Cold Hands

[Schornsteinfeger]

How do you keep your hands warm on a bike?
As a commuter cyclist, I often find myself pedalling to and from the station half an hour away in temperatures of minus 10°c at this time of year.
The best gloves I have found so far are for skiers, with fleece inners and some sort of kevlar outers (ordinary goretex gloves are woefully insufficient), but even with these I have difficulty moving frozen fingers when I arrive at the destination.
Does anybody have any recommendations?
It certainly helps to take a route beginning with a climb, to warm up but of course this makes the return trip downhill and thus colder.
I also wonder whether changing the shape of handlebars or trying other grips might improve matters, or whether there are any hand exercises one can perform while pedalling. Does anybody have any suggestions?
For the other extremities, I find goretex-lined leather boots quite efficient in the cold as well as the wet but would be interested to hear of other solutions.
Perhaps this subject is to prosaic to inspire answers?

,

[The Raucous AUK]

I don't think they'd be good for -10C but the defeet woolie gloves are really good being thin, reasonably warm and they have those rubber dots on the palm side for grip.

[PH]

Some ideas;
Mitts are warmer than gloves - your fingers keep each other warm.
Layering, motorbike shops will have silk or thin wool glove liners.
Windproof/waterproof - ideally you only want to be putting the waterproof layer on when it's needed.  Many windproof gloves are comfier and warm without being sweaty.
If all else fails, there's several types of battery operated glove warmers, though I haven't tried any.

[justin]

I find mitts make me feel unsafe because I can't use the brakes and hold on at the same time!

I also fly hang gliders and suffer terribly with this. I've never found any normal gloves or liner/outer combos which work. Technology helps, and I've tried two sorts of bargain heated gloves.

The first pair ware the £18 quid ones from Nauticalia. These are a help but take damn great D cells (use rechargeables) and heat only the palm, so fingers still get pretty cold.

My current pair is a £20 job from Blazeware. These have individually heated fingers and take 3 AA cells. problem is the thumb is still unheated so you can have temperate fingers and pretty cold thumbs! They also suffer from terrible build quality in the battery box area, but once you sort that with your soldering iron, they seem to work reasonably well. Downside is that they are "waterproof" yet not breathable, which makes them get damp inside and you need to store them on a radiator between rides. They have however saved me the normally unbearable recovery hot-pains this last cold week after my half hour daily commute.

Justin

[stutho]

Hi Schornsteinfeger,

Other than cycling my other passion is scuba diving.  5mm neoprene gloves do an excellent job of keeping my hands warm on frosty morning.  Note some cycling gloves are also neoprene but thinner than the diving kind. 

Warning - my gloves have become extremely smelly!! Solution don't sniff your gloves!!

[Schornsteinfeger]

Thank you for those suggestions : layers, mitts, heated gloves, non-sniff neoprene. I think I shall start with the first, simply because they will be cheaper and less cumbersome to stuff in pockets or bag when boarding the train for the second part of the daily commute. The problem is less pressing now the weather here in France has warmed up.
But the warm up inspires another question about tyres suitable for occasionally very icy roads.

[PeLu]

How do you keep your hands warm on a bike?

I do have electric gloves (Zanier Heat)for skiing, which also are nice for bicycling. I could not stand neoprene gloves, but people are different. 

[gyula]

Does anyone have any experience of using motorcycle bar end muffs? The people at www.icebike.com recommend them for very cold cycling, and there is an article in this months CTC magazine by someone who cycled through Siberia in the winter - I haven't yet found a pair that look suitable for cutting down to fit on a bike though.

[john28july]

experience of using motorcycle bar end muffs?

Hello,
Yes I do. They worked on my motorcycles very well indeed. I no longer ride motorcycles however but would say that they would be a great idea.
John.
www.pbase.com/john28july