Cold be gone with intelligent heated gloves from Ixon , tested in the deep south .
Cold be gone with intelligent heated gloves from Ixon , tested in the deep south .
It had been a very long time since my last dalliance with heated gloves . There was a reason for that . I remember , not very fondly , wires coming from the battery , up the front of my jacket , down my sleeves and into connectors in the back of the gloves . With only one setting - just above tepid - they were better than nothing in the middle of winter , but only just . They didn ’ t do a lot and they were not at all rider friendly . Heated grips worked far better .
But time moves on . Decades have passed . Battery technology has developed in leaps and bounds . Lithium-Ion batteries now power everything . It ’ s not just smart phones or Teslas either , they ’ ve been pressed into service to spin dirt bike starter motors . These little energydense powerpacks have now made their way into gloves . And with a mid-winter lap of the South Island on the fearsome Hayabusa looming large < READ ABOUT THAT HERE >, the thought of staying warm had crossed my mind .
Heated grips were going to be far too much of a hassle to fit , especially on a bike which would have to go back to Suzuki unsullied in the near future . A chance conversation about the ride with Ixon importer Forbes & Davies had a pair of their Ixon IT Yuga heated touring gloves on their way to me to test in the South ’ s winter , which could be anything from sunshine to blizzards .
INTELLIGENT THEORY The interesting thing about the Ixon offering is its clim8 ‘ intelligent thermal technology ’. The gloves have an app that goes with them . I ’ m normally a technology luddite when it comes to riding , but these seemed promising . You set the temperature that you want the glove to stay at , as you would do with a thermostat for a heat pump , and each glove heats on and off individually to keep your hands at that temperature . If it ’ s warm they don ’ t come on , if it ’ s cold they do . So , you could be riding along in the sun , then head into the shade of a frosty valley - the temperature of each glove drops , so they start heating . Clever .
CONNECT YOUR PHONE TO YOUR GLOVES ...? Our world of Bluetooth connectivity is a wondrous thing ... but never did I think I ’ d be connecting my phone to my gloves . Yet here
80 KIWI RIDER