Baby, it’s cold outside!

In case you hadn’t noticed – it’s cold outside! I’ve always felt the cold badly – as a child I used to cry with the pain of it in Wintertime. Turns out that I wasn’t imagining it as last year my doctor informed me I have Raynauld’s.🥶

It’s incredibly common and is restricted circulation – and explains why I’ve always worn heated gear as soon as Autumn hits and use my heated grips on all but the sunniest days.

My weapon of choice has always been Gerbing – and I first bought heated gloves and a jacket liner 18 years ago. Gerbing’s heating element is guaranteed for life and indeed they replaced both my gloves and my liner when first a finger stopped heating and then my left arm.

But the gear finally had to go because after years of hard wear the connections were breaking, I really had had my money’s worth, and technology has moved on so much. I didn’t hesitate to replace like with like and invested in a new jacket liner, gloves and controller.

I picked up my kit from Sportsbike Shop, in Milton Keynes where I was fortunate enough to have the advice of store manager, Sue. She certainly knows her stuff, and was more than happy to help me try on several sizes (many times!😂) and pairs of gloves until we found the perfect fit.

The differences between the old and new gear are immediate  – the new liner looks and feels sleeker, it’s also longer, is nicer fabric and fits under my jacket better. I actually went down a size so it fits more snugly too and now I need far less base layers than before. Coming from a woman who’s probably responsible for the financial success of ColdKillers, that’s really saying something.

It still, thankfully, has heat down both arms, front, collar, shoulders and kidney areas. Added to this the new Gerbing gloves attach at each jacket wrist. My old gloves still work but would need an extra controller (and wire) to make them  useable with the new jacket, (think of kids mittens attached by a long string!) so it was far more practical to upgrade the whole system which links together.

(The gloves do come with the Y-wire you need if you just wanted to run them and not the liner. So as the weather improves I will be able to swop out my heated liner for the jacket’s normal liner and run these wires between the jacket and its liner, for comfort.)

Speaking of upgrades, the gloves now have a heat button on each wrist to run them independently of the liner. The colour codes (blue, yellow and red) make it easy to see how high you have them. But the downside is that because the cuffs and buttons are tucked inside my jacket I don’t feel comfortable trying to make changes whilst I’m riding and so will set the heat before I move off.

The gloves are bulky but no worse than normal thick winter gloves, they’re leather with a waterproof lining and have a handy wiper on the left thumb. All have been tried and tested in the recent bad weather and work perfectly.

I have to admit the new jacket’s heat controller is not my favourite. It used to be a simple knob you turned, now it requires pressing to go from 1-5. No big deal except that as there is also no handy carrier, like the old one that you could clip to you or a tank bag, this has to be tucked into my jacket’s waist strap. In turn that means I can’t see the numbers on it which you press for heat, because my helmet’s in the way when looking down.

Fortunately so far I’ve been quite comfortable with 2 and only occasionally have had to use 3 for a short period before I felt like I was overheating. So again I either set it before I move off, or have to wait until I’m in a safe position to adjust it, like at traffic lights. Otherwise it involves lifting the chin of my flip helmet, whilst riding, to be able to see the controller, which I don’t like doing.

I’m hopeful that the more I use it, the more instinctive it will become, because quite frankly the kit is a godsend and has proved its weight in gold from the moment I plugged in.

It’s been so good that several times in the last four weeks, I, who usually live with my heated grips on, have been out all day, stopping only for the odd cuppa and slice of cake, haven’t needed them switched on and am riding without a hint of discomfort.

My work colleague, Gavin Grewal, a solicitor at White Dalton, swears by his Keis heated jacket liner. You may have seen our Facebook posts about our gear and how Gerbing squares off against Keis.
Clearly we are both big fans of heated gear, and each of us adores their chosen brand.

Whichever one you may be thinking of, we agree heated gear is a game changer for enabling winter riding, helping to keep you warm, alert and therefore increasing your safety.

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