Oxford Hot Seat first-ride review | A budget friendly but capable winter wonder, even at sub-zero

The Hot Seat is Oxford’s new universal-fit heated motorcycle seat cover, that’s both a successor and companion to their range of HotGrips heated grips. MCN’s Michael Guy has gotten hands-on (or, bottoms-on?) with it for a ‘first-ride’ review in some of the coldest weather we’ve had this year.

In the Hot Seat

Oxford Products have a long history of delivering innovative cost effective products to the market and their new Hot Seat is no exception. Essentially a thin heated cover that can be fitted to practically any bike seat, it does exactly what you’d expect and gives your bike a ‘hot seat’. MCN got the opportunity to test one just as the latest artic freeze hit the UK which meant temperatures plummeted to well below freezing.

Fitting is simple, you remove your seat and use the two adjustable Velcro straps to secure the hot seat in place, then simply connect the two wires direct to your bike’s battery. There is an on/off button which also allows you to scroll through the three different heat settings.

After fitting my first ride was a two hour blast up the M1/M6 for a visit to Motorcycle Live. With my temperature gauge on my Suzuki GSX-S1000GX reading an unpleasant -3, I opted for the highest heat setting. Within a minute of turning it on the heavy frost that covered my seat was thawing revealing the snake of heating elements.

Twenty minutes into my ride and I couldn’t believe how hot my bum was getting. I initially thought that by hovering above the seat to let things cool I could keep it on the highest setting, but it was simply too hot.

Putting it down the medium setting, it still felt hot but was great for keeping me warm despite the fast lane motorway wind chill. But once off the motorway, the lower speeds meant I was over heating again, so I dropped it to the lowest setting.

I did another sub-zero 2.5 hour ride the following day and rode all the way home on the lowest setting which was enough to keep me warm and avoided me having to ‘hover!’. I’ve learnt over a few decades of winter riding that by keeping any part of your body warm, it all contributes to your overall comfort levels – especially extremities like fingers and toes.

Other heated kit to consider:

Used in conjunction with a heated jacket and heated gloves the Oxford Hot Seat is a great addition to your winter riding set-up. It costs a very reasonable £79.99 and exceeded my expectations as to the level of heat and increased comfort it delivers. In fact the only thing to be aware of is with it being wired directly to the bikes battery you have to remember to turn it off when you stop riding to avoid a flat battery.

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