Keeping your feet and hands warm is a serious challenge if you’re the type who won’t let cold weather keep you off your bike. While booties, extra-thick socks, fur-lined boots and even wrapping your toes in a plastic baggie might be the best you can do for your feet, A’ME takes care of your hands with their $199 heated grips.

Tech features:
A’ME’s American-made, heated MTB Ergo Tri Grip kit starts out with their Clamp-On Ergo Tri Grips and adds a temperature-adjustable heating element inside. Each grip has a wire that attaches to the supplied 11.1-volt,  4400mAh lithium-ion battery (11 ounces). The kit also includes two mounting options for the battery. One is a shock-resistant pad/case (1.5 ounces) that holds the battery flat against the head tube area, and the other is a stem or frame tube mount. Once connected, an integrated button in each grip allows you to select six heat settings. The kit includes the grips, battery, two mounting options, a charging unit and mounting straps. The components are sold individually, and A’ME offers a six-month grip replacement guarantee for manufacturing defects and a two-year, half-price replacement deal on grips you damage or wear out. 

Another big improvement over our 2010 test version is the system’s wires and connectors. The earlier version had a high school science-project quality to it. The new wires and connectors are better sealed, the connectors have a firmer connection, and that connection is better secured. There is plenty of wiring length, even for wide handlebars, so we had to tuck excess cable around the battery case.

Push the button on each grip, and a tiny blue indicator light flashes once and then pulses until the desired temperature is reached (for level one, this takes less than two minutes). Push the button again and you go up to level two and so on until the hottest setting (level six). The levels go from “a warm tingle” to “hot potato.”

The grips feel great even before you turn them on, and the heating element does not increase their diameter. The diameter is comparable to other lock-on grips. The grips’ rubber offers a tacky feel that is welcome in harsh conditions. The warmth feels wonderful on cold rides. A few of the crew remarked that the grips not only warmed their hands, but their cores felt warmer as well. Our rides were limited to about two hours at either level two or three without any juice issues. “Burn times” are increased when used with a carbon handlebar (aluminum transfers the heat too easily), so you’ll get anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours depending on how hot you run them and the bar you use.

One final tip: don’t use heavy gloves with the grip. Use a glove with a thin palm that uses a wind shell or neoprene material on the upper.

The new generation Clamp-On Ergo Tri Grips are a marked improvement over the first generation we tested three years ago and deserve the bump in star rating. One other thing changed too; the price for the system is 20 percent less. If you ride in the cold, what are you waiting for?