Looking at things I may want to spec on my forthcoming Tiger Sport 800, the Triumph heated grips are a £230 option. I could buy a pair of heated gloves for similar money and use them on my other bikes (which don’t have heated grips).
What do people think works best? If I went with the heated grips I’d go with the Triumph option to keep it all nicely integrated, but my experience with the heated grips on my previous Tiger 900 wasn’t great as they only ever got luke warm at best, but combined with the hand guards on the Tiger 900 worked okay. The hand guards are a £121 option on the TS800 which I want to avoid as I think they look ugly.
I like heated grips because I can often wear summer gloves when it’s cold. The downside is that they only heat your palms so longer trips can be less pleasant.
Heated grips are fine when they work well - though my only experience is OEM on the BMW Blood Bikes I ride but they, in the main, are RTs so have good fairings and very good heated grips.
I would, however, add a strong note of caution insomuch as heated grips will warm ONLY the palms of your hands. Sure, some of that warmth will, indirectly, ‘circulate’ through to the backs of your hands but it won’t add much value if you don’t have a fairing or guards that will keep some, if not all, of the chilling wind off the backs of your hands where, by the way, the veins and arteries are closer to the radiating surface of your skin.
Ideally you’d have both if you can afford it. Warm hands are a safety aid - there’s nothing worse than struggling to find the headlight dip or indicator switch with frozen fingers - and that goes double when reaching for the front brake lever!
I, personally, would strongly suggest that you consider both if you can afford them but would go for heated gloves first and grips second. I don’t, by the way, yet have heated gloves, but I am considering a cheapo pair (Ali Express or TEMU) just to try and to see if it confirms my untested theory on my own bikes!
Let us know how you get on and what you find, please.
Yeah, that’s the thing. I don’t think the heated grips without the hand guards will be much good as it’s the wind chill on your fingers that’s the killer. I watched the Sportsbikeshop YouTube video on heated gloves and the heating elements seem to cover the outside of your fingers where it’s really needed.
The combination of heated grips and hand guards on the new bike is not only quite expensive, but I think the hand guards will look ugly.
If it’s serious winter riding then heated gloves is the way to go (especially as Triumph have a reputation for not being hot enough). If it’s for the occasional chilly day in our glorious summers then grips will be more convenient.
IMO
Heated grips are more convenient, but as said their downside is ggey onky heat the inside of the hand leaving the fingers and backs of the hands at the mercy of windchill.
The downside of the gloves is the faff that goes with connecting them up to the bike or the length of time the battery lasts if they’re battery operated, the upside is you can keep them when you sell the bike or as said use them on more than 1 bike if you’re a greedy git.
Personally I’d get the heated gloves that plug into the bike, especially if you’re doing a lot of riding through the winter.
Something like the Keis ones and use them with a heated jacket too.
Heated gloves are great, don’t so much heat, as maintain heat. I find because my hands are warm I am constantly over-estimating the ambient temperature. Also they only last 4/4.5 hours. That said love em.
Heated gloves for me. Revit H2O battery operated. They have 4 heat settings and I ride on the lowest setting as that is warm enough for me and they last for 8 hours. Batteries are removable so gloves can be used all year round.
as said before, heated gloves is more efficient. Heated grips are more practical, and would fit the need for most of winter riding.
Last time I used mines intensively was to dry my gloves after hours of riding under a non stop rain with @Vulpes
