Firstgear Carbon Heated Waterproof Motorcycle Gloves

by "Burn" and Rick for webBikeWorld.com.

Summary:  No more cold hands!  Waterproof and comfortable with minimal bulk.

The Firstgear Carbon heated gloves look and feel like "normal" leather motorcycle gloves, but light 'em up and feel the warmth!

Part 8 of a 9-part series.

Background
What started as as a simple look at a one or two different options for winter warmth has turned into a 9-part winter motorcycle glove marathon. 

We originally called this a comparison but it's turned out to be more of a survey covering a variety of solutions for cold-weather motorcycle riding. 

Obviously there are many more brands we could have evaluated, but we do think this report describes a variety of choices for a wide range of weather conditions and budgetary constraints.

The gloves in our survey range from the basic Fieldsheer Aqua Sport gloves designed for milder winters to the Firstgear Carbon heated gloves that are the subject of this penultimate installment. 

All of the gloves in the survey are claimed waterproof.  One pair had a slight leak in the thumb, but the others passed our "bucket test" without a problem, including the Firstgear Carbon gloves; a very good thing indeed, considering the consequences of a leak in an electrically heated glove (don't worry -- it's DC).  That's why they make fuses, I suppose...

The question most webBikeWorld readers have though is very simple: Which glove is the warmest?   This is especially important this winter, which has turned out to be one of the coldest on record here in the States. 

OK, so heat is what you want?  You got it.  The Firstgear Carbon Heated gloves. 

Granted, comparing electrically heated gloves with the other non-heated gloves in this comparison may not seem fair.  But when your breath freezes on the back of the visor and your neck feels like it's wrapped in an icicle scarf, these are the gloves you want covering your mitts.

Firstgear Carbon Heated Gloves Electrics
We haven't dissected a Firstgear Carbon glove, so we're not sure of the exact layout of the wires or elements.  Firstgear told us the heating elements are in the back of the hand and down through the fingers, and each glove puts out 15 watts of heat at 12.8 Volts.

What we do know is that these babies will definitely keep your mitts warm!  The Firstgear Carbon heated gloves are the first heated gloves we've tried that really do what they're supposed to.

Designed to connect to a Firstgear heated jacket liner, the Carbon gloves can also be worn independently, which is how we evaluated this pair. 

Each glove has a round coax connector (female) of the type commonly found on motorcycle heated clothing.  The connectors are located on the inside of the gauntlet and which  from up on top of the wrist.  Firstgear also provides a motorcycle battery harness with the Carbon gloves.  The harness has round terminals for the battery and a 15-Amp blade-type inline fuse. 

When all is said and done, we recommend using the Firstgear Carbon gloves with the Firstgear heated liner to avoid the wiring issues described below.  We haven't tried the gloves with other brands of heated garments, but the coax connector will probably work; just make sure you carefully study the electrical requirements first.

An optional ($14.95) "Y" harness is required to use the gloves without connecting them to another heated garment.  The Y harness connects the gloves to the wiring that goes to the motorcycle battery. 

And unless you want the gloves to be "on" all the time -- definitely not recommended -- you'll also need a controller like the Heat-Troller described below, which controls the electric flow to the gloves or turns it completely off if desired.  Take it from us -- you want a controller and Firstgear recommends the use of a controller also.

Optional Heat-Troller
We've discussed issues regarding the Heat-Troller previously on webBikeWorld.  We think it seems strange to have to buy the controller separately, which is analogous to buying a car and then having to purchase an engine as a separate option.

In the case of the Carbon gloves though, the absence of a controller as original equipment is understandable, because the gloves are primarily designed to connect to the Firstgear heated liner. 

However, owners who wish to separately control both glove and liner temperature (you would, right?) will need either two Heat-Trollers or the dual Heat-Troller model.  So the Heat-Troller is really a necessary option, if there is such a thing.

This is in no way an issue with or the fault of Warm & Safe, the manufacturers of the Heat-Troller.  We think the manufacturer of the heated garment should always provide a controller that will allow the rider to turned the heated garment on and off and to control the temperature.  One of the reasons we like the Tourmaster Synergy vest (review) is that it comes with a built-in controller.

At time of publication, the Firstgear Carbon Heated gloves have a list price of $169.95 and the Heat-Troller lists for $69.95 from Firstgear ($89.95 from Warm & Safe, the manufacturer). 

Add in the "Y" connector at $14.95 and we're up to $239.90 + $14.95 = $254.85, a not insignificant sum.  But what price warmth?

The Firstgear-labeled Heat-Troller feels like a robust unit, although it's perhaps about 3 times larger than it should or could be in this age of miniaturization (but other types of Heat-Trollers are available, see below).

But one thing is surprising: The dial on the Heat-Troller does not have detents.  This is the first time we've used a Heat-Troller, so we assumed that a device with a dial that controls temperature and is used while wearing heavy winter gloves would surely have detents to provide feedback on the dial position?  Apparently not.

The absence of detents also makes it difficult to place the Heat-Troller in a pocket, which we tried during the early stages of our trials.  The knob on the Heat-Troller moves too easily without detents, so put it in a pocket with gloved hands and the knob usually turns, changing the setting.

But even when the Heat-Troller is mounted on the handlebars or fairing, the absence of detents means that there's no positive feedback on the settings.  So you'll have to either guess or take your eyes off the road to look down at it to see where it's set. 

Surely a series of detents, something like "Off, Low, Med, High and Roast" or similar would be of more value?  How about it, Heat-Troller users -- what say you?

Wiring Details
The primary disadvantage of heated gloves is having to deal with the wiring -- one of the reasons we're anxiously waiting for "the" breakthrough pair of battery heated gloves.

The actual labor involved in installing the wiring is relatively easy, but designing the layout takes some thought.

Dealing with wiring during everyday riding is usually a hassle, no matter what type or brand of electrically heated motorcycle garment is involved.  It's something the rider becomes accustomed to and it makes ride preparation more complex than simply throwing on a pair of gloves, jumping on the bike and taking off.

But before you can ride and enjoy the warmth, you'll need to install the wiring.  Most heated garments have connections for pants, liners, gloves, etc., but wiring any one of these independently and directly to the motorcycle battery usually results in compromises. 

What you're about to read is a very convoluted process for installing the wiring for the gloves to connect directly to the motorcycle battery rather than to another heated garment such as a jacket liner.  Again, we think it makes more sense to connect the gloves to the built-in wiring on the Firstgear heated liner rather than go this independent route.

Here We Go...
The Multistrada "mule" used for winter evaluations already has a short Tourmaster fused harness that is attached to the battery.  It has a coax connector that is cable-tied to a frame tube on the left side of the bike. 

This powers the Tourmaster Synergy vest, which has a controller that hangs out the bottom, so it's a fairly straightforward procedure to get on the bike, plug in the vest, start the bike, adjust the temperature on the controller and go.  The Synergy controller hangs near the thigh and has push buttons for low, medium, high and off.

Although the Tourmaster-labeled battery harness was supplied with the Synergy vest package, it's a standard coax harness and we experienced no problems using it with the Firstgear gloves thanks to worldwide electrical connector standards.

The basic harness routing for the gloves to be used independently of the Firstgear vest goes like this: battery harness, then a wire that runs up to the handlebars, then the Heat-Troller, then a Y harness connected to the Heat-Troller with the two opposite ends connected to the gloves.

The Heat-Troller has one wire going in and one going out and each wire is about 50 cm (20") long.  Think of the Heat-Troller as a valve that flows electricity (or heat) to the gloves like a hose.  So it must be plumbed in to the line somewhere between the harness that comes off the motorcycle battery and the gloves. 

The biggest issue here is that the battery harness typically provided with motorcycle heated gear is short and provides only enough wire to run from the battery to one side of the bike, where the coax connector is usually secured with hook-and-loop tape.

The Firstgear labeled Heat-Troller harness is also short.  Since it's usually mounted in front of the fuel tank somewhere on the handlebars or inside the fairing, it would have been better to have extra long wiring. 

Warm & Safe, the manufacturer of the Heat-Troller, makes several different styles including a version designed for heated grips. That unit has a knob that is mounted remotely from the control box, and it may have been a better option for us.

To mount our Firstgear Heat-Troller at the handlebars, we needed either a long battery harness or a single-wire battery harness extension with the coax connectors on either end.

Alternatively, the Heat-Troller could be connected to the short battery harness and the Heat-Troller could be mounted with double-sided tape or tape-backed Velcro down on the side of the bike.  Then you would reach down to operate the Heat-Troller.

We also tried connecting the Heat-Troller to the battery harness and placing the Heat-Troller in the left jacket pocket, but that didn't work due to the Heat-Troller control knob (described in the Heat-Troller section above).

This all sounds very complicated but it isn't really -- it takes longer to describe it in words than it is.  The basic layout is this: battery harness, then Heat-Troller, then Y harness, then gloves.  There are multiple ways this wiring can be installed.

The optional Firstgear Y harness we purchased is very long at about 1.3 m (about 50"), which means there's a lot of extra wiring that must be coiled and secured up front.  We left enough of the Y harness up front to allow the rider to lift his or her hands to open the helmet visor or perform other tasks if necessary. 

This is the only problem with using the heated gloves independent from the heated liner -- you'll end up with some extra wire artifacts up front, unless you route the wires up through the jacket, which is possible but which we chose not to do.

So here's a recap of how it all works: After the rider is suited up and the gloves are on with the gauntlets over the jacket sleeve, get on the bike, perform all the pre-flight checks, start it up and then plug the gloves into the Y harness.  The Heat-Troller should not be turned on until after the bike is started.  The very last step is to turn on the Heat-Troller.

Remember -- this is a convoluted procedure only because the gloves are being used without connecting them to the Firstgear heated liner.  If you do this, remember that you'll end up with extra lengths of wire between the gloves and the handlebars, which could be dangerous.  You'll need the extra wire though to move your hands away from the controls to do things like lifting or wiping your visor, scratching your arm, etc.

Alternative:  If the wires are run inside the jacket, the gauntlets should be worn under the sleeves, which results in a slightly more complicated procedure to put the clothing on, hook up the gloves, then button everything up while wearing the gloves.

If you're wearing the Firstgear heated liner (and possibly others; we see no reason why the Carbon gloves wouldn't work with other heated liners that utilized the same plug type, although we haven't tried this), you could probably also connect the gloves as the last step.

Riding With the Firstgear Carbon Heated Gloves
After everything is installed and tested, it's a real pleasure to click on the Heat-Troller, ramp it up and feel the Firstgear Carbon gloves pour out the heat.

The gloves distribute a nice, even heat just where it's needed.  Not enough to burn your hands, mind you -- that would be both unnecessary and a potentially dangerous distraction.  They provide a nice even amount of warmth with enough power to keep our hands warm in the coldest temperatures we'd ever dare ride in.

In milder temperatures, like 40-degree F days (4.5 C), the usual procedure is to dial back the heat from Ahead Full to Back Two-Thirds.  At 45 F (7 C), we have to lower the heat to about 1/3 on, then cycle it on and off if the gloves get too warm. 

Again, this is warm, even heat that can be felt, but not something that 20 seconds after it is turned on that you feel a strong surge.

Of course, the amount of perceived heat also depends on ambient temperatures and wind conditions.  But the Porelle liner does a good job at blocking the wind.  It's also breathable and waterproof, as our "bucket test" proved.

The bottom line here is that the wiring hassles described above makes it all worthwhile once you feel the warmth that the Firstgear Carbon heated gloves provide.

Firstgear Carbon Heated Glove Fit and Comfort
The Carbon gloves look and feel pretty much like your basic, all-around leather motorcycle glove. They do have a slightly stiff feel, probably due to the internal wiring and the Porelle liner, but they're generally comfortable.

One of the advantages of heated gloves is the absence of the thick insulation of non-heated gloves.  This thick overstuffed feeling is one of the biggest complaints about heavy winter gloves, according to webBikeWorld visitors.

The Carbon gloves have a Thinsulate lining that doesn't interfere with grip feel.  The liner material is soft and it feels like a thin micro-fleece.  It's fairly comfortable but it doesn't seem to absorb or transfer moisture as well as it could, but it's not bad otherwise.

The size large gloves shown here fit about 1/2 size larger than expected, which actually leaves just enough extra room in the fingertips for gripping the handlebars, but the "blade" shaped thumb is slightly longer than it should be.

Finger, Thumb and Overall Construction
The stitching and construction of the Carbon gloves is generally very good -- not up to the standards maybe of the Held Freezer or Rev'it gloves in this comparison, but no obvious problems to report.

The fingertips use the "X" shape modified box section, which leaves enough room proportionally for the glove size.  The backs of the fingers have reflective fabric sections with minimal padding underneath. 

The Carbon name apparently comes from the large carbon fiber main knuckle protector, which floats on the back of the glove with a space underneath between the protector and the glove body.  It provides enough room for the rider's hand with no binding.  A separate section of carbon fiber is located towards the back of the wrist, over the scaphoid. 

The leather was slightly stiff at first but seems to be breaking in over time and feels more supple.  There are no loose threads and the gloves exhibit very good overall quality.

Gauntlet
The gauntlet on the Carbon gloves is about 155 mm wide, which puts it around mid-pack in our comparison.  The gauntlet is long enough though, which is important if the gloves are to be plugged in to an external harness.

We had problems getting the Carbon gloves to pass our "security test" at first.  To pass, a glove must remain securely on the hand when all of the straps are fastened and you try to pull the glove off with the other hand.  We've found that gloves with the wrist strap on the underside usually have less trouble with the test than when the strap is mounted above.

The Carbon gloves remain secure on some hands but not others because the topside strap can't always be tightened enough to hold the glove.

Water Resistance
The Firstgear Carbon heated gloves passed the "bucket test".  The evaluator wears the gloves and puts his hand in a bucket of water for 5 minutes or longer, and if no moisture leaks in, the gloves pass.

Conclusion
The Firstgear Carbon heated gloves are a definite answer to cold hands.  If you can deal with the wiring hassles, the warmth and their waterproof capabilities make these the warmest gloves we've ever tried, and there's probably no sane temperature where these gloves wouldn't keep your hands nice and toasty.

► More:  2008 Winter Motorcycle Gloves Home and Comparison Rating Chart

 

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