These latest KEIS HEATED G701 PREMIUM TOURING GLOVES heated gloves tend to work by not allowing your hands to get cold. It’s subtle, but there’s a significant difference…
In addition to the wired connections, I also have a pair of rechargeable batteries that allow the gloves to run independently (handy as a road tester when we swap regularly between bikes). The battery packs cost £99 for a pair including a charger that does both batteries at once.
Construction
The KEIS gloves offer a well-tested construction, mostly fabric with a leather palm and panels on the rear. There’s a pouch in the cuff for the battery pack and socket for the heating connector. Armour on the knuckles and palm offers crash protection and a snug fit that is refreshing on a winter glove. These are a long way from being race gloves, but are a lot less baggy than most winter gloves
There’s a flimsy, rubber visor wipe on the index finger that is only partially effective at clearing water. Maybe one day, someone will realise that these things are next-to-useless.
The battery pack fits snugly into the glove but do check your jacket cuffs will go over it before you buy.
Fit and feel
I usually find a medium to be comfy and not too tight. A medium Keis is a comfortable fit for me. The advantage of being heated is that they don’t need as much padding as other winter gloves which gives more feel for the bike’s controls. The downside is that with the battery packs fitted the cuff of the glove is wide to fit under the cuff of your riding jacket. If you’re buying the gloves for use with batteries make sure you try them with the jacket you will be wearing (and all the appropriate layers you’ll be wearing underneath too).
Using the gloves wired into the bike adds another five minutes to your getting ready time. It feels fiddly and comical at first, but the benefit of warm hands on a long winter ride is worth the faff as the battery packs only last around 2 hours on full heat
Temperature
There are three settings, controlled by a button on the back of the glove and displayed by different colours (red, yellow and green). The heat panels are on the back of your hand and the heat extends into the fingers. I tend to use the middle setting and then just forget about it. My hands don’t feel particularly warm like this, but they don’t feel cold either. I prefer that to the warmest setting, which gets too hot on my throttle-hand knuckles after an hour or so.
Control
Once plugged in to either the battery pack or the bike’s battery you simply press the button for two seconds to switch on and then toggle between heat settings. Adjusting the throttle-hand glove is easy on the move but you need to take a hand off the throttle for the left glove, which can be trickier.
Protection & CE certification
There’s hard flexible armour in the knuckles and on your palm, which helps protect the scaphoid bone in your wrist in the event of a slide (you don’t want the hand to grab). The gloves are CE marked in accordance with the latest PPE regulation a European Standard EN 13594:2015.
Knuckle and scaphoid protection and a snug fit make these more protective than many winter gloves.
Fastening
Cuff and wrist have Velcro fasteners. The cuff one needs a bit of jiggling to get tightly adjusted with the battery pack fitted
Wet weather use
Throughout the test all of that my fingers have remained bone dry. As mentioned above though the flimsy visor wipe is next-to-useless.
Lining
The polyester lining is comfortable, snug and doesn’t come away when wet.
KEIS HEATED G701 PREMIUM TOURING GLOVES – Summing up:
Pros
The battery packs are brilliant and make the gloves much easier to use. But only if your jacket’s cuffs are wide enough to fit over the bulk.
The level of protection fit and feel is better than many winter gloves.
Cons
Visor wipe is flimsy and ineffective.
Battery packs are bulky and need a jacket with good cuff adjustment.
Battery packs (x2), charger and leads add £99 to the price.
Discover more
Find out more about the heated G701S Premium Touring Gloves at:
www.keisapparel.co.uk
You can buy them direct from:
Motohaus Powersports Ltd
