Why are heating curves more misleading than the weather in Brittany?

Ah, graphs... they look great, right? We love plotting lines going up and down. But let’s be honest – showing a nice heating curve for heated grips or gloves is a bit like forecasting the weather in Brittany: great on paper, totally unpredictable in real life. Let me explain why.

Handlebar material: steel, aluminium... or portable radiator?
If your handlebar is made of steel, it will take longer to heat up than aluminium, which loves to dissipate heat as fast as it absorbs it. Result: the perceived temperature is completely different in each case.

Half handlebars, risers and friends
The design of the handlebar matters too. Half handlebar? Standard handlebar? Big risers? All these details affect how heat spreads. The more exposed metal there is, the faster it cools down.

Unstable weather: outside temperature and humidity
Here come the jackpot variables. The colder it is, the faster heat disappears. Add some humidity and bam – the cold feels even stronger, and the heating feels weaker.

To ride or not to ride, that is the question
When the bike is stationary, the grips heat up nicely. But once you hit the road, the wind kicks in and cools everything down. The faster you go, the more heat escapes. And for short trips? Not enough time to heat up properly.

The garage factor... or icy wind
Before you even start the engine, your handlebar already has a starting temperature. If your bike spent the night in a warm garage, good start. But if it slept outside in a freezing wind, good luck catching up thermally!

So, what are these curves worth?
That graph you see (time on the X axis, temperature on the Y axis) is nice, but mostly a simplified attempt at explanation. In real life, there are so many variables that these curves are more theory than reality.

At GREENFORCE, we prefer to be transparent: we talk about real‑life performance, not lab tests. And if one day we manage to standardise all this, I promise I’ll be the first to draw a proper curve. Until then, remember – reality is full of surprises... and variables!