Cycling UK Forum

The reason i'm on here is because of the seemingly impossible quest to find a glove that will save my hands from winter weather. I've tried soooo many - "waterproof", neoprene, liners, lobsters - all are okay until you really need them three hours into a five hour winter epic in the sleet and your 40 miles from home.

I've just this afternoon bought a pair of Sealskinz Extreme Cold Weather Heated Gloves, from Leisure Lakes - cost £120-ish, which is expensive I grant you, but still come in cheaper than Rapha's offering. They have a 4V 220mAh Polymer rechargeable battery unit located inside a Velcro pocket of each cuff. Up to 5 hours runtime and charge time 5-6 hours.

I'm hoping against hope these will do the job - I've not seen any reviews of them in relation to how they hold up to cycling for hours in a British winter, but I will let you know. The reviews I have found online seem to suggest they do a good job of keeping hands warm.

On a wider note, it amazes me that with all the innovation and money being thrown at cycling nowadays there still doesn't seem to be a gold-standard no-word-of-a-lie reliable glove that will keep hands dry and warm.

Some people swear by Pogies; a friend of mine happily commuted in Alaskan winters with them ....

One thing to remember is that the cuffs of your gloves should go inside the cuffs of your outer jacket else any rain will run down and fill up the gloves.

phlser wrote:On a wider note, it amazes me that with all the innovation and money being thrown at cycling nowadays there still doesn't seem to be a gold-standard no-word-of-a-lie reliable glove that will keep hands dry and warm.

So what position do you have your hands in?
Mine point in various directions depending on the cycle I am using...

And what weather are you expecting this perfection of warmth and dryness... Most gloves that are warm enough in cold weather make my hands wet (from the inside) in a tens of minutes in weather that is a few degrees warmer.

mjr wrote:One thing to remember is that the cuffs of your gloves should go inside the cuffs of your outer jacket else any rain will run down and fill up the gloves.

If you can recommend any such jacket to fit a tall man I'd be very interested.

In my experience, such a thing does not exist; all jackets have sleeves too short; if you're really lucky you'll find an xxl just about long enough but extremely baggy as tailored for a 25st bloke.

https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorc ... prod/84015

I have the non heated versions of these motorcycle gloves (£60) which are very warm so with heating elements in them they must be toasty warm which you need on a motorbike in winter travelling at much higher speeds than if cycling. Also your hands are static and tend to become a lot colder because of the wind chill if you don't have deflectors such as fitted to adventure bikes. If the price of motorcycle gloves is beyond your budget then consider using a layering system of conventional gloves, e.g. a size L/XL/XXL outer wind or water proof glove, a mid layer glove, then a thin inner liner glove either synthetic or merino wool. This should work. It's not a cheap option but once you get the sizing and comfort how you want it, your hands will stay warm, very warm. I wear 3 layers on very cold hard frost mornings. My hands remained warm when we had the very cold temps about -10C a few years ago. I live in the wild East. Once on the move your hands will tend to warm up. A tip is to put the liners and mid layer in a warm but not hot oven or on the hot water tank before you set out. Carry a spare set as if your hands do warm up they will sweat so the gloves can get damp. When you stop they cool down and putting them back on when damp is not pleasant. HTH.

Maplins sell heated gloves - shops all over the place so easy to try on and somewhere to take them back to if they do fail after a couple of months.

I've been using a pair of US army cold/wet weather gloves for years for cycling, motorcycling and skiing. Always keep hands warm and dry. I use a silk inner below about -10. They're high quality leather, well insulated and lined with Goretex or something similar. I suspect the something similar because I've had mine over 10 years and they're still waterproof. Treat them with neatsfoot once a year and the leather stays in brilliant condition. Mine were only about 8 quid when I got them but these are still a bargain at 22 quid https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USA-Army-USM ... Sw311Zq-3Q .

For really cold weather or if you suffer particularly cold hands a web search for Russian army cold weather gloves might be a good idea. Their idea of cold is different to almost everyone else.

Blazewear seem to be back up and running and I now have a pair of their heated liner gloves.

Coldest day of the year here, well below zero, and hands a bit too warm if anything with them on the lowest setting under planet X crab mitts. Lovely.

I was talking to somebody the other day who works outside in the cold and he was praising some sort of microwaveable socks. That's had me wondering about gloves and it seems they are available.

http://www.alago.co.uk/shop-now/heated- ... ling-glove

And here's a review.

http://www.bikeradar.com/commuting/news ... ove-36184/

thirdcrank wrote:I was talking to somebody the other day who works outside in the cold and he was praising some sort of microwaveable socks. That's had me wondering about gloves and it seems they are available.

http://www.alago.co.uk/shop-now/heated- ... ling-glove

That website seems to be having problems.

EDIT: Seems to be working now again

I have just ordered from these guys, will update when I have tried them out -

http://www.breezeblockers.com/buy.php

I went with the Tornado.

EDIT: Scrap that, they are out of stock. They are sending Storm instead.

Dave

BrianFox wrote:Blazewear seem to be back up and running and I now have a pair of their heated liner gloves.

Coldest day of the year here, well below zero, and hands a bit too warm if anything with them on the lowest setting under planet X crab mitts. Lovely.

You had me worried with your first post! Just bought a pair of Blazeware inners, and very pleased with them