These heated gloves are clever and effective, but come at a fairly chunky price
Your poor digits go through a lot during cold-weather riding. They bore the brunt of the wind chill, stretched out in front of you and vulnerable to the worst that autumn winter can throw their way.
Heated grips help, but if you don’t have any and don’t fancy getting some fitted, or already do have them but still feel as though your fingers are getting frostbite 10 minutes into a cold-weather ride, you might consider heated gloves.
I’ve had a pair of Furygan Genesis heated gloves on test since the tail end of autumn and throughout winter, clocking hundreds of miles on several different motorbikes - some with heated grips, some without.
Key features
- Smartphone app connectivity
- CE Level 1 armour
- Touchscreen sensitive fingertips
- Heating elements for each finger/thumb
Price: £239.99
Fresh out of the box, the Genesis gloves look and feel like a quality product. Slipping them on for the first time merely reinforces this - they include a dual-layer liner that feels sumptuously soft while providing a decent degree of water resistance. After a few months and a few hundred miles of use, the gloves still look good, although some of the stitching in the palm has frayed slightly.
Heating elements across the top of the hand and to each finger/thumb tip, powered by a small LiPo battery pack living cuff. You need to remove these and charge with the included plug, which slots into a USB-A socket and tops up both at the same time. The batteries weigh about 80g apiece, giving each glove a total weight of about 240g. The weight is hidden well when the gloves are worn.
Powering up requires a long press of the Furygan lion logo on either glove, which turns on both gloves simultaneously. And so, there’s no need to stop so you can take your right hand away from the brake lever. A power light then displays on each, changing colour as the three different heat programs are changed via a single press of one cuff button.
The gloves heat up within a few minutes, but they’re best described as warm rather than properly hot, even in the most powerful setting. We’ve experienced toastier heated gloves in the past, but they do successfully take the edge off when you’re in low single-digit temperatures. You may find that during an extended ride when the mercury is only a little above freezing your fingers do start to get a little chilly.
That’s only if you’re not using the Genesis gloves in conjunction with heated grips, though. If you are, the combination of the two heat sources provides lovely wrap-around warmth to banish the winter chill.
The MyFurigan app connected the gloves on the first attempt. The software opens up various control options including a timed pre-heat function and the possibility of changing the intensity of each heat programme and even the corresponding colour for the LED power display. You can also change the brightness, but even at 100 per cent, there were times - particularly during bright sunlight - when it wasn’t easy to see them lit.
Furygan quotes three hours and 20 minutes of running at 50 per cent power, but the thing is, you’ll generally want to be using these at 100, dropping the battery life to less than two hours. You can check the battery levels via the app, but I found myself plugging the batteries in as a matter of habit after each ride.
Should you buy Furygan Genesis Heated grips?
If you’re on a tight budget, there are more cost-effective ways to keep your hands warm - aftermarket heated grips are far cheaper, and even some official accessory heated grips are a bit less than the Genesis gloves. Commuters meanwhile may just wish to get a cheap pair of handlebar muffs.
If you fancy splurging on some gear for colder rides, though, they are worth considering, particularly if combined with heated grips for the ultimate in hand warmth. Just make sure you keep your expectations in terms of outright heat in check and bear in mind the battery life limitations.
Yes, we’d like them to be a bit toastier, but there is something deeply satisfying about slipping on a pre-warmed pair of these gloves before heading out for a colder ride.
