Heated gear questions

[colorider]

I'd like to echo those sentiments. Heated cloting and grips probably rank among the top mod's I've done to any bike.

Heated grips is usually the first mod I make to every motorcycle I have owned over the last 15 or so years. This will be my first exposure to other heated gear. Looking forward to it, after about 45 years of riding!!!

 

[Tremor38]

Heated grips is usually the first mod I make to every motorcycle I have owned over the last 15 or so years. This will be my first exposure to other heated gear. Looking forward to it, after about 45 years of riding!!!

You will wonder, as I did, why you waited so long!

I've had the recurring thought of adding heated gloves lately, but the extra connectors to hook-up added to the normal prep for a ride is kind of a turn-off at this point. We shut off all heat in a Japanese house prior to going to bed, and putting your fingers into a frozen pair of gloves in the morning is not the greatest feeling. If I get up on time, I put my gloves in front of a heater while I get ready.

I think plugging in the first glove would be 'easy peasy,' but second might be a PITA...or do you just allow enough slack in the wires to plug them in prior to putting on the gloves? Maybe somebody who has heated gloves can provided some insight.

 

[keeponriding]

I swore by my heated vest and gloves when I was commuting in the Bay Area..with early morning temps down to 28, it kept me warm and toasty. The only disadvantage was the wires...which occasionally popped loose and kind of wrapped around. The plug popped out on one ride and melted against the pipe.

Echoing tremor38, I now have a battery operated EXO2 vest, under my Darien jacket (with liner)...warmth without the wires....it works great. Battery pack lasts about 4 hours on medium low heat (sounds like a cooking show)...long enough to cut the chill in the morning and keep the core warm. I'm now on the lookout for good battery powered MC gloves.

Here's the link to the EXO2 vest and battery combo: http://www.renazcoracing.com/index.cfm?Action=ViewCategory&Category=10022&CartToken=0000

I received mine within a week of ordering.

 

[colorider]

You will wonder, as I did, why you waited so long!

So, 45 years is too long?

Virtually all the people I ride with have heated gear and always ask me why I don't as well. Normally, if my hands are warm, I'm okay - but as I get older, it seems I don't handle the cold as I once did (kinda like I'm not as fast as I think I was when younger). Still, I will take riding in the cold ANY day over riding in extreme heat. ::001::

 

[rem]

Same here. It rarely gets super hot here. Couple summers ago it got up into the 90's. That was brutal. On the way back from Skagway one day I had to strip down to my T shirt. I didn't like it, but I was starting to get nauseated from the heat. Even then, I was uncomfortable. It doesn't happen often up here. 75 degrees F is considered a HOT summer day. I'm a tad uncomfortable at those temperatures. 60 to 65 is my optimum comfort zone. R

 

[stevepsd]

'Tour Lite women's heated liner with controller...65-75 Watts.'
http://www.warmnsafe.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=245

I was comparing the regular jacket, not the 'lite', since Gerbing does not make a 'lite' unless you consider a vest a 'lite' jacket...which only draws 54 watts.
Warm-n-safe Gen 4 heated jacket, 90 watts. Gerbing jacket 77 watts.

http://www.warmnsafe.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=101&products_id=255

Not arguing. Just stating facts.

 

[vnp514]

So, 45 years is too long?

Virtually all the people I ride with have heated gear and always ask me why I don't as well. Normally, if my hands are warm, I'm okay - but as I get older, it seems I don't handle the cold as I once did (kinda like I'm not as fast as I think I was when younger).

Plus 1

Great thread! I too have only had heated grips-never any type of heated clothing. When it comes to hooking all this electric "stuff" to the bike, I'm at a loss. I didn't get the Yamaha heated grips. For me, I just couldn't swallow the price. So I still need grips. Heated jacket? Yep, that's on the list too. Do I need heated gloves if I have heated grips? Maybe. If I can keep my upper body warm(and dry), I'm good to go. But how do you hook all this up to the bike? There is a fuze box thing a ma jig that different people sell. From reading, it looks like they have different ways of hooking things up. Do I need to decide on what type of heated gear I need first then get the connectors?? I'd just as soon not short out my brand new bike doing all this. Anybody help out an electric idiot out??

Pete

 

[elizilla]

You know better than to argue with a women

Why argue when you can just trot out some hackneyed silencing tactic? :lamp:

I think plugging in the first glove would be 'easy peasy,' but second might be a PITA...or do you just allow enough slack in the wires to plug them in prior to putting on the gloves? Maybe somebody who has heated gloves can provided some insight.

If you plug the gloves into those plugs on the end of the jacket sleeves, it's exactly that much PITA. People who do that, have more tolerance for fiddling with their gear, than I do. I just use the separate harness. This makes the gloves act like those "idiot strings" used to keep small children from losing their mittens.

When I had the 'stich I routed the glove wires out the underarm vents. They zip closed just fine with the wires.

I'm still not crazy about the heated gloves. Bulk, fuss, etc. I have the heated grips and I think I'll make some insulating shield/mitt things to velcro to the hand guards, sort of a cross between hippo hands and larger handguards.

I eventually just cut off the ends of the glove harness in the sleeves of my old Gerbing, since they're useless and the lumps on my wrists made pressure points under my glove cuffs. The newer Gerbings, and the Warmnsafe, have little zippered pockets for those glove harnesses. Not as lumpy so I haven't removed 'em (yet), but still, useless. I think that this mania for putting useless little zippered pockets on sleeves, is where the designers of practical clothing vent their frustration at not getting into couture fashion design.

I was comparing the regular jacket, not the 'lite', since Gerbing does not make a 'lite' unless you consider a vest a 'lite' jacket...which only draws 54 watts.
Warm-n-safe Gen 4 heated jacket, 90 watts. Gerbing jacket 77 watts.

http://www.warmnsafe.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=101&products_id=255

Not arguing. Just stating facts.

May be true. I haven't looked lately. The warmnsafe jacket I have is several years old, maybe gen 1 or 2. It might even be a lite.

I see that the frustrated couturers have added reflective piping; the useless sleeve pockets weren't enough. I wonder how lumpy that piping is?

 

[markjenn]

You'll find proponents of both heated grips and heated gloves, and probably a few who think both are a good idea. Heated gloves are more efficient and definitely the way to go for brutally cold as the effectiveness of heated grips starts to wane when it gets really cold and you have to start wearing insulated gloves that don't allow the grip heat to reach your hands. But for the 35-60 degree weather that most of us ride in, heated grips work well and don't have the hookup hassles.

Also heated grips dramatically extend the comfort range of your regular gloves. With heated grips, I can continue to wear my regular gloves down to 50 or so and have the best protection, comfort, and control. Without the grips, I'd have to put on bulky and less protective gloves much earlier.

- Mark

 

[rem]

In climes such as mine, the heated grips are basically mandatory. Even during the summer, an early morning takeoff can see temps of 36 °F, but you know the weather will begin to warm up soon, and there is little need for super heavy, super warm gear. That same day may end up seeing 75 degrees. Very common. The heated grips take the edge off and as the day grows warmer, you just turn them down, or off eventually.


Also, it is not uncommon to be riding along at room temperature or better, and be confronted with a shower or local disturbance, where the temperature can drop 20 °F. Or up through a mountain pass. One day on the way to Haines, it went from 20 °C to 8 °C in about 5 minutes, snowing, etc., Yech !!!!! 15 minutes later, back to 20. The heated grips saved the day and I was able to just keep on trucking .... uh, biking. R

 

[digitalmoto]

I've got a couple Vanson Streamliners. An old orange/black one and a newer lime green/black one that I special ordered with an extralong tail.
http://www.vansonleathers.com/prod-2ST_Steamliner-537.aspx?

I've had the orange one for over 8 years. Works great and super thin. It snaps into my Cobra 2, but I rarely wear it that way. It fits nicely under my Dainese Stripes jacket and just about anything else I want to wear it with.

The lime green one is maybe 5 years old. It has removable sleeves. It's bulky because Vanson's supplier dropped their microthin insulation. This is my "normal" middle layer when I'm wearing my Kilimonjaro. It also makes a good off bike jacket.

Both are windproof and have laced sides so I can get a snug fit.

My wife has a Widder without a collar.

All three vests use the Widder plug.

 

[Tremor38]

Why argue when you can just trot out some hackneyed silencing tactic? :lamp:

No tactices here, just an ill-fated attempt at humor, but I digress. Thanks for the first-hand perspective regarding heated gloves. Now let me 'trot' out of your path, lumpy ;D

 

[dastard]

My heated gloves experience was a 6 hour sub 40deg ride in Mo and Ok in March. For starters, the gloves were gauntlet gloves and the plug was on the outside so if you ran wires down the sleeves of the jacket you then had to snake them back up over the jacket/under the gauntlet, then over the gauntlet to plug them in. On top of that the controller for TourTech gloves is on one glove so you have two wires running down one sleeve (wire 1, power for gloves, plugged into the controller, wire 2 power for other glove). Running the wires outside was an option but then you had wires flapping around everywhere. Overall, my heated gloves were a PAIN IN THE ASS, bulky wires, bulky controllers, poor wire routing etc.

The problem I encountered was wearing waterproof gloves with hot hands (I could not find the sweet spot so had to go with too hot, or too cold, I usually chose too hot) for 6 hours. My fingers looked like prunes and I had hangnails from hell because the sweat was going nowhere and just soaking my hands. I now go with grips instead of the gloves.

By the way. My Gerbing vest worked wonderfully and my tree stand socks kept my toes warm until the batteries died.

If someone would make some gloves with a magnetic cable (kind of like Mac computers) I think they would have a winner, get it close enough and then the magnets take it the rest of the way. Easy to connect/unconnect, short(er) wires required, but could they make it weather proof?

I am currently looking for a good pair of gloves that are insulated on the backs but with non-insulated palms. Anybody know of any?

 

[tkad]

currently, I run a tourmaster heated liner (sleeves included) and hot grips powered by the warm and safe heat troller. I notice that many run vests, with or without sleeves, I must note that heated sleeves are very nice to have but oddly, seem to be a smaller part of the market?? one nice part of the heated liner is that it is wired for heated gloves, which I will aquire at some point, never known anyone that said they had too much heated gear while riding in rotten conditions. one choice that I may have made differently is to buy the dual output heat troller as it is compatable with the synergy jacket (with available adapter from warm and safe). it's currently clear this morning and -3c (26f) and I am looking forward to getting out for a ride. with heated gear, the line is now drawn in the snow.

 

[tomatocity]

currently, I run a tourmaster heated liner (sleeves included) and hot grips powered by the warm and safe heat troller. I notice that many run vests, with or without sleeves, I must note that heated sleeves are very nice to have but oddly, seem to be a smaller part of the market?? one nice part of the heated liner is that it is wired for heated gloves, which I will aquire at some point, never known anyone that said they had too much heated gear while riding in rotten conditions. one choice that I may have made differently is to buy the dual output heat troller as it is compatable with the synergy jacket (with available adapter from warm and safe). it's currently clear this morning and -3c (26f) and I am looking forward to getting out for a ride. with heated gear, the line is now drawn in the snow.

I have the Tourmaster long sleeve heated liner and it works very well. A big plus is you can use it as a light weight zip-up jacket when not on the motorcycle.

 

[elizilla]

I am currently looking for a good pair of gloves that are insulated on the backs but with non-insulated palms. Anybody know of any?

Held Warm&Dry. http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/held-warm-n-dry-gloves

 

[rem]

I have seen those before, but couldn't remember the brand. They sure seem pricey, though. I dunno ....... In January at the Calgary Motorcycle Show, I bought a set of gloves with a waterproof, windproof cover. The cover tucks into a zippered compartment in the wrist covering (gauntlet?). It's amazing how much warmer that makes the glove overall. The covering only has three appendages ... thumb, index and one more for the other three fingers. A simple and (fairly) cheap solution in most cases. R

 

[elizilla]

I'm a big fan of Held gloves so I bought some. They're pretty good. My totally subjective feeling is that they are warmer than bulky gloves. I don't think they are warmer than regular gloves in a lobster paw glove cover like Rem describes, though, and they're pretty expensive. They do give better control feel than the glove covers, but then, glove covers are easier to carry. It's all tradeoffs, I guess.

 

[colorider]

I have seen those before, but couldn't remember the brand. They sure seem pricey, though. I dunno ....... In January at the Calgary Motorcycle Show, I bought a set of gloves with a waterproof, windproof cover. The cover tucks into a zippered compartment in the wrist covering (gauntlet?). It's amazing how much warmer that makes the glove overall. The covering only has three appendages ... thumb, index and one more for the other three fingers. A simple and (fairly) cheap solution in most cases. R

Sounds like the offering from Aerostich,although others may offer them now as well. I too have heard good things about them.