Heated Glove Showdown

Heated Glove Showdown
Heated Motorcycle glove review

Keis X900 - left, Keis X800i - middle, RST - right

Bike Stop have provided us with 3 sets of heated gloves to put through their paces. We have 2 pairs from Keis and 1 pair from RST.

Heated gloves have never really been on our ‘to buy’ list since we’ve been biking, but now we’ve had some to try there is quite a big appeal.

The RST THERMOTECH glove

Let’s start with the RST gloves. They offer plenty of palm and finger protection, but lack something across the knuckles. The look and feel is of usual high RST quality. The inner thermal lining feels rather plush, and immediately stands out compared to both the Keis gloves. 

These gloves will keep your hands warm, without the heating on (to a certain extent)! But the benefit of heated gloves is that they don’t need to be too bulky, which is a nice change from the usual ‘non-heated’ thermal gloves.

All these gloves can be switched ON, and controlled from a single button on each glove. They all offer 3 heat settings: hot, warm and err…tepid. Colours easily identify the heat settings on the ON and OFF button: red, yellow and green.

Once turned on, heat only takes a minute to filter through to your hands, meaning that by the time the bike is up to temperature, the gloves will be well on the way to being warm. Quite a nice on these cold winter mornings we're having.

The button to turn the gloves ON and OFF on the RST gloves and change the heat setting is in a rather awkward position (on the outside of your wrist). If you want to change the settings whilst riding, you have to remove your hands from the handle bars and bring them together to press the button. This makes for awkward guess work as to weather you’ve actually pressed the button or not.

This was quite a let down with the glove because everything else is so ‘right’. The battery for the gloves connects in a waterproof pocket on the underside of the wrist, inside the glove. Surprisingly the weight of the battery goes unnoticed when on the bike. We found the battery life to give us approx. 2 hours of use.

The Keis X800i & X900 heated gloves

We have two different versions from Keis the X800i & X900.

The Keis X900 heated glove doesn’t look as nice and doesn’t appear to be as robust as the RST glove. However it’s not all down to looks…

The X900 offers similar levels of protection as the RST glove, but is again lacking knuckle protection. The X900 does offer a waterproof inner lining and breathable textile shell though.

The thermal liner inside the glove leaves a bit to be desired, whilst it’s not bad, it’s nowhere near as thick and soft as the RST glove. The glove is very comfortable and warm, although there seemed to be a lack of heat around the finger tips – which is the part of your hand that get’s the coldest on really cold rides.

The X900 comes with two power source options, one is to use the battery packs which slot in to a zipped pocket inside the glove, and the other is to use the supplied lead to connect direct to a 12v bike battery.

We didn’t try the lead connections because we were worried we would forget we were connected by a lead as we stepped off the bike. The thought of pulling the bike over and dragging the wires along was scary. The owner’s manual does state that the friction connections will come apart with sufficient force. But it seems to be something else to worry about…

The downsides are extra wires to think about but it eliminates any battery life woes!

Keis battery - left, RST battery - right

The Keis battery packs are larger than the RST ones and slightly heavier (we’re talking grams here) but the weight is not noticeable when riding. The ON/OFF and temperature control button on the X900 is in a very user-friendly place. The button is on top of the hand making it very easy to adjust when on the move and to see what heat setting the gloves are on.

During our test we found the batteries on the Keis X900 to last approx. 3 hours.

Finally we come to the X800i glove and this is where we came a bit stuck when comparing them to the other two.

It comes with a decent amount of external protection including carbon look knuckle guards and finger tip re-enforcement. The thermal liner is the same as the X900, so leaves a little bit to be desired, although we must remember it’s by no means bad.

The ON/OFF and temperature control button is in a nice location on top of the hand, and is easy to operate when on the move. There is no zipped pocket to store the batteries meaning you'd have to stow the batteries in your jacket pocket and use the supplied cables. These gloves also come with wire connections to power them via the bike’s battery.

For us, heated gloves need to be mobile off the bike. So, we really struggled to get on with these when there are gloves from RST & Keis that come with a battery pack & pouch. 

We prefer a heated glove with a battery pack. It seems to be the better option because you have less wires, less hassle and you don’t have to worry about unplugging yourself when you need to re-fuel or even in an emergency situation. So heated gloves are a the perfect option for winter riding, unless you forget to charge the batteries.  

Okay, but how much do they cost?

The RST Thermotech gloves retail at £149.99

The X800i gloves retail at £149.99 with the battery pack costing an additional £60

The X900 gloves retail at £130 with the battery pack costing an additional £60

As heated gloves, all of these work very all at keeping your hands warm. They offer very similar levels of heat, so the only other things that can truly be compared are: comfort, design and price. And that’s where the RST gloves come out on top.

Even though they are a bit more difficult to adjust heat whilst on the move, they are the most affordable and they simply look and feel better. The battery life may also be a tad shorter than the others, but the thicker thermal lining is sure to keep you warmer in the long run.

Nice one RST.

The heated gloves in this review are available to be purchased from Bike Stop.

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The Bhood

The Bhood!

We're excited to announce that the winter 2015 Bhood is nearly here after popular demand. We've teamed up with a local supplier to ensure that you get the best quality garment finished to the highest standard - B style. 

BirotarUK embroidery (front of Bhood)

We are going to do a production run over the next week w/c Dec 7th 2015.

Here's what you need to know:

• The Bhood is a uni-sex black zip-up hoodie (made by Uneek clothing).
• You can view the sizing guide online here (if you are going to wear the hoodie over your textiles or leathers, then we recommend going 1 or 2 sizes up depending on how bulky your gear is).
• You will have two options
• option 1 is to have the 'B' in white
• option 2 is to have the 'B' in a silver reflective material (we're going to have a reflective one)
• The front of the hood will have 'BirotarUK' stitched on the left breast
• The Bhood is £25 delivered to your door, for free anywhere in the UK
• if you would like to purchase a hoodie and have it shipped anywhere outside of the UK, please contact us before making your order on birotaruk@gmail.com
• Payment to be made via Paypal

So, you want a Bhood?

That's awesome - here's what you need to do:

1. Send £25 to birotaruk@gmail.com via Paypal by Sunday 6th of December 2015 
2. Include: your size and if you want the 'B' in white or reflective material AND your full postal address

We will keep you in the loop and confirm that we have received your payment.

The Bhood is being made to order especially for you - so we will let you know as soon as it's ready and out in the post (should be approx. 14 working days from confirmation of your order).

Have we missed anything? Do you have any questions? Just ask! You can contact us via email, on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Dainese Tempest D-WP Boots Review

Dainese Tempest D-WP Boots Review It's official, winter is here and for us Brits that brings a lot of rain. Bike Stop have sorted us a pair of Dainese Tempest D-WP waterproof boots.

The first thing that stands out, or doesn't, is the looks. For us they are 'understated' but that's probably because we are used to a sportier boot. Compared to our set of TCX race boots, the Dainese boots are heavier and there are no toe sliders. But then again, when you're touring the UK or Europe, you might not be toe and knee dragging at every opportunity. Well, most of us wont.

The Dainese boot is an all season waterproof touring boot that offers great levels of protection. They are comfortable on and off the bike, the flexible joints are in exactly in the right place which makes walking very comfortable and eliminates that stiff race boot waddle! 


These boots aren't Gore-Tex, but the leather is treated and the boots have a waterproof liner. From what we've found so far, the water just runs straight off the boot. There is a thick sole that offers lots of grip - no problem for those muddy car parks we often find outside a roadside brew stop.

If we're spending a day on the bikes knowing it will involve a lot of walking we usually wear a pair of TCX X-Street boots, which will offer all day comfort and a more relaxed trainer look.

Whilst the Dainese boot may not have a 'race appeal' we feel it would be perfectly comfortable and would stand up to a day of riding and walking around without any issues.

We think there is one important thing to remember here; it depends what you want from a boot. If you want to have the flexibility to be able to commute through summer and winter with the piece of mind that you will stay warm and dry, but also not have to worry about looking like a power ranger in race boots - then we think these boots are right for you. After all, you could get away with a pair of Kevlar Jeans over these boots and not look like a biker.

The boot has a reinforced gear shifter guard which means you aren't going to wear through the boot after a year or two of gear shifting. We found the boots are quite thick meaning we had to adjust the shift lever to get the boot under giving a precise gear change. Not much of a problem if you're on a touring bike, but could cause issues if your changing boots a lot depending on what you use the bike for.

The boots are easy to get on and adjust with the side zipper and velcro closure. There is also an upper velco fastening for calf adjustment. The boot comes certified to CE - Cat. II - EN 13634 standard meaning you can trust these to protect your feet and ankles in an off.

For a modest £149.99 these represent pretty good value and we are sure they would handle all weather with no problems...

The Dainese Temptest D-WP boots are available to buy from Bike Stop.

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Developing The New BMW Concept Stunt G 310

Developing The New BMW Concept Stunt G 310

The passionate process of design, with Alexander Buckan.

The new BMW Concept Stunt G 310 looks like a fantastic bike to ride, which usually means that those involved with the design have had a lot of fun in the creative process from conception to delivery. To tell us more about this enjoyable journey is senior advanced designer Alexander Buckan.

How many people in the team worked on this design study?

Well, BMW design projects are usually a team effort and in the case of the G 310 this was no exception and the following were responsible: Ola Stenegard, Volker Hohdorf, Vianney Selosse, Bianca-Maria Hoffmann and myself, along with the entire BMW Motorrad Design Team under Edgar Heinrich.

So what role did you play?

I was the responsible senior advanced designer for the bike. It’s hard to clarify the role exactly – you could call it a kind of ‘design grandfather’ spiced up with a bit of experience – but it’s a part-management role, to make sure that everybody does what I want, ha ha! Seriously though, I’m in charge of managing the designers and acting as a kind of link between the workshop, the designers and the marketing guys!

How difficult was it to achieve the aggressive, yet agile design language necessary for a stunt bike?

I wouldn´t say “how difficult was it…”, because it was simply a gigantic pleasure to develop this kind of bike, for all of us! How often do you get the chance to do something cool like this – to chop bits off? Usually, with series production bikes we have to add and cover up additional things!

Who came up with the idea of the ‘stunt tail’ and how well does this feature work?

I guess the idea was born when the designers and Chris Pfeiffer sat down together. Usually, stunt riders just take a bent tube, but now with our milled aluminium ‘stunt tail’, the opening in the centre was designed to fit perfectly to the shape of Chris´s foot, so the whole arrangement is perfectly aligned according to Chris´s proportions – a bit like a made-to-measure suit.

So, precision and emotion is our BMW claim – and this special tail is part of that precision – we are always trying to do a bit more than the others!

What was Chris Pfeiffer’s input in this project?We called Chris Pfeiffer to convince him to support us, and right from the beginning he was involved with deep passion. So he came to Munich and we discussed the project and threw ideas back and forth until, finally, we came to the conclusion it would make more sense to lock them (Vianney, Chris and the bike) in a room together and let them fight it out! So after a couple of months this stunt-beauty was born.

And the special stunt modifications?

We did numerous stunt modifications, together with Chris´s expertise. Our single focus was to provide the best possible handling properties to the rider. We put the silencer in an upright position between the engine and the damper, it is ideally protected and doesn’t limit the stunt rider´s movement in any way. It sounds good too: even though you might not see it, you´ll surely hear it – it’s diabolic, rad, crying like there is no tomorrow!

We added a lockable throttle to ensure constant speed, even though the rider’s hand is not on the throttle! We put on a larger, second brake at the rear, which allows the rider to activate braking on the rear wheel by using the middle finger of the left hand. It can even be operated at the same time as the clutch. Add to that foot pegs on the front axle and in the seat area, and the red crash bar, and you’ve got a lot going on!

What elements of the finished bike are you most pleased with?
Nothing! That might sound surprising but it´s perhaps in the nature of things in the design world to always be unsatisfied. If you would ask an artist about his latest painting, it would be probably the same – this is the burden of all creative jobs!

On the other hand, if it wouldn´t be like that, if you aren´t hungry for more challenges, then you can sink into complacency – into meaninglessness! Because if there is no need for you to change something, then everything stays the same because the world is nice as it is…

But now I have to stop because I’m getting too philosophical, but maybe this does answer the question of what my job entails: never stop pushing the designers to new limits…!

How was the reaction from Brazil, where it was first unveiled in public?

At first, they were a little bit sceptical about how BMW will bring their standards in terms of quality and value into the small engine displacement category, but after the BMW Concept Stunt G 310 was unveiled they were quite a bit surprised: “if this is BMW´s answer for that Segment, then welcome to Brazil, BMW!” They are pretty sure now, that if BMW will do a serious production bike in this class it will become the benchmark in this new segment.

Apart from the Brazilian national colours, what other paint scheme do you think would look great on the G 310?
I don’t know, but I guess you can compare this bike with a beautiful woman. If the shapes are nice, you can dress her up with anything and she still looks great!

Find out more about the BMW Concept Stunt G 310.

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Thinsulate thermal waterproof gloves review

Thinsulate thermal waterproof gloves review

As bikers we all have different budgets and needs when it comes to gear, so what’s on the market if you have a very limited budget but want to stay warm and dry?

LDmotorcyles sent us some Thinsulate thermal leather gloves to try out and we put them through their paces. If they can handle hot pizza they can keep the cold out, right? Maybe...

The gloves have a nice soft lining and offer a comfortable fit after following their size guide, they aren’t too bulky either. The Thinsulate lining does its job and hands are kept toasty warm, the rain has stayed away whilst we’ve had these gloves but we’re told the waterproof lining does its job too (we will update you on this). The supple leather feels like it could be a bit thicker from a protection point of view.

For us they lack a lot of protection, but that could be down to what we ride and the miles we do. There isn’t any knuckle or finger protection, and the leather feels a bit thin on the palms. In the event of a slide we’re not wholly convinced how they would perform, but we’ve got to take into account the price here. These gloves are available for £13.99, a bargain? They will definitely keep your hands warm and will offer some protection. These will be better than wearing no gloves at all, thats for sure.

Whilst these gloves may not appeal to sports bike riders or anyone racking up the motorway miles they would be good for someone on a small CC bike who is nipping around town. It is worth noting LDmotorcycles do offer a thermal glove with protection for £24.99, another bargain we think...

Here is a closer look at the glove, with some comparisons to the other end of the market.

Check out our review of the Dainese Ergotour Gore-tex glove. 

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BirotarUK 

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