My wife has Reynaud’s, so her hands hurt her really badly when riding in cold weather. She is stubborn though, and still insists on commuting 14 miles each way every day, even when it is icy – she rode today, even though it was -4 degrees outside.

She has tried all sorts of gloves, even some ridiculously thick ones, but can only keep her hands warm for about half an hour of her one hour commute.

Would heated gloves be a good option? I’ve seen motorbike gloves with a bunch of AA batteries in them which heat elements in the fingers. Has anyone used these? Would they be suitable for her? Any recommendations?

This could make a brilliant christmas present 🙂

Dave

I like the idea! My hands get horribly cold so have stopped cycling in this weather.

I’ve seen gloves with a ‘pocket’ on the back of the hand into which you can fit one of those self-heating packets which I believe you can get reuseable ones of (I’ve had one for warming baby bottles which was bigger but the concept is the same).

Something along these lines:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heat-Click-Instant-Re-useable-Various/dp/B000WOV6HA

needs to be usable while she is riding… no time on a commute to stop and heat up hands.

anyone got any experience of the electric ones?

Dave

Did you see the bar mitts? Not heated but look like they’d be pretty toasty…

Fresh Goods

bar mitts might be a good idea… she’s on a road bike for her commute, but their website does show roadie ones – they look mental!

Might get her a set – although they might need to be an early present… she’ll kill me if I get her something that will help her hands, but then wrap it up and hide it during the coldest weather 🙂

Dave

Maplin do heated gloves that are cheap, but I don’t think they’re supposed to be very good. An alternative is Rohan, they had some heated rechargeable mittens that were £50 (down from £100) available online in the reduced section. That was last week though, they also look massive so maybe not the best thing for biking.

needs to be usable while she is riding… no time on a commute to stop and heat up hands.

The ones I’m talking about are useable on the bike – the heat pack fits in a pocket on the back of the glove so you can hold the bars as usual.

I’ve had two sorts – both cheap ones.

I had some from Nauticalia (other places sell them). They run on a D cell in each wrist. No on/off switch. I bought some Ni-Mh cells to fit. They heat the palms only. I could still loose feeling in my fingers and thumb whilst having sweaty palms. Not sure about them and I don’t use them these days.

Still fed up with cold fingers I bought some “Blazewear” brand. These claimed to heat the fingers (they do). They are badly let down on several counts. They claim to be “waterproof”. What a stupid idea, may as well put your hands into plastic bags. They get damp and cold inside within half an hour from condensation. They also don’t heat the thumbs! Now I know what it’s like to have warm fingers and no thumbs. Also the build quality in the battery boxes is very poor. I had to re-solder all the dry joints in mine. They also come out a bit small. – perhaps it’s this small Chineese sizing, I find it often with gloves.
You get what you pay for. I wouldn’t recommend them, and stopped using them also.

Some nice looking stuff for ski-ers if you have £200+ to play with. Not willing to spend that, so I shall probably keep suffering.

Motorbike ones would be good, maybe get smudge to knock you out a 13V lithium battery?

away from heated gloves have you looked at winter weight mountaineering gloves, eg Rab or Extremities ones? They use a layer of Primaloft and are seriously warm kit designed for ice climbing use etc. Might be worth a try if you`ve not had a look at them yet.

Keis make good heated stuff for motorcyclists. They now make an electrically-heated inner glove that they can supply an Li-Ion battery for. Might be worth a look.

I have a friend who uses the maplin ones. They have survived 4 rides so far. They are ridiculously cheap at £13 (compare to nearly 30 for a standard set of biking ones.

You might be able to retrofit the heating part into a better glove if you are handy with a needle and thread?

Hello, I’ve lurked around this forum for a while but never posted. Now I have something useful to contribute I though I might as well join in.

I have Raynaud’s too, the best way to keep hands from hurting is to keep your core temperature up. The brain ‘chooses’ to cut off circulation to the extremities when the body temperature lowers. I find that no mater how warm my gloves are, my hands do not return to normal until my body temperature increases. A bowl of hot soup does more for me than a pair of even thicker gloves. I get by with a pair of regular winter waterproof gloves (occasionally with a pair of Merino liners) and a load of layers on my upper body.

Used one of the exo2 jackets (http://www.exo2.co.uk) back when I had my motorbike. Kept core nice and toasty. Ok for walking too. Never felt cold enough on an mtb to try one when riding though.

warm arms, warm body and mittens…

Like Russell, I’ve noticed it a lot this week, the warmer my cores stays the more willing the body is to circulate the warmth to my hands.

Ive tried the maplin gloves and didnt really like them. When I took them back they asked what batteries I had used and they said I shouldnt use rechargeables as they dont have enough output. SO i guess if you kept them fed with a good supply of Energizers (environment anyone?) they may be OK.
Snowboarders use mitts which keep the fingers together and the thumb separate for the whole ‘opposable thumb’ thing. They can be had quite cheap.
Couple this with a cup of soup and a thermal gilet you should be sorted!