You've only got to look out of the window at the moment, to realise that the days of ventilated leathers and summer gloves are long past. By now most bikes are tucked up in the corners of garages and sheds, sheltering under dust sheets and waiting for some time after the clocks have gone forward so they can burst out onto the warm tarmac again, like butterflies emerging from their cocoons.

For the rest of us - the year-round commuters, the couriers and dispatch riders, and those pillars of society, bike journalists - life on two-wheels goes on in winter as in the warmer seasons, but under more layers and with more frequent stops to restore the circulation and search out a toilet with a working hot-air hand drier. It seems like an eternity ago that I first fitted a set of heated handgrips to my bike, and I couldn't believe how something so simple could be so brilliant. Warm hands at 85mph in mid-Winter had got to be the next best thing to sex. No - correction - sometimes it was better!

So when I first heard about BMW's electrically heated insoles for boots, they immediately went on my "must try some of those" list. If anything, the feet are more difficult to keep warm on a bike in winter than the hands; they stick out into a lovely cooling airflow around the bottom of the bike or the fairing; they're further from the heart and so the blood is cooler when it gets to them and the heating effect is less; and it's not that easy to exercise your legs and feet to keep the circulation going when you're riding. Electric "under-foot" heating looked like it was worth a try. The trouble was it came with a price tag of £110, so for the time being it had to remain on my wishlist and it was back to the thermal socks.

And then a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across the self-same product under a different brandname and a very different price. The order went off immediately and a week later a box containing a pair of battery-powered, rechargeable, electrically-heated insoles arrived.

Today, I put them to the test.

The weather was grey, damp and overcast with the temperature struggling to get to 6°C. There was no wind to speak of, but a 'spirited' 100-mile ride down the A4 was quick enough to simulate a reasonable wind chill factor on my Gaerne Strada raceboots. And for good measure I wore the thinnest pair of summer socks that I could find.

The result - warm feet! Yes, they really do work.

What you get for your money is a pair of PVC insoles that you cut to size to fit inside your boot. There are cut-lines on the base of the insole to help you get the right shape, or if your boots have removable insoles then you can take them out and use them as a template. If this can be done, then use the heated insoles instead of the originals, as they're around 3mm thick and take up about half a shoe size, so if your boots are already a snug fit then they're going to be even snugger! The actual heating element is a 50mm diameter disc in the ball/toes area of the insole, and a thin, flat ribbon cable runs from the heater underneath the insole to the heel, then up the back of the ankle to emerge from the top of the boot. The cable plugs into a small battery pack that clips to the upper edge of the boot at the back. On each battery pack there's a rotary switch that controls the four heat settings available and a LED to show when it's switched on. Just set the heating to the required level and away you go with warm feet.

The effective battery life depends on the temperature setting that you use, and ranges from about 7-8 hours at the lowest setting to around 1 hour at the highest.

You also get a plug-in mains charger that will charge both battery packs at the same time (overnight for a full charge) and an extremely comprehensive book of instructions. Everything appears to be solidly made and well put together, and according to the instructions neither the battery packs nor the insoles should be affected by a good soaking in the rain. You even get a 3-year warranty.

Fitting them was an initial ten minute job to trim the insoles to fit my boots, and then it took about a minute to install them before use. They made no difference to the feel of the boots when I was wearing them, apart from the warmth that is! You certainly don't notice the cable running under the sole and up the back of the boot or battery pack clipped to the top.

These heated insoles are an extremely effective way to keep your feet warm in the cold British winter weather, and if you're an all-year-round rider then you should certainly consider getting a pair. So I suppose I ought to tell you where I got them. They came from the German mail-order firm Tchibo, but before you dash off to order the ferry tickets, you won't have to go and live in Berlin to get them to deliver. They've been operating in the UK for a number or years now, and you can order on-line at www.tchibo.co.uk. They also have a number of retail outlets around the country, so if there's one close to you then you could buy over the counter and save on the postage.

And the price? £27.99 + £3.95 P&P.

That's got to be good value in anyone's book.

DH