Wrapping alloy brifters for cold weather I have a bike with alloy brifters that get very cold during winter season riding.  I wear a nice pair of gloves and the cold comes right through because my hands are wrapped around them and usually in constant contact with some part of the alloy brake lever or the alloy shift paddle (Rival 22 Hydro).  This gets uncomfortable, as I'm sure many others have found while riding in the cold.



This is not a problem at all when I'm riding my bike with carbon and/or plastic brifters.

I know why this happens and my question is what and how can I wrap the levers with in order to mitigate the conduction from them to my fingers in cold weather?

I'm concerned with interfering with the motion of the paddles and levers.  I don't want them to be sticking or missing shifts because there is some bulky tape wrapped around them.

Are there any materials and methods others have used successfully? Also, I'm not really interested in bar mits as a solution.
Do you care about originality ?  Consider changing the brifters for something made from plastic or carbon because as you've noted, they don't suffer the same issue.  Likely to be an expensive solution.

So, can you paint your brifter's outside surfaces with an acrylic enamel paint?  you'll need many thin coats to build up a thick layer that won't abrade easily.  Sand between coats and add some clear coats as the top layer.  Avoid painting "under" the brake lever where it faces the gear change lever.

Instead of paint, you might choose to use a product called Plastidip, which historically was used for dipping tool handles, but more recently comes in a spray can and has been used for car wheel rims, etc.  This stuff comes in multiple colours.

You can also get sticky-backed cork tiles/sheet which is under 2mm thick.  Some creative pattern work and you should be able to put some heat-insulating cork between you and the cold bits.  Do apply sealant/varnish to the cork to protect it from the cold.

Leather is another valid alternative to cork.

Finally, you wear gloves already, so assume they are full-finger.  You could add heating wires to the gloves and run them off a small USB battery in your back pocket, or add heating wires to the brifters themselves and mount the battery on the bike frame.

If you do get a choice of colour, I'd suggest black, or as dark as possible to increase heat insolation from any sunlight.