Gerbings T5 Gloves; Is it just me?

[TandemGeek]

On the colder days (15F - 35F) it seems like there's no heat in the palms of my new T5 gloves. Are mine defective, am I defective or is that just the way they're designed?

 

The backside of the microwire gloves warms up immediately as advertised, but it seems to take about 10-15 minutes before the heat begins to work it's way through the gloves to warm my palms and finger contact points with the grips. So, I find myself riding with my fingers stretched-out and sitting on the brake/clutch levers while I palm the throttle. At the same time, the material in the palm seems to do a good job of keeping the heated grips from doing their thing which is doubly frustrating. Wearing silk glove liners has helped a bit, and once I've been riding for 30 minutes or so I find that I need to dial-back the heat to keep from cooking my hands. So, am I the only one???

 

As for my point of reference, I have an 8-year old pair of Gerbings gloves that were little long in the tooth from my daily winter commutes so I decided to pull the trigger and buy a new pair. More specifically, the gloves have stretched to the point where I had to move up from silk glove liners to a pair of Smartwool liners, at which point I end up with a fairly meaty glove and grip. They actually warm up quite nicely in the palm, but not so much on the backside of the fingers and hand on the really cold days; even at pull power the digits would get a bit chilly for the first 15 minutes before the glove would come up to full heat and need to be throttled back.

 

So, I'm a bit perplexed at the moment.

[moshe_levy]

It's not just you. I just wrote up a huge heated gear comparo for MCN (shameless plug - it's due out in April issue) and glove-wise, none of the new ones I tested (Gerbing's G3, Firstgear W&S, Tourmaster, and EXO2) had as much palm heat as my now 10 year old set of original Gerbing's.

 

That said, all of the new ones either marginally or seriously outclassed the old gloves in terms of total heat produced on the backside of the hand and figers, as well as quicker warm up time. While riding, it is the back of the hand (and especially the fingers) that are against the elements, so one would think it makes more sense to concentrate all the heating elements there, but I agree with you in that those old Gerbing's sure feel good in the palm area.

 

-MKL

[Paul Mihalka]

I have the Gerbing G3 gloves, and for me most of the times the best combination is gloves and jacket liner (no dual control) at about half power and heated grips on low.

[Trinity]

When I first got my T3 gloves (not the microwire version FWIW), I found them to be comfortable, but WAY less warm that my Gerbings "orignials." I called Gerbings customer service and ending up sending them back to the factory for some reworking (wiring was *removed* to increase warmth, which to me seemed counterintuitive...) As I recall, it was done at no cost (other than shipping), took about 3 weeks start-to-finish, and I have worn the reworked glvoes for two subsequent seasons (including one memorable, long day in the mid-20s F) with ZERO complaints!!