Heated Glove Showdown
Heated Motorcycle glove review
Heated Motorcycle glove review
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| 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.
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 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!
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| 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.
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All the best
BirotarUK
All the best
BirotarUK
