The Innovators: Handy idea great when it turns cold

Geoff Mason has the answer for chilly mornings on the farm.

Dean Taylor looks at Kiwis' latest inventions

Geoff Mason of Gisborne farmed the East Coast high country for 45 years, so he knows plenty about harsh winter weather and freezing cold hands.

Now, after seven years in his own business, he has finally retired and has time on his hands to do something to keep them warm.

His bike hand warmers came from an idea he hatched in his farming days. "I used to see guys trying to warm their hands from the exhaust on their bikes," Mason says. "I decided to bring the warmth to the hands, rather than having to take the hands to the warmth."

His invention uses commercially available hand warmers for a bike, but with warm air pumped in.

To achieve the desired result, he developed a heat collection device attached to the exhaust.

Most of the development work went into making the collection device into a one-model-fits-all.

Two air lines are fitted, and a small pump circulates the heated air through the gloves and then out. Air off the exhaust enters the device at 200C and cools to about 38C at the handlebars.

Mason says he expected it would take a fair bit of experimenting to get that right but luckily it was close right from the start and needed only minor adjustments.

A handy switch simply turns the pump on and off.

Mason has tested the warmers at his lifestyle block and when taking the quad to fish off one of the nearby beaches.

At the National Fieldays the inventor made an important contact with Steve Dawson of Farm Link Systems, who was keen to take the development further. Mason believes there is nothing else in the world like the warmers and Dawson is looking into design and patent claims.

The plan is to manufacture the product and return to National Fieldays next year.