Hard to believe, I know.
I've tried all kinds of things and spent all kinds of money to stay warm on a bike. I really wish I had gone the powered heated way to begin with. I could have bought more farkles. I run the jacket liner and gloves 99% of the time (Gerbings). I have the pants and the socks as well but they're for subzero weather. The battery stuff is for ski bunnies. Power is the way to go.
Question for you guys:
If I went with these Hybrid ones:
http://gerbing.com/Products/Gloves/hybridGlove.php#
or these: http://gerbing.com/Products/Gloves/T5.php
Question for you guys:
If I went with these Hybrid ones:
http://gerbing.com/Products/Gloves/hybridGlove.php#
Could I power them with this powerlet connection without needing a temp controller? What would the downsides be? Or would I still need to buy a controller??
http://www.powerlet.com/product/powerlet-low-profile-to-coax-female/520
If temp controller still needed, could I use the simple $17 on/off one listed on this link (what would the downsides be?) or would I have to go with the $70 one listed??
http://gerbing.com/Products/tempcontrols.php
Ya, I was looking at those too Sparky, the cost is a little less than the hybrid ones which I guess would help offset some of the cost of the then needed controller...
So more questions for you guys...
At what point would I need to worry about power consumption etc?
I currently have heated Corbin front & rear, gps, radar detector, and heated grips. I don't have a fuzeblock or similar, by adding heated gear would I then need to add a fuzeblock or similar??
http://www.fuzeblocks.com/
Great points and info Brian, thanks!
This is my first time down this road of heated gear, so I appreciate all you guys guiding me down the right path!
I have no experience with those gloves so cannot guess whether or not they might need a controller.
The problem with a switch is having to constantly turn it on and off. The controller basically does that for you; it is called PWM (pulse width modulation) and simulates the gloves (or any clothing) is on some percentage of 100%. As a poor example, you could control the central heat in your house with a simple switch and just turn it on and off as needed but most of us find a thermostat far more convenient.
Brian
For those of us who ride in [not summer, not all beautiful days] conditions, heated gear is like wimminz- there ain't no goin' back.
I think what most people misunderstand about heated clothing is that it does not make riding when it is cool or cold tolerable, it makes it pleasant. When we get to someplace after about October, especially if it is at night, lots of people ask 1) if we're cold 2) how we can stand to ride at XX temp. 3) point out that it will be even colder later in the evening, etc. If someone mentions this before I get out of my gear, I always try to grab that persons' hand and stick it inside my jacket liner before he / she even realizes what is going on and the reaction is always the same- 'my what a body', followed by 'say, it is really warm in there.' Heated clothing is expensive, a pain to put on / take off for riding, requires wiring of the bike, requires some fiddling with a controller, requires plugging in an unplugging each time getting on and off the bike, and is the single greatest thing I have ever found to enhance and extend motorcycle riding. One other thought- a lot of 'tough guys' can power through 20 minutes of riding in fairly cold weather, and even quite cold provided they prepare and dress for it. But spending hours at highway speeds will take heat away from a body no matter what clothing is worn; traveling at better than about 50 MPH at temps. lower than, say, 45 F or so will sap everyone and begin the process of hypothermia. The entire ride becomes one of how far you can go between stops to warm up. Heated clothing simply removes that entire situation from the process; you can ride as far / long as you want without regard to the temperature (speaking within reason here, 25F or 30F is about the low limit for unlimited riding IMO).
I try not to spend other people's money and I do not suggest anyone run out and buy anything because it is not my business. But heated gear is about as close as I normally get to overstepping my bounds; if one is inclined and thinks he / she needs or even seriously could use heated gear, it will probably be one of the best expenditures ever for anyone who would like to either ride more (longer in the year, longer rides) or ride more comfortably. By the way, I live in southern New England where we have 'real' summers and I always bring my heated jacket liner with me on anything longer than a 10 minute trip. There is not a month in the year that I have not used that liner, with heat, usually at night coming home from a fairly long trip that I might have been perspiring the entire way out. Wearing a mesh jacket and having the temp. drop to 62F, it is fantastic putting on the liner and just cracking the controller about 10%. Again, it makes a very tolerable ride into a more pleasant ride.
And no, I do not work for Gerbing or any company that makes heated clothing.
The one downside to heated clothing is that once you are counting on it and it fails, you are really in a corner. I had a controller cord go bad (failed from being bent for years under my jacket) about 50 miles from home when it was in the 30's F. I simply could not have made it home, at least in one continuous ride, without the heated gear (jacket liner, gloves, pants and socks all fed from the same controller so all failed). I stopped in a local Radio Shack, bought a connector and tape, borrowed a knife from the clerk and stood at the counter and made a new harness to get me home.
Brian
Brian
If I don't need the jacket and want to use just the gloves, I carry a wire hookup for just the gloves.
If you wear just the gloves, the harness is best run through the sleeves.
FH,
When using just the heated gloves without the heated jacket do you run that wire up and through your standard jacket and out the sleeves to plug into the gloves or do you just have that wire dangle on the outside?
FH,
When using just the heated gloves without the heated jacket do you run that wire up and through your standard jacket and out the sleeves to plug into the gloves or do you just have that wire dangle on the outside?
Jay, when ya coming up so we can spend some money? You won't be dissapointed. Once ya have the heated jacket, you will always wonder why ya didn't do it sooner. That is a simple fact, not opinion. We can pick em up, come to my place, install the dual contoller, and send ya home a happy man. We can even take some pics down at the lake, make some cover ready shots ;DIf you wear just the gloves, the harness is best run through the sleeves.
Close Karate kid, you will want 2 ports, when the gloves are not being worn one plug is vacant. I will be getting the basic flush mounts, no need for the extra wire. I will be getting the glove liners, I saw Brians on his last trip and to me they are the cats meow, similar in size to my silk liners, which rock BTW, and will allow me to run a thinner glove. I'll keep the FGs for the long running nasty stuff. 3 years and they look like new, sure was happy to have em when I needed em, but the silkies work well enough with the grips.