Gerbing Heated Gloves

Gerbing Xtreme Urban Heated Gloves.

Winter is here and for the last few weeks I have been loving it too …..
Why you ask ….. Are you mad ?….. what’s wrong with you …… it’s cold out there …..

Well that’s because I am a real lucky guy, and Gerbing have sent me a pair of their outstanding new gloves to test out and review, yep you read that right ….. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on their latest range for this year heated gloves :0

I have always said there are two real ways to remain warm during winter and that is either a set of heated grips or heated gloves. Now when it comes to heated gloves there is really only one company you would use and if you read my last review on using heated grips you will know it’s Gerbing, they are the “crème de la crème”, the top dog, the bee’s knees …ok you get it. I do like Gerbing but it’s not just me, do a search and you see why from so many others, they are known for their amazing range of heated clothing and not just gloves and that because they do it so very well.

Well Gerbing have a new pair of gloves for this year; the Xtreme Urban gloves. They are the new standard in luxury and warmth… I am going to try these out these bad boys in all real world conditions, and that starts with being odd and treating them as traditional gloves ….. yep you read me right ….. Not using the heated part, without touching button that kicks in all that extra lovely warmth. I will get into that side and powering these up later on in this review but for now all I wanted to see just how good they are without all that tech heating side behind them. Also I have removed my hand guards from my bike to get the effects of wind and rain hitting direct at my hands.

It is also at this point I like to say just how important being warm is when riding a bike, let alone how much more important your hands being warm are, just think about how much control of your bike is operated with your hands, from steering, to switches, and your throttle, as well as the important front brake (most stopping power), this is why this is the second most investment needed area, 1st being your safety helmet. Now not only do gloves keep you warm, its is also the protection needed in a event of a crash, as again what is the normal first contact point… Yep your hands as you put them out to protect yourself, so don’t please skimp in this area.

To start with the very basics and that is when you first get a new pair of gloves and that is for pretty much any motorbike gloves, your find they always comes being so damn rigid and need weeks of use to make them comfortable ….. Well not anymore :O Yep finally I have found a pair of gloves that from just opening the box and putting on, you can use without all that wearing-in process, these new gloves are just so supple, super soft and well padded as well as very warm :). I also love the protection side as a biking glove given from these with extra knuckle protection, and then there is also the adjustable cuff which is large area to fit over any jacket and keep that wind from entering, another cool extra is a built in visor wiper on the left hand of the glove for them rainy days to clear off that water from your visor, and yes they are touch screen compatible too, then I got to mention as well as all that I just listed you also get layers of Thinsulate® insulation and brushed liner for added warmth and comfort which all make this one amazing pair of gloves, and all that also comes with a lifetime warranty on the heating elements. :O That’s some serious kit…..

Next area to look into is there fitment and sizing, which I am going to say is just spot on, when asked what size I needed I headed over to there website (https://gerbing.co.uk/) and check what they recommended for me and their charts were spot on, they fit like ….. Well a Glove :P, now of course that was for me and everyone has different hand size and finger lengths but for me these really do fit well, with none of the extra length in the fingers that they fold over and get caught up when using them.

Now with the temp dropping (Temp warning light was on meaning 1°C or below), it’s the perfect time to get some testing in and that I did with a quick morning ride clocking up around 200 miles to see just how they would handle the wind and rain and that cold fresh start to the day. First ride is the getting used to the new gloves, how easy to access controls like indicators and such but within a few miles it’s feeling rather natural again, thou being so thick they are not giving the same sensitive side of feel with button control, as for the warmth, yep no issues there, I do not need any grip heating, just the gloves itself without being switched on and they are easily coping with the temp, not letting any cold into my hands or finger tips. Later on during the ride there was some rain and again the gloves handled this well, thou not 100% hydrophobic on the outside the Waterproof/windproof/breathable Hipora® fabric layer did its job of stopping that rain and wind seep into the inter side of the gloves keeping it dry as a bone, another great result, but after 5-6 hours out I did start to feel the cold to the tips of my fingers only, and that I can see is where the heating element side will come in and would normally be activated, but I still wanted to give it more time before heading down this route. After a good days ride the only part of cold I had was the finger tips, and that was again without any hand guards fitted to my bike, so got to say that was pretty amazing, some of my winter gloves with guards couldn’t get close to this in real life conditions, they outside of the glove was slightly damp from the rain but the inside was still bone dry, showing to me that the lining layers really held up well. If I had hand guards on I can see these would be amazing just as a stock glove, without any of the heating system installed, let alone up and running. They handled a good UK weather without the need to power them up.

The next plans after allowing them to fully dry out is wiring up to try these out again but this time making the most of the heating element side on a nice cold and maybe rainy trip again…. As said though the gloves are a 12v powered and that comes from the bike itself with the leads that comes in the box, or if you prefer you can buy the additional battery packs (there are two different ones, either low or high amp) which depending on which one you get gives you around 6 to 8 hours of charge from a sleek battery setup which fit into the zipped pouch that’s on the glove cuff area. As for wiring these to the bike itself, you just connect them to direct to your battery via supplied lead and then use the Y cable (Supplied) to connect to your gloves. This takes around 15 minutes even with routing the cable, for me thou I have a custom dedicated power relay block fitted to my bike under my speedo, so it was even easier to power it up as just a case of putting the two battery wires direct to this and takes just seconds (ask me for details if needed). I would like to point out the lead you use to connect to your 12v on your bike has a built in fuse holder, you also get a selection of fuses to use. It does show what you need to use and for me a 3amp rating (purple fuse) was all I needed as I planned only to power the gloves and not any other heated kit from the lead. Basically just read the manual for this part to know what you need for your own set up.

Well it’s been around a week since I’ve been out on the bike and with Xmas and New year I’ve not had a lot of bike time. I have finally got another few decent rides in where I was able to test out the gloves with enabling the power side these times. As been said I am lucky enough to be able to add the power cable direct to my spare wire loom from my relay block and then I have been able to now run the gloves as they are more intended, and I will say boy they work well :O Talk about heat that comes from these, High power is really not needed on these ever lol, well ok maybe but not for me then and especially being UK based as our winters don’t get too cold, but I can see this is going to be amazing for other places where temps really do drop low, but what I love is that they are really well set for anyone pref from not using the power but to enabling the power via the button on the glove. The button is simple to operate with firm and responsive feel, as well as colour coded to let you know what power setting it is on. All that is needed is a one and a bit second hold on the switch to power them on (Blue light shows) and it then on its lowest setting, then again a quick press and hold to switch to the next power mode, (Orange/Yellow) and the final power setting is high which is Red. High power mode is disabled from new, to enable it hold the power button for 10 seconds (only needed once to enable high heat mode). Turning the gloves off is the same as powering them on, just press and hold for a couple of seconds.

Back to the gloves itself thou, for me I would only need to use the first setting of heat as that really is plenty to keep my hands warm, the second heat mode is maybe too warm for my use currently, especially as the gloves are so warm from not using any power :), I love to see just how they work in real snow and freezing temps cos they really will come into their own then I can see, the power draw seems very little and had no ill effect to my battery on my 6-8 hours of my ride, I didn’t use a multimeter but my usb power system also shows normal battery voltage and that did not drop. The only down side I can see from any part of using these gloves is the cable system, while it works as you expect and there is plenty of cable room and length to wire it up for me, I can see these being so much better when buying the additional battery packs and the gloves being totally independent and not needing to disconnect the power lead when getting off the bike for petrol stops and such.

The last thing I like to point out thou, with gloves you should always treated them with a leather conditioner/water proofer regularly to prolong the life of them and keep them being waterproof, also worth looking at getting a silk glove liner as these are a great way to stop your hand from making the inside ware out and even stop them getting dirty and smelly too, the liner can then be washed keeping the main gloves in great condition.

Summing it up I really am a loyal brand user, but without looking at that side and not going by past use of Gerbing gloves, these are still one amazing pair of gloves, from easy to set up and install, to the ease of use when riding and simple control of heat, these still remain the goto brand of gloves for winter time, so far there are no gloves that come close to how well made and just how warm these really are. I can’t thank Ian from Gerbing enough for the privilege of being able to review these, and I hope this review does enough justice to how good the Gerbing range of gloves are, if you looked at their website you will know this is just one pair of many they do offer, so do head over to https://gerbing.co.uk and at the time of writing this you can get a 10% discount from signing up for emails on their site 😉 and don’t just check out my review check their own website as that says it all with a 5* rating from every customer so far, it really goes to show how good this company products are.