Used review: Weise Montana Element Heated Gloves

HEATED grips only warm the inside of your hands and leave fingertips cold. Handlebar muffs can interfere with levers and obscure your view in the mirrors.

So the ultimate answer to cold hands in winter must be heated gloves, right? I thought I’d find out with this pair from Weise.  

They use rechargeable batteries, so you don’t have to plug yourself in to the bike. They’re easy to operate - you switch them on by pressing a button on the back of each gauntlet until two little red lights come on, indicating the hottest of two settings. Press it again and one light goes out, indicating the lower setting.

The batteries go in a Velcro pocket inside each gauntlet, and have to be removed and unplugged for charging. 

Weise claims a battery life of up to six hours, which isn’t that farfetched. I definitely got over five on the low setting.

The maker also claims the two settings are 45C and 60C, which I can’t say was reflected by my experience. Even on the highest setting, the gloves don’t feel hot, like a decent pair of heated grips. They just stop your hands feeling cold, from palm to fingertip.

I used them throughout last winter and they definitely took the sting out of my commute. Perhaps the best thing about them is that they go with you whatever bike you’re riding.

Disappointingly though, the outer sleeve on one of the glove leads detached itself from the plug at the end, as shown in my picture. It happened despite careful use and after just a handful of recharges.

The gauntlets are bulky because of those batteries in the back, and that means it’s difficult to tuck them inside your cuffs to stop water ingress in heavy rain. 

Once or twice towards the end of last winter the batteries died mysteriously quickly. And while they are supposed to last several hours, they take just as long to recharge.

The charger has two red lights which change to green when the batteries are full but one of them seems to stay red no matter how long they're plugged in for.

So these heated gloves have proved to be okay but not as good as I'd like for £200. Or, to put it another way, for this winter I’ve fitted my bike with a good old pair of heated grips (which only cost about £40).

Price: £199.99

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