I have a Gerbing jacket I bought at the Cleveland motorcycle show in 1999. I remember it specifically because I rode to the show on a brisk sunny January day, and at the time it was about as far from home as I'd ever gone. (I'd been riding for less than a year.) It was darn cold, even wearing all my ski gear. I bought the jacket and installed the harness that evening at my friend's house in Cleveland. The ride home was SO much easier than the ride out. It was so fabulous that two weeks later I made my first ride to Deal's Gap. It was the first weekend in February, and I had it to myself in spite of the great weather for that season. I rode well past dark on the way home, and got up next morning to see about 8 inches of new snow in my front yard. Without the Gerbing jacket I'd have had to stop for the night when it got dark, and I'd have been stranded in Ohio somewhere, unable to get home the next day. Heated gear has formed part of my kit ever since, and I bet I have ridden about a third more miles over the years than I would have otherwise, simply because I have it.
Anyway, I still have that jacket and it still works just fine. But it's been demoted to loaner status, as I have bought a series of newer jackets over the years, always looking for the elusive perfection. My main gripe about that old Gerbing is the cut. It's a men's jacket and it has elastic around the hem, which falls at the widest part of my hips. As a result, it slides up and bunches a lot of the heating wire at the waist. It takes a lot of tucking and arranging to get this badly fitting jacket laid over my body properly under my gear, and if I am not careful how I move, it gets bunched up again. Also, the connector that plugs to the bike, is on the inside near my left waist, so the left front tail is constantly getting pulled into a big lump by this wire that has to be threaded around the bottom of the jacket and back up out and over the waistband of my pants.
My old Gerbing uses more power for the effective heating it provide, because of the fit issues. These jackets are all pumping out the same amount of heat per watt - there's no technology going to change that, because the textbook definition of where you lose efficiency in this type of system, is that it gets radiated as heat. And that's the whole POINT with a heated jacket. The place to find better efficiency is in the distribution of that heat. In the case of this Gerbing, a large portion of the heat is probably being lost to heating air in the corners of my jacket where it doesn't actually go into my body.
So I added a Warmnsafe jacket to my gear closet. It has a women's cut, yay! This jacket uses a lot less power, and it's much easier to put on, because it actually fits decently, it's not all lumpy. I'd say half of the power savings is because it's not heating anything except me. I am getting maximum comfort per watt used. But it's also not keeping me as warm as the Gerbing - the other half of the power savings comes from the fact there are a lot more cold spots. The jacket doesn't heat my lower back and the upper part of my butt the way the Gerbing did - it stops at the waist. Also, there are wires that run across the back of my shoulder blades and press uncomfortably under the shoulder armor in my leathers. I don't notice them with the textile gear but in the leathers they bug me. One thing that I really like about the Warmsafe, though, is that the wire to hook it to the bike, is on the outside. SO much easier!
Last year I bought a Powerlet jacket. This is a men's cut again, but it's much less sloppy than the Gerbing, and doesn't have that awful elastic at the waist, so it's less of a battle to tuck in the tails. They have unfortunately followed Gerbing's lead and put the wire to plug it in, back in that annoying inside spot. I continue to not understand why manufacturers do this. You're not plugging the jacket into your stomach - you plug it into the bike - put the plug on the outside!!! I actually wrote to Powerlet about it and the guy I talked to said that other customers (men, I assume) think this inside location is good. Apparently it's less of a hassle when you have a body shape that matches the jacket better; you don't have to fight so hard to keep the tails tucked in. The guy at Powerlet was surprised to hear I was tucking the jacket into my pants. Apparently men don't do that. If I didn't tuck it in, I'd lose a third of the heat! I suggested they consider putting the connector on the outside, if they ever make a women's version. My other gripe about the Powerlet jacket is that the outer shell is made of a fabric with a sort of rubberized texture. It feels "quality". But the truth is, it's too sticky, and your other gear won't slide on easily over it. But once again, if you have better fitting gear, that you don't have to struggle to get in place on your body, maybe it won't be so annoying. I can recommend the heating elements they use, though, and the heat distribution. Those aspects are best in class, IMHO. I'm taking my Super10 to Powerlet next week so they can design bike specific kits for it, and when I'm there I'm going to offer some heated jacket suggestions. I mean, they are already getting the difficult parts perfect! Putting the plug on the outside is easy.
I have several of the Warmnsafe SAE controllers, acquired years ago when they were the standard. Rod, if you want one, PM me - I'm sure we can work something out. My newer jackets are all coax; I should bite the bullet and get newer coax controllers instead of continuing to use adapters.
