Got to try out my new Gerbings gloves this week

[Dangerous Dave]

I've had a pair of Widder gloves for just over two years now. They've been a great investment for me because they've extended my riding season ALOT. I can now ride until they salt the roads regardless of how cold it gets. I wasn't having any problems with them, they still work fine. But I saw an ad pop up in the classifieds here for a brand new (unused) pair of Gerbings classic gloves, along with an also-new Gerbings temp-troller, its own cute little holster, and a few various and sundry cables and Powerlet plugs. I don't know why a guy who lives in Ft Meyers, FL would buy heated gear in the first place, but it was too good a deal to pass up. I've always heard people here rave about Gerbings quality, so here was a golden opportunity to find out firsthand (no pun intended). Besides, when the wife and I ride together in cold temps, her hands are always the thing she complains about most, so now we could both have heated gloves. Awesome.

Morning temps this week were in the 30s pretty much all week here, so a great opportunity to try them out. Now this probably isn't representative of the entire Gerbings line since the Classics are apparently a recently discontinued model, and the newer ones look very different, but I absolutely do NOT like these gloves compared to my old Widders. The leather is obviously excellent quality, and stitching looks impeccable. But the fleece lining moves around so much that I don't feel in control of my controls! The single gauntlet closure isn't nearly as secure as the double closure of the Widders, and maybe even the newer Gerbings for that matter. But the thing that's really throwing me for a loop is that I barely have to turn my on-board heat-troller up at all with the Widders to be comfy, but I have to turn it up almost all the way to feel any warmth from the Gerbings. WTF?? I also don't like that the power wires from the Gerbings come out on the top-side of my arm instead of the palm side, but that's just a personal preference thing. The Gerbings are beautiful and make my Widders look old and tired, but I'm switching back and letting the wife wear the Gerbings when she's on the back. Most of my issues with the gloves wouldn't be nearly so much of an issue if I weren't in the front seat holding the grips.

All in all, I'm shocked by all this. I was really excited about getting a sweet new pair of Gerbings gloves, but functionally they turned out to be a pretty big letdown. I'd love to hear from others who've tried these gloves as well as others. Maybe it's just me. I'm just damn glad I didn't pay full price for all this stuff or I'd really be pissed.

[/rant]

 

[Happy Rider]

I have a set of the old Gerbings you are describing. I have them wired direct to the battery without a heat controller. They do keep my hands warm but I agree with you about the lining moving around independent of the outer leather. You feel like the bars could slide right out of your hands. My right hand gets cramped because I have to hold the throttle very hard to compensate for the slop in the gloves. They would be good for a passenger but they are terrible for a rider. They do look nice and the leather is very good quality. I'm going to ditch the gloves and am going to add heated grips.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

I have a set of the old Gerbings you are describing. I have them wired direct to the battery without a heat controller. They do keep my hands warm but I agree with you about the lining moving around independent of the outer leather. You feel like the bars could slide right out of your hands. My right hand gets cramped because I have to hold the throttle very hard to compensate for the slop in the gloves. They would be good for a passenger but they are terrible for a rider. They do look nice and the leather is very good quality.

So it's not just me? Glad to hear it.

I'm going to ditch the gloves and am going to add heated grips.

I have both and one is no substitute for the other. I even have the V-strom handguards, but there's no substitute for the heated gloves when it's "COLD"! Heated grips are really nice when it's "cool", but not when it's COLD. Find better gloves instead.

 

[SockMonkey]

I'm going to the "Gerbing's Day" at our local BMW dealer tomorrow AM to take a look at Gerbing's new microwire jacket liners and gloves. I'm going to be looking specifically at their T5 gloves. I'll comment on them later tomorrow...

 

[Checkswrecks]

But the fleece lining moves around so much that I don't feel in control of my controls! The single gauntlet closure isn't nearly as secure as the double closure of the Widders, and maybe even the newer Gerbings for that matter.

Never really bothered me, but yes, the liner is separate from the shell.

But the thing that's really throwing me for a loop is that I barely have to turn my on-board heat-troller up at all with the Widders to be comfy, but I have to turn it up almost all the way to feel any warmth from the Gerbings. WTF??

If I turn the power up all the way I can get a red burn on the back of my hand. That's since sending them in to be fixed. Prior to that the heat was OK generally but my right thumb would get cold. My guess is that yours need to be fixed. The up-side is that Gerbing is good at getting them done and returned quick.

 

[JamesK]

......I don't know why a guy who lives in Ft Meyers, FL would buy heated gear in the first place, but it was too good a deal to pass up. I've always heard people here rave about Gerbings quality, so here was a golden opportunity to find out firsthand (no pun intended). Besides, when the wife and I ride together in cold temps, her hands are always the thing she complains about most, so now we could both have heated gloves. Awesome.

......

The single gauntlet closure isn't nearly as secure as the double closure of the Widders, and maybe even the newer Gerbings for that matter. But the thing that's really throwing me for a loop is that I barely have to turn my on-board heat-troller up at all with the Widders to be comfy, but I have to turn it up almost all the way to feel any warmth from the Gerbings. WTF?? I also don't like that the power wires from the Gerbings come out on the top-side of my arm instead of the palm side, but that's just a personal preference thing. The Gerbings are beautiful and make my Widders look old and tired, but I'm switching back and letting the wife wear the Gerbings when she's on the back. Most of my issues with the gloves wouldn't be nearly so much of an issue if I weren't in the front seat holding the grips.

DD, thanks for the heads up on the classic Gerbing gloves, that sure does sound like they would be pretty useless (dangerous) to use while controlling the bike.

Now as to your ponder about why a guy from Flori-duh would have heated gear, well if you've ever been down to say South Flori-duh you'd know that us poor SOB stuck down here will do anything to get even a few days up in the mountains, on real roads, including riding 1500+ miles round trip up north in the dead of winter (whenever an opportunity presents itself) just to get to ride real roads for a couple of days.

I just ordered a Warm-N-Safe heated jacket liner and have been looking at these heated gloves from WnS. I have a pair of very warm winter but not heated gloves already and heated grips so am hoping that will be enough, but if not I'll likely be ordering a set of these.

I would be grateful if anyone who's used these WnS "The Ultimate Sport Touring Heated Gloves" would share their experiences.

The Ultimate Sport Touring Heated Gloves

 

[glory racing]

us poor SOB stuck down here will do anything to get even a few days up in the mountains, on real roads, including riding 1500+ miles round trip up north in the dead of winter (whenever an opportunity presents itself) just to get to ride real roads for a couple of days.

Hell, that's nothing. I know a guy from Florida that road +/- 1200 miles, one way, just to ride for one day in AR twisties. Then turned around and road back home. He's an animal!

 

[f1fan]

I have a pair of first gen G3 gloves and use them with the controller. I did send them in to get fixed earlier this year because my fingers got cold after riding for longer periods below 30°F. I only had a chance to try them once since getting them back. It wasn't that cold so I can't really tell yet how much of an improvement the fix made. When I talked to them they told me that the second gen G3 gloves have more insulation. I really like the G3 gloves.

Call Gerbing and ask them if they can help you out. They tell if you if your gloves can be modified.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Now as to your ponder about why a guy from Flori-duh would have heated gear, well if you've ever been down to say South Flori-duh you'd know that us poor SOB stuck down here will do anything to get even a few days up in the mountains, on real roads, including riding 1500+ miles round trip up north in the dead of winter (whenever an opportunity presents itself) just to get to ride real roads for a couple of days.

Ya know...I actually never thought of that. :blink: But I can certainly understand it. The roads are awful straight down there.

I just ordered a Warm-N-Safe heated jacket liner and have been looking at these heated gloves from WnS. I have a pair of very warm winter but not heated gloves already and heated grips so am hoping that will be enough, but if not I'll likely be ordering a set of these.
I would be grateful if anyone who's used these WnS "The Ultimate Sport Touring Heated Gloves" would share their experiences.

The Ultimate Sport Touring Heated Gloves

Those actually look pretty freaking awesome. But after this experience, I don't think I'm going to buy any more gloves without trying them on first. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll have a display at the Cleveland bike show this year.

Call Gerbing and ask them if they can help you out. They tell if you if your gloves can be modified.

Might be worth the phone call. Can't hurt.

 

[johnny80s]

Just bought the Warm n Safe gloves. I will let you know how they work out next week.

 

[sportsguy]

Now, does anyone make non-leather heated gloves? I ask because for me they'd need to be waterproof, too. Seattle can be cold and wet a lot, and I'm flat sick of black leather dyeing my hands when it gets wet.

Thus me need for synthetic heated gloves.

 

[johnny80s]

The warm n safe gloves are heated and waterproof if you get the ones with the Porella lining. You can always go to web bike world and look at their reviews. they do a bucket test when they review gloves.

 

[SockMonkey]

I went to the "Gerbing's Day" event at the local BMW dealer this morning (BMW of Western Oregon in Tigard OR - BMWOR). On hand was Fred Karpman from Gerbing's who was demonstrating their new microwire technology, as well as providing excellent fitting/sizing advice on all of their motorcycling products. Ultimately, I walked out the door with the following:

- 12V Jacket Liner w/ Microwire Technology;

- 12V Glove Liners w/ Microwire Technology;

- Portable Dual-Temp Controller;

- Portable Dual-Temp Controller Cover

(Owing to the "special event", BMWOR was offering 10% off all Microwire-equipped clothing and controllers, and 20% off all previous generation, i.e., "classic" clothing.)

Firstly, the differences between the new microwire-equipped and "classic" clothing and gloves are substantial:

- It takes well under a minute for the microwire-equipped jacket to get (very) warm vs. 3+ minutes for the classic jacket at the same controller setting;

- The microwire jacket is considerably less bulky than the classic, and it's very difficult to feel the "bands" containing the microwires which are sewn into the jacket lining. The collar of the microwire-equipped jacket now feels "normal" - no wires are felt at all (nice!);

- Cool-down is very fast in the microwire-equipped jacket. Turn down/off the controller and the temp of the jacket lags by only 15-20 seconds.

After trying several different models of gloves - both microwire and classic, I came to the conclusion that I would rather have a pair pf microwire-equipped glove liners than a pair of heated gloves for a couple of reasons:

- The stretch Cordura material used for the glove liners fits your hand very snuggly (though not uncomfortably) - much more so than any of their lined heated gloves, thus getting the heat right on your hands and fingers for greater heating efficiency;

- I can choose practically any unlined or lightly-lined, waterproof (or not...) textile or leather motorcycle glove to wear over them. I'm not restricted to a bulky heated glove. (As an aside, the Gerbing's glove liners were designed for and are used by the US military's Special Ops personnel. Believe me when I tell you that these things look and feel as though they'll last forever.)

A few additional comments: I absolutely agree with the OP about the lining moving around in the classic gloves. But that also holds true to a certain extent with their newer microwire-equipped gloves as well. Having said that, the best of the new full gloves IMHO is the T5. It was a real tough decision between the microwire glove liners and the microwire T5 gloves.

 

[jerry1]

A couple years back Widders gloves were wired in parallel with the battery and gerbings in series. Or vice virsa. This my be the reason for low heat.

Jerry

 

[Dangerous Dave]

A couple years back Widders gloves were wired in parallel with the battery and gerbings in series. Or vice virsa. This my be the reason for low heat.Jerry

That's interesting info, however, the difference occurs in the "Y" cable, and ironically, I've been running a Gerbings "Y" cable with my Widder gloves, because they offered a coiled cable. Since my glove wiring is all outside, I liked the coiled cord because it gave me reasonable movement without the cable dragging on my tank. So I'm running Gerbings cables with both sets of gloves from the same heat-troller regulated powerlet port. I gave the Gerbings gloves a full week before rendering my decision, and the Widders win for me in function, so the wifey gets the Gerbings. I do understand that the new Gerbings gloves are probably a vast improvement over the Classics, but I was just surprised at how significant the difference was. If they worked as good as they look, I'd be a happy camper. Pity, since the wife doesn't ride with me all that often in the cold. Awful purdy gloves to sit on the shelf in the "gear closet". B)

 

[Zorlac]

I felt your pain.

I have a pair of home made glove liners & a controller that work much better, if want HOT that is.

 

[RaYzerman19]

I have the Gerbings G3 microwire gloves, and there isn't enough heat, controller turned all the way up. The heated grips are a necessity. I also find the G3's don't have enough insulation on the back of your hand.... maybe just my opinion. IF there's a way to make them hotter, I'd like to hear it.

 

[Murph]

No complaints here on my Gerbings G2's (and I tend to be cold most of the time). Just another one of those subjective things I guess.

Strom handguards make a big difference for the tops of the hands.

 

[crankshaft]

I personally like my Gerbing gloves. They keep my hands toasty warm. I do have to agree with Dave that the lining is a little loose and moves aroung a bit. They're the only pair I've ever used so I don't have anything to compare them to. But they've kept my hand toasty warm for 4 or 5 seasons.