Cold Feet!

Those of you, like Sandi who live in warmer climes, will probably be amused by this thread, but here in Blightly its been down right cool for much of the first few weeks of Spring. Certainly where I live bordering the North sea coast, just about every day recently has been accompanied by a chilly breeze.

As part of my (do more in 24! ) self imposed campaign to get out and about and use my bikes more than last year, I've been finding that whilst my body has been kept warm by very efficient modern bikers clothing, my feet have suffered once I've been on the bike for an hour or so. That has been the limiting factor in my ride lengths.

We've discussed heated grips and heated gloves on here before. Whichever you adopt they do seem to do a decent job of keeping hands warm, but I thought I'd take the plunge and buy some heated socks. I've just had some delivered. They cost just £20 off ebay, so I'm not expecting much, but they do seem reasonable quality. They are unbranded, I think they were manufactured in China. They come with two rechargeable batteries (USB charging cable included) which fit in a pocket in the top of each sock itself and its one size fits all, so they are a bit big for me tbh (I'm UK size 8.5) but still they fit ok. They pull up to calf length. There are 3 heat settings and another indicator for battery charge status. I must admit I haven't tested them on a bike ride yet, but I did take the dog for a long walk this morning and tested out the 3 heat settings. The max one is a bit too hot for me, but I'm not testing them in the environment I bought them for i.e walking the dog rather than sat on a motorcycle with my feet and legs exposed to a 59 mph (honest Officer!) breeze. so I'll report back here when I've given them a proper test on a bike ride. However my first impressions are good. I've no idea how durable they are or how long they will continue to keep warm with the batteries fully charged, but as I said I'm not expecting long life and durability for that kind of money. If I get a riding season or mebbe 2 out of them I'll be happy. Hopefully the bloomin' weather will warm up here soon and I can consign them into a drawer until Autumn but there's no sign of that happening here yet. Has anyone else got some? If so how do you find them? Worthwhile or a gimmick?

 

Here's the update as promised: I wore the socks under my Daytona Boots for a ride of around 2 hours, roughly 80 or 90 miles with a stop for a brew halfway. The weather wasn't that cold tbh, but it wasn't warm either, so I was grateful for the socks warmth. I put one sock on the middle setting (they have 3 heat settings) and the other on the lowest. To be honest I didn't notice a lot of difference between 1 and 2, but I changed the left one to setting 3 on the way back and it was that bit warmer. From a heat output point of view I'd say they are quite good. Its a kind of background heat which doesn't fry your feet, but certainly keeps the chill off, which is exactly what you want. The socks themselves are a bit bulky, but then I guess they have to be, As I mentioned in the opening post, the batteries fit in small pockets at the top of the sock. They sit just above the top of the boots under my trousers. I tend to wear Draggin Jeans when I can rather than my leather trousers these days, I find them much more comfortable when off the bike. The heat elements are in the sole of the sock which is fine by me. After the 2 hours the battery charge indicator on one sock was down to 1 and the other 2 (there are 3 charge indicators) 3 being fully charged. So I guess with both socks on the minimum heat setting you might get 4 to 6 hours before they are exhausted. I mentioned before they batteries are rechargeable via a USB adaptor provided so you could can easily recharge them overnight if you are on tour or whatever. The adaptor doesn't take up much space and can be tucked away in a small jacket pocket. Of course many bikes have USB on board sockets these days but I haven't tried that method of charging the sock batteries yet.

So gimmick or worthwhile? Well, if you get cold feet like me after riding for an hour or so then I'd say they are well worth the £20 odd I paid for them. They are a bit fiddly to adjust the heat settings en route as it were. Obviously you have to pull over and pull up your trouser leg to get to the button on the batteries, but I guess once you've worked out which heat setting works best for you its a case of setting them up before you set off on your journey and then just leave them to do their job. As mentioned they are a bit bulky, it would be nice if they were thinner and perhaps other manufacturers will make a thinner heated sock, but I doubt you'd get them for circa 20 quid. As the weather is warming up now I'm hoping they won't be getting used much 'til Autumn but I'll post here again when I've got any more useful data. As before I'd be very interested to hear other members view on them if you have some yourself.