| Author | Message | ||
     Pyrogen |
I was reading through the search results and many archives while trying to decide the best heated gear combo for me. I still have questions though. First. I live just north of Dallas, TX. Lately the temps have been around 40 F when I get off work at 12:30am and its a 45min ride from work to home. My hands are cold even with thick winter gloves(wind protection?), I have a shempa pharoh 2 deluxe baclava(works great), and to stay on the warm side of comfortable I have my leather Joe Rocket jacket, a fleece jacket, normal t-shirt, and old school thermal underwear. For the bottoms, blue jeans, wind pants, and same old school thermal underpants and my normal draws. At 40 deg F. My knees and thighs get pretty cold, my fingers get pretty cold but my head/face and body/arms are fine. My goal is to increase warmth to -my legs, maybe just need better wind protection? -hands, heated gloves vs grips, which is better? and I want to decrease the bulk of my upper body. I don't want a lot of bulk anywhere, just uncomfortable to ride and I feel its not safe. What suggestions? I am looking at the First gear heated carbon gloves, jacket liner, and am undecided on the pants. Should I get a better thermal layer and an over pant? | ||
| Dreso1021 |
im not sure about heated gloves and stuff but for ur legs a pair of regular snobard/ski pants will suffice with thermal underwear underneath. | ||
| D_adams |
Gerbing heated jacket liner and the T-5 gloves with a dual temp controller. Huge difference in ride comfort. I might get pants later, leathers have done fine for me down to 25F. | ||
| Azxb9r |
Heated gloves are fantastic, heated liners are nice too and they do not add much bulk. I have a pair of MotoGP insulated/windproof pants that I got from New enough. They are very warm, it does not take much insulation if you can block the wind. | ||
| Daniii |
I rode the CR last winter in Texas, when it was 20F. Gerbing jacket and gloves, mounted the temp controller just below the seat in the right hand hole in the side. Simplifies the get-on/off process. Never a cold issue. | ||
| Jdugger |
The Tourmaster Synergy stuff is nice, and Moto Liberty stocks it, generally. | ||
| Black |
Let's just say it...heated gear is for cup cakes! Yes, I said it.....cup cakes! Now, when you are so cold that you can't tell whether you have the clutch pulled in....other than your bike didn't shut down when you stopped....it is also alright to know that it is ok to be a cup cake! The days I feel like being a cup cake.....I go with Gerbing. Alright, I'm kidding about the cup cake thing......About Gerbing, I'm not kidding at all. | ||
| Ratbuell |
40s or above, heated grips are great. Awesome for those days when you just don't get home before sundown and there's a chill to the air - and you can never forget to take them with you! Below 40, I have heated gloves and a jacket liner. Gloves on low, grips on low, jacket in the middle, and I always wear textile outerwear because it's more temp-neutral. Leather magnifies ambient - when it's cold out, leather is COLD. When it's hot...leather cooks. Textile, though, stays neutral no matter what and I like it better for that. Tee shirt, heated jacket liner, Bolt outer jacket. Done. I'm good down into the 20s like that. No bulk, no Michelin-Man outfit, nice easy movement. | ||
| Xb1200rick |
The best thing about the heated jacket liner.. No bulky stuffing.. don't have to worry about how many layers you will need to keep warm throughout the day. I have some textile pants with a quilted liner and top to bottom zippers for over pants. You can step out of them in 2 minutes . Heated grips are great too. | ||
| Captainkgb |
I ride in the winter with firstgear heated gloves, Jaunt textile jacket with liner and ht overpants with liner. My toes get a little cold in my leather work boots, not big enough for good thick socks, but everything else is good. To say we have mild winters is an understatement, but it is not unheard of to leave work, for my hour ride home, at 02:30 and have temperatures in the 30s or even high 20s, in outlying areas. YMMV, but I have had very good luck with my gear. | ||
| Blk09r |
I use a heated Gerbing jacket liner under my leathers. The heated liner keeps my body warm and the leathers are a great windbreaker. My legs stay warm down to about 35 degrees. Cupcake | ||
| Steeleagle |
I agree with the posts above 100%: Grips for cool temps, heated gear less than that. But at the risk of highjacking the thread, I WOULD be interested in seeing or hearing about any wiring practices used to tame the copper snake cluster that I end up with for the gear! How do you route wiring, controllers, etc. so it's clean, quick and inconspicuous? ...or is all that really possible? I haven't come up with what I think is the "best" way. | ||
| Zacks |
My .02 (living in WI): I installed the factory heated grips. Downside - can't move them from bike to bike like gloves, but like the man said, can't forget to take them with either. When it gets around 40 and below, some Fieldsheer AquaSports (Thinsulate) on the paws. Very little bulk, but wind proof. Water proof too supposedly - haven't tried. For the torso, a vest from AeroStitch. Nice high heated collar. An Outlast base layer shirt to help spread the heat around. And, a Fieldsheer Cyclone suit over the top. I've pulled the lower liner out since I usually wear leather jeans, and it was too much. This combo, I've been down around 30 and just fine for about an hour. A big help is to get a breath shield and a neck curtain on the helmet. My Arai, Shoei and Bell came with them - don't know about the others. The Aerostich vest plugs into the same jack as the Battery Tender, the only thing is to feed the cord out the top of the leg zipper on the suit. | ||
| Pyrogen |
Awesome input, I really appreciate it. Steeleagle brought up a good question, with your above combos, how do you run your wiring and where do you mount the controller so you aren't tied to the bike or unplug the gear when you move around on the bike? Aside from that, assuming I go with gloves, jacket liner and pants liner, can the charging system on the 09s handle it without having to charge it every night when I get home? Thanks again. | ||
| Ratbuell |
My Uly and S2 have controllers hardwired to the bikes. S1 and CR have the wiring pigtail coming out at the left front corner of the seat; same location for the actual jacket hookups on the other two. All jackets have the hookups at the left hip, so I run all wires there. On the S1 and CR, I just clip my "mobile" controller to my belt, plug to the jacket, and plug to the bike. I can stand on the seat and even get off the bike and stand next to it, without pulling wires. I can get pictures this weekend if folks would like... | ||
| Jdugger |
I use a tender socket that I mounted on the side of the undertail. It serves two purposes -- allows me to easily tender the bike, and allows the easy connection of accessories like heated gear, slime pump, etc. | ||
| Zacks |
How's it wired? The Battery Tender plug comes out the vent behind the left side of the seat. Get on, plug in and go. The grips are factory items, so they're always ready and wired. The Aerostich vest has a long enough coil cord to actually reach the other side, running across me and down the right leg. But since it exits on the left of the vest, I moved the plug to match. Either way, never had a problem with it unplugging accidentally. Did let loose when I forgot it was plugged in and I stepped off. As far as charging... I've had the rotor replaced already and have watched it and there doesn't seem to be any adverse effects. I do typically turn the stuff off about 3-4 miles out since that's when I hit the city speeds and don't need it for the last little bit home. Personally, I've never needed heated pant liners. Found that there's enough ooze heat from the engine/exhaust once you're windproof. You mention your legs get cold, so YMMV. | ||
| Jdugger |
> How's it wired? Fused to the battery, 10A | ||
| Zac4mac |
I just got a pair of "Hippo Hands" and put them on my Uly. They look absolutely goofy, but my initial test ride last night tells me I am going to LOVE them. Took all of 2 minutes to install. It was ~40*F and I turned the grips on low, donned a pair of Bolt gloves. My hands were PERFECTLY warm the whole time. Sorry, no pix... Z | ||
| Steeleagle |
Plug-and-play is straightforward. But I have the extra bells/whistles of separate heat controls for liner/gloves and trying to route wiring is the challenge I was curious about. Ratbuell: I tried that (belt mount) but I struggle to get to the control when it's clipped to my belt and hate having to route the wires. (I have the HD dual unit which is identical to the Gerbing unit.) Another suggestion was clipping to a tank bag. I'm plotting to fab up some kind of tank/airbox arrangement for the controller that is easily removed, but allows plug-and-play for connected gloves/liner. The control unit may lose some lengths of wire in the process! Anybody with other techniques or ideas? | ||
| Ratbuell |
If I have it on my belt, it's on a naked bike (S1W or CR)...so I basically turn it on HIGH and leave it  I do tend to use the waist adjuster belt on the Bolt jacket, though, as opposed to a pants-belt. I fabbed an airbox mount on the Uly; I'll get pics tomorrow. I too use the HD controllers. The S2 has it mounted on top of the dashboard, under the windshield. I had to "stretch" the wires with some heavy duty cord...but it works great and (I think) is routed pretty damn nicely if I do say so myself  I'm considering making a duplicate of the Uly mount for my CR...but that would leave me without a floating controller for the S1W  | ||
| Steeleagle |
Too obvious. I never thought of it. Good idea. Still a lot of wiring flying around, though, so if you would happen to post pix of your Uly setup, I'm interested. I'd be swapping controls between my 1125R and a V-Rod. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Usually I plug the jacket circuits into the controller...and stuff all those wires into a pocket. The only tail is the power lead to the bike at that point. Got garage crap to do tomorrow...posting pics will keep me from trying to overcome a 1991 Dodge Spirit R/T that has a VERY annoying no-crank problem, despite having new...well, EVERYthing in the engine bay. grrrrr. | ||
| Captainkgb |
I have run just my gloves off a battery pack in my jacket pocket, eliminates wiring mess. 10 aa energizer 2300 mah and a holder from msm: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/DISTRIBUTED- BY-MCM-BT00802-/BT00802 Lasts both directions, to and from work 2hrs total. recharges with my yuasa motorcycle battery charger. YMMV | ||
| Ponti1 |
Buell Turbulent gloves and heated grips! | ||
| Daniii |
I tried the Hippo Hands on the V-Rod. Discovered that at speed, the right one pushed against the front brake lever..... | ||
| Zac4mac |
After putting the Hippo Hands on the Uly, forget it . No way they would fit the R, they will stay where they are until June.   Brushguard keeps them from pushing either lever. | ||
| Gs750t |
Have been using Warm And Safe liner and gloves for about 5 years. 1 3m Dual Lock attaches the controller to the tank and power from the sae plug for the battery tender. Same thing on the Uly.  (Message edited by gs750t on November 21, 2010) |
