Gerbing T5 Heated Gloves and EXO2 Stormshield gloves

SANGER_A2

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I ride all year round to commute to work 5 days a week, except when there is snow/ice on the roads (a few days a year really). I'm not bothered by wind and rain and actually prefer that to being too hot! However, it's not safe to ride when your hands are so cold you can't feel them and not much fun either! I've always had heated grips on my motorcycles, but thought I'd try heated gloves instead and found they are faaaar better because instead of the palm of your hand being too hot and the back of your hand being freezing, these keep everything about right because the heated bit sits in between the cold wind and your hands. I would definitely recommend heated gloves to any of you who ride all year round. But which ones should you buy? Let me tell you!

I bought some EXO2 Stormshield gloves from the local Southampton branch of the excellent Infinity Motorcycles for £120 about 4 or 5 years ago. They were really nice gloves, looked awesome, extremely comfy, waterproof, very warm when powered by the 12v connection I wired up to my bike and also warm when not on. However, they had a design flaw in that the right glove would break after a month or two of daily use. I must have had them replaced at the shop I bought them from about 5 times! But then, my years warranty ran out and I had only one working glove! I snipped off the now useless wires and use them as my wet-weather-but-not-really-cold-weather gloves still.

I decided I wanted better warranty on my new gloves so I bought some Gerbing T5 heated gloves online for £140 from riderz.co.uk. Now these gloves didn't look as nice as the EXO2 gloves, they didn't have as much protection as the EXO2 gloves, and they didn't get as hot as the EXO2 gloves (partly I think because they are designed to work directly from the vehicle's 12v source OR batteries and obviously Gerbing made them have a bit less power draw to make the batteries last longer). They are still waterproof, but like the EXO2 need to be left on a radiator after they get wet or the next day the water has seeped through the waterproof layer into the inside of the glove. If I KNOW if it going to rain I always put on completely waterproof [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spada-Overmitts-Black/dp/B0062NIBYG"]over-gloves[/ame] anyway. They were more uncomfortable for me in one way because the small gloves I ordered were too tight across the palm (mainly my fault). However, they are a bit more comfier inside in terms of the lining being nicer. Most importantly, they have a lifetime warranty on the electronic parts!

I had these gloves three years before the left glove broke! And when they did break, Gerbing instantly agreed to replace them (after testing them). Even better, I was able to upgrade to a medium-sized glove for an additional £10. Even better than that, I was able to pay another £10 and get the much nicer-looking and better protection XR-12 gloves instead of the T-12 gloves they were going to send me. I used the contact form of the Gerbing website to tell them my gloves were busted and that I had used a multi-meter to check the connection and it was definitely gone on the left glove and had a connection on the right glove. The next day I got an email with a warranty form to fill out. I filled out the form, including adding a note asking if I could have medium instead of small gloves if they couldn't repair them and had to be replaced and posted the gloves out to Gerbing a few days ago. I got an email probably the same day they received them saying that they had tested them, found they were broken and would replace them and if I wanted medium instead of small it was a charge of £10. I looked at the existing gloves on the website and saw they had two different types and when I rang up to pay for the larger size I asked if I could pay a bit more for the better gloves. So for an additional £20 I have better, brand new gloves that will hopefully last at least another 3 years!

UPDATE: this is a BRIEF review of the new Gerbing gloves: I've used the XR-12 gloves for a couple of weeks and I really like them. They fix all the things about the other gloves I didn't like. They look awesome. They have decent protection. They have a visor-wipe on the left-glove (the EXO gloves had this and the Gerbing T5's didn't). They are really warm on and off (possibly too warm when on - I may end up buying a PWM controller instead of just turning them on and off as I do now). They are medium instead of small and are actually a bit big, but small is too small because you can't stretch your hand out flat as they have this annoying patch over the palm and thumb that won't stretch. The cable has a bend on it, which is a bit annoying, but that's so you can plug it into a battery and put the battery into a pouch on the glove.

Any questions, please ask.
 
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greg

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i had/have the exo2 gloves too, mine broke in the first year, and then one of the gloves stopped working a year later. bot times coincided with my generator breaking, so not sure if it's related

like you i just use them for cold wet weather now, they are water proof at least.
 

SANGER_A2

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i had/have the exo2 gloves too, mine broke in the first year, and then one of the gloves stopped working a year later. bot times coincided with my generator breaking, so not sure if it's related

like you i just use them for cold wet weather now, they are water proof at least.
Was it the right glove? It's a common problem with these gloves if you look it up on the Internet. Shame really as otherwise they are really nice.
 

greg

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i think it was the left that broke, i've not used them for a year obviously, i seem to recall riding with my left hand on the engine
 

Cloggy

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Nice write up, thanks for letting us know how they were, I've Always said if I had a pair of heated gloves they would be Gerbings, but I'll make do with my heated grips for now :thumbup:
 

SANGER_A2

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Nice write up, thanks for letting us know how they were, I've Always said if I had a pair of heated gloves they would be Gerbings, but I'll make do with my heated grips for now :thumbup:
I used to swear by my heated grips. I've had two sets on two different bikes. But when I tried gloves they were completely different, much better! If you get fed up with the back of your hands getting cold, buy heated gloves! Blah
 
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