so i was out riding last night and it was pretty cold. i was doing alright, except for my fingers. are there any little wind deflectors or something that clamp onto the handlebars to shield my hands from the wind?
thanks,
I'm sure there must be. Take a look on the Kawasaki website at the KLX 650..a dp bike...check out those hand guards...so someone must make some aftermarkets you can bolt onto the GS...not a bad idea.
I tend to agree with you about the hand guards you can look here (http://www.storzperf.com/plastic.html). I know this is made for atv and dirtbikes but couldn't something like this be incorporated onto a GS more like a wind guard?
They aren't that effective. Your hands still get cold. Best defense is winter gloves and/or grip heaters.
Gloves, dude. Gloves. Thick ones.
All leather gloves, or if you can find them, all leather with the thick rubber protectors on the tops of the fingers, the rubber really sheds the wind.
I looked up the TourMaster Coldfront gloves and they look like they have that stlye of finger protector that I mentioned above. They look warmer than the Tour III gloves, of which I'm on my second set, after I couldn't find my first set 12 years ago.
I go for leather gloves with wooly "thinsulate" gloves inside. Heated grips are pretty good if you are going to be doing long rides in the cold but for short hops the value is debatable as they can take a while to warm up. I have no experience of those little deflector-type thing you often see on dirt bikes (over here anyway) Some of the windshields/Flyscreens are wide enough to take some of the blast off your hands, I am currently looking at the Givi Airstar range ( numbers 602,3&4) the model 650 gives some hand protection. Someone on a UK site recomended a M & P "Gazelle" but I have not seen one yet. I have seen a very good one on a Honda with brand name "Aero" on it but I am told that it is Givi's Airstar by another name.
You might want to check out the thread Who rides all year? (http://www.gstwins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4667) for some general ideas about riding in cold weather. As far as warm gloves, I posted a picture of my windproof mittens on the second page of that thread.
The mittens are thin, but all by themselves they keep my hands warmer than big thick ski gloves. They wouldn't hold up in a meeting with the asphalt though, so I pull them over my normal leather gloves. I tried pulling windproof GLOVES (made out of the same material) over my regular gloves, but having the fingers separated wasn't quite as warm.
My tests were conducted mostly in the 20-30 degree range. If you're riding in the 40-50 degree range the glove version may be plenty.
If you don't have a windscreen yet, and you plan to do a lot of riding in the wet/cold, consider a larger screen like the National Cycle Plexistar II (http://www.bbburma.net/Plexistar2.htm). It offers good protection for your hands as well as the rest of you. My plan when I got this screen was to put it on only for long or cold trips and take it off the rest of the time. Well, I put it on ... and I haven't taken it off since.
EDIT: Changed link from sisna.com to bbburma.net
well i guess for the time being it looks like just warmer gloves ought to do the trick. i don't plan on riding once it's gets really cold, but it's fall, and it's still pretty nice out. i figure i got about a month left.
thanks for the tips.
*** edit Apparently these things are called handlebar muffs in England and there are a bunch available from the UK, seem harder to find in the US ***
There are some things out there loosely called Hippo Hands (I think that's a brand name, but there are others) These are windproof L-shaped covers that velcro around your handle bars (the short part of the L) and allow your arms to slide in while you ride. Coupled with decent gloves they're great.
I think I paid about $30-40 for them. If I remember correctly the authentic Hippo's are around $100 and are really heavy duty. Only downside is they look kind of funky and you cant' see your switches so everything is by feel (but we probably all do a lot by feel anyway)
Trev
I bought some sweet winter gloves this weekend. But let me tell ya- when it was 29 degrees yesterday morning and I left my finger tips were still cold. They are leather and carbon etc. But there are limits when it gets real cold and you are doing 80!
They were a tad warm for the ride home in the evening.
Yea I've seen those muffs, they are like a big permanently attatched glove. Never tried them. I had a look at Kerry's excellent pix, his screen is very like the airstar range except that airstar has a reinforced edge some are two point and some four point fixing. I imagine that the National Cycle one has not had to cross the pond and is therefore cheeper. Givi screens are a bit expensive (here anyway)
hrmmm... interesting but not exactly what i was looking for. more like something you might see on a dirtbike to protect from debris hitting your hands. just a little hand fairing would help enough i think. maybe i'll have to make some with all the fiberglassing stuff i have sitting around my house that i've yet to use.
Don't know if this helps, but these are less MX looking. They mount /dismount easily. They're marketed more for the Cruiser guys but there's no reason they couldn't work on a GS.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=5237&catalogId=10111&langId=-1&TID=210000021&storeId=10101
I had a Yamaha XT350 years ago and, after a minor, off-road "incident", the plastic deflector on one side was ruined. As that was my only transportation at the time, I rode it to work with one deflector the whole next week while I was waiting for a replacement. It was November and temps were in the 40's. I could tell a big difference in comfort from one hand to the other. YMMV
yeah, that's more like what i am looking for. a bit pricey though...
http://www.powersportsnetwork.com/accessoriesdetail/product=64963/levelcode=6416/catalog=754/Tucker+Rocky+Motorcycle/NATIONAL+CYCLE+HAND+DEFLECTORS/accessories64963.htm
they have ones specific to the gs500 here. also pretty pricey.
there are also these (towards the bottom), which might do the trick, though i'm not sure how they mount.
http://www.xoutfitters.com/moto/handguards/
but for only $10, i might give them a try.