I own a pair.
The flexibility comes from the options for powering the gloves. You can use them wired directly to the bike’s battery, connected to a Keis heated jacket/body warmer or by using rechargeable batteries stored in the glove’s cuff.
The cuff batteries are an option and don’t come in the box with the Keis G701 gloves. I only got a set of batteries because not every bike I ride comes with a Keis fly-lead hanging from the bike’s battery.
If you are not swapping bikes on a regular basis, then powering the G701 gloves from the motorcycle’s battery is the better option. All the leads you need for that are included with the gloves.
Keis G701S
At first glance, the Keis G701S looks like the same glove as its bigger brother, but the cuff is around an inch (2.5cms) shorter and doesn’t open as wide.
The G701S is designed for riders who prefer to put their jacket over the cuff of the glove and seal the weather out that way. This also has the advantage of never having to have any of the power cables exposed.
To power, the bigger G701 gloves, the power lead comes along the sleeve of my jacket and loops back out the cuff of the glove. I’ve never understood why the power connectors are on the outside of the gloves rather than the inside, but I’m sure there is a good explanation.
As the G701S is designed to go inside the sleeve of my jacket, all the power cables remain neatly tucked away.
If any of this sounds complex or awkward, it isn’t, and the two minutes it takes to get connected is nothing compared to the benefit of having warm hands in cold temperatures.
Unpowered, the gloves double up nicely for autumnal days. Thick enough to keep my hands warm but not so bulky that they are out of place when the day warms up. If only I’d remembered this as I stood in the garage this morning, I could have kept telling myself that summer wasn’t quite over yet.
Keis G301
Why, if I already own a pair of Keis Heated Gloves, do I also have a pair of Keis G301 gloves?
Answer: Because they are awesome. According to my wish list, they are not perfect, but undoubtedly Keis G301 three-fingered heated gloves are <expletive> awesome.
The omissions from my wish list are knuckle protection and a screen touchpad on the fingertip. It is fingers that will give most people a problem with these gloves. Fashion victims will scoff at the three-finger design. The counterargument is that I don’t care; my hands are wonderfully warm.
The idea behind the three-finger design is that it reduces the overall surface area but also allows the construction of the gloves to include a 3M Thinsulate layer, which not only keeps the cold out but also helps to retain heat.
The outer construction on the back of the gloves is shower-proof nylon, and there is a Hipora waterproof membrane to ensure your hands remain dry in sustained rain.
Although three-fingered on the outside, each finger has its own pocket on the inside of the glove, making them comfortable to wear and feel almost like regular gloves.
I had no problem using the front brake or the clutch with the three-finger design. It was something I thought about for the first half a mile, and after that, I’d adapted.
You can power them from batteries stored in the cuffs, as you can the G701 gloves, or connect them to the bike’s battery. But it is the warmth that makes these gloves awesome.
I have never had cold hands when wearing them, even on long rides when the air temperature gauge indicated very close to zero.
And Finally …
If none of those gloves are for you, then there is the Keis G102 heated inner glove option. You can power them from an external Keis battery pack in your pocket or the bike’s battery. The one drawback is that you will need slightly larger winter gloves to allow space for the G102 inner gloves.
Whichever solution you choose, there is nothing more blissful than having warm hands (and feet see Heated Socks) when riding on a cold day.
