Gerbing’s have taken their XR12 heated gloves for motorcycles and revamped and improved them for 2013/2014. Now with a number of key differences and tweaks that greatly improve them compared to the prior XR12 iteration. After recently sending my old Gerbing heated gloves back for repair (again), I received this new iteration as my replacement. Thankfully, a very swift turnaround on warranty from Gerbing, so I only suffered cold hands for a couple of days.
I’ve only been wearing these new Gerbing heated gloves for about a week and it’s still not super cold outside, so this won’t be an in-depth review. Here are the key differences:
- The wrist strap is now on the top of the glove and a bit shorter. Good stuff, the strap was a bit too long and flappy previously.
- A rubber visor wiper blade along the thumbs has been added. This works really well in the wet for clearing away the rain and spray from your visor.
- Palms now have a grippy strip of material on them.
- A drawstring storm guard has been added to the cuff. Great for keeping out rain running down your arms. Always had issues with this, then the wet wicked through the seam at the end of my jacket sleeves. However, the drawstrings are a pain to pull tight when gloved up and get in the way when tucking wiring into sleeves.
- Hard protection on top of fingers is now removed. Probably not a big deal, didn’t add much in general use.
- The gloves appear to have more internal padding, are definitely snugger fitting and are a little more restrictive on movement. A trade-off between added warmth and freedom of movement. Still fits and is still usable, but a definite change.
- The controller will now remember the last setting and select it when plugged in. Big thumbs up, now no need to cycle through the heating settings each time you plug in.
My first impression of these Gerbing heated gloves is certainly very good, however, time will tell regarding their reliability. I do hope they are more durable than last year’s model, as when working, they are invaluable for riding in the winter.
Rating 5/5
Epilogue: Long term, this new version has held up much better. I’ve had no problems with the controller unit. However, one glove did develop connection issues in Feb 2016 after two winters of daily use. Much longer than the prior models ever lasted. However, Gerbing’s promptly swapped them under their lifetime electrical warranty!
2 replies on “New Improved Gerbing Heated Gloves XR12 for 2013/2014”
Great report Arthur. How have you found them recently?
TBH I’ve not found it cold enough to dig them out yet this Autumn. I did however use them all last winter, every day on my commute to/from work and continued using them long into the Spring as toasty fingers just feel so good! Either way, worked without a hitch the whole time.