which is better?

and if indeed heated grips r the way to go then what are some really good winter gloves

About winter gloves, anyone tried the new range of Gortex gloves?

I've been running heated grips for many years (home-made install using surplus snowmobile heaters). A great upgrade. Still looking for the best gloves, though. I'm thinking of a set of Hippo Hands:
http://www.hippohands.com/index.htm

Anyone have experience with these?

my only concern with the hippo hands is that it says that they might press on the cluth and brake at highway speeds which im on the highway alot and i really didnt get how those brackets were suppost to work but i will still have to keep them in mind

Heated gloves!

I ride all year round on a naked GS with no windshield.  Heated jacket liner and heated gloves along with snow pants under the bottom of my leathers.  Toasty down to 30F, bearable down to 0F in the dark. 

Frankly, the biggest problem is keeping my neck and chin warm!   

Can the wire harness, battery, and alternator handle heated gloves?

Which brand do you recommend?

And do hand guards actually work?  Some posts have mentioned that they help, but it didn't seem clear how effective they were.

Heated grips.  I bought winter gloves and didn't like the bulk.  My grips keep my hands far warmer and they cost less than the gloves!

I now wear summer gloves all year round.  There's something luxurious about toasty warm hands.

I prefer heated grips, then when it gets colder adding hippo hands. Adding the hippo hands keeps the wind & rain off of my hands and allows me to wear my summer gloves year round. I have no problem with the hh hitting the brake & clutch levers. Although some do and the guy making the hh has a bracket that you can buy or make to keep them away from your levers.

Heated gloves move with you from bike to bike, heated grips will stay with the bike if you sell it. Gloves will probably wear out faster than grips. Grips will be on the bike year-round; if you get caught out on a summer evening when the temps drop more than expected, you can turn the heat on for a little extra comfort.

Quote from: myfirstluv on November 17, 2008, 05:55:41 PM
Can the wire harness, battery, and alternator handle heated gloves?

Which brand do you recommend?

And do hand guards actually work?  Some posts have mentioned that they help, but it didn't seem clear how effective they were.

Sure, the GS will handle them fine.  My gloves are the Gerbing's "sport" gloves.  I believe they're about 35 watts or so.  I wear them with a heated jacket, which is about 77 watts.  They're connected to a thermostat strapped onto the master cylinder, which connects directly to the battery.

You need to turn them down around town, as the alternator cannot provide sufficient power to keep everything running.  However, on the highway you can run them full blast.

Be sure to keep an eye on your battery electrolyte level and use a battery tender.  It makes things much easier.

I haven't tried handguards myself, with the heated gloves it really isn't necessary.  However, I'm thinking about a windshield and handguards on the SV. 

You have an SV?
Sweet, I love SV's.  My next bike hopefully will be either an SV or a gsx650 or gsxr, and hopefully I'll be able to keep the gs as my extra bike.  I eventually want to tour and track.

Sorry to get off topic.

But about the electrolyte level: I just got a battery and filled it up with electrolytes, but there was still spare electrolyte left.

Is it ok that I saved the extra electrolyte or do I need a new bottle every time to fill up the battery?   And the manual says to fill up the battery with distilled water.  I'm confused how to "maintain" my battery.

I'm leaning to the heated grips considering they are cheap and my winter gloves work fairly well I just need a little extra.

It's weird; once I get acclimatized to the temp and my core temp is good, my hands stay warm; but on days I don't expect to get cold my hands get really cold.

There's no need to save the electrolyte, just use the distilled water as they recommend. The electrolyte (sulfate ions) don't boil out of the battery. You use distilled water so you don't add other minerals to the fluid.

haha..."hippo hands".  Had no idea what those were.  Those for sure will help.

I use heated grips myself.  I also use the Joe Rocket Nitrogen Gloves.

Both have helped tremendously and I highly recommend.  From here, i'd go with some plastic hand protectors, as found in the wiki.

Nice benefit of heated grips: no fiddling with plugging things in, turning on etc.  I have the variable dial and they just turn on with the ignition.  They're also "always there" in case the temp drops at night from the day and you don't have your winter gloves.

Quote from: jp on November 18, 2008, 05:40:06 AM
There's no need to save the electrolyte, just use the distilled water as they recommend. The electrolyte (sulfate ions) don't boil out of the battery. You use distilled water so you don't add other minerals to the fluid.

Yup!   No need to save it.  You'll have extra left over.

Hand guards uber alles.  Heated grips scorch the fronts of your hands and let the backs freeze.  Hand guards keep the wind from stripping the heat away from your hands.  I've put DL650 hand guards on a GS500; they fit well.

Don't you get cold knuckles and anywhere else that's not touching the grip, with heated grips?

Just curious. I've got no experience with either. Alls I know is I just took a ride with some winter gloves (it's 30°F) and my fingers were coooooold after a few miles. It was the only part of me that was cold.

Yeah, your fingers are the only thing that are cold, until you get heated grips or better gloves or hand guards.  Then it'll be something else that is cold.  For me it was fingers, then legs, then chin, now it's fingers again!  

So I'm thinking Tour Master Elites with heated grips or with hand guards. 

Quote from: Roadstergal on November 20, 2008, 08:09:17 PM
Hand guards uber alles.  Heated grips scorch the fronts of your hands and let the backs freeze.  Hand guards keep the wind from stripping the heat away from your hands.  I've put DL650 hand guards on a GS500; they fit well.

GTK

I really like the look of those and will probably pick up a pair.

For others, re: cold fingers. 

Yeah, even the heated grips won't help there.  It helps a little and the warm heat from the grips is a great way to add heat to your body (blood vessels in your hands).  Psychologically it also just feels much better.  But yeah, even my fingers are getting nippy now it's below 30 degrees

Handguards are the next and logical option.