Damn you should write for a magazine! that's the best product evaluation I've read in years. I mean I was glued to the screen all the way between "get" and "did". THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
Looks pretty useless to me. What's wrong with the hand guards that come with your GS? At least they dont look like someone shoved an old sock on your handlebar!:huh
http://www.hippohands.com/ They're ugly, but with heated grips, you can wear summer gloves year round.
Yeah. I'm not sure I understand the benefit of the foam on the front of the guard. I picture myself trying to wipe bugs out of the material fibers.
Well, You can think what you want. They work like a charm and look fine. My hands are no longer cold.
Hand guards, really? I get it they're off road bikes too. It's unfortunate that we sport touring bike guys won't benefit from this upgrade because the airflow would slow us down.
I ride pretty much year round here in VA (Norfolk - VA Beach) and there's no way hand guards will do the job alone. Heck, the heatED grips aren't enough for me on cold -damp days. I ride in complete comfort with a heated vest and heated gloves
It was 27 when I left this morning. Klim Calderas with grips on High and the sturdy hand guards and my hands were toasty. Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk
+1 on the HippoHands. I had them on my first bike way back in the day, and then have them for my K75. They work real well. Ugly, yeah. Warm, you bet!
Handguards helps a lot...but ride in temps down to 0deg (fahrenheit) so made these from some 4 litre plastic cans had laying around. Looks like shit but helps a lot reducing wind chill and took 15 minutes. Rigid enough to take wind pressure but soft enough to yield in a crash. Tried hippo hands and they've even better but don't like the feeling of trapped hands. Heated grips and heated gloves also helps but reducing wind chill is most important if any speed.
I have a 95 w/o heated grips and my gauntlet style BMW gloves will not keep the chill out of my fingertips at hiway speeds when the ambient temps are 40F. Go to 50F and all is good. I would like to have better protection for my hands as well as more wind coverage and this may help. Heated grips may be in the works one day but not now. Is everything you have on your bars listed in your sig line?
Use whatever works for you and screw what anyone else says! Some guys are just toooooo coooool and macho to admit they get cold! Used to have a buddy who made fun of my heated gloves until I let him borrow them for a short ride. Guess who has heated everything now. He ain't so "coooool" now but he is warm.
I did 230 miles on my drz today with snow lining the road for about 180 of it and the moose hippo hands along with my $20 cheap ass grip heaters made sure that my hands were the only part of me that wasn't cold. They work great, and yes, they are ugly as hell, who cares!
Check out Walmart for the Stearns version. If your Walmart has them come spring/summer,,,,, you an get them for 7$ a set. I bought 5 sets! And yes, they really help vs normal dual sport type hand gaurds, they are light and the go on and off in seconds.......................... and they cheap. Function over form for me, the dweebs ool breezes and scoff all they want. They remind of all the Ass Pirates on the Hardly Ablesons with their assless chaps.
Expect my covers to arrive this week. Already have the oem guards on the bike but they let a lot of cold air freeze fingers. Also, WIW I found Bike Master heated grips with a 5 position temp controller on Amazon for $55. Have yet to install them but they are very solid construction and should plug right in. (No Amazon or Bike Master affiliation) If you are looking for heated grips, not just the grid type, check 'em out.