Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => Accessories and modifications - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: roadie on October 22, 2011, 04:41:48 PM
-
So last year I got a pair of Gerbing buckskin heated gloves for Christmas. This year I upgraded to the T-5 gloves and today picked up a jacket liner. I've got the dual controller and adaptor to run the setup through the utility plug. I might go ahead and connect the fused lead to my fuze block...dunno. I never use the utility plug for anything but the heated kit since TomTom is hard wired, and phone, well, have a "strap-on" battery on the iphone so it stays juiced triple the normal battery life. Anyway, I'm rambling....real reason for this post:
Gerbing heated jacket liner...Hate it or love it?? Interested in hearing any perspectives.
PS: nice thing about winter driving is I don't have to fight for moto parking spots in DC :-) as the fair weather riders shift to cages or buses. Connie stands proudly solo most days in the brutal weather right across the street from the White House.
-
I have the jacket liner and gloves. My wife uses the pants and socks. When it gets below 60 I don't leave home without them. Best purchase I ever made.
-
Love it. Last year was the first time I used the liner. Heat without bulk.. Good stuff.
-
Great gear.
-
Excellent stuff, that heated gear.
-darrell
-
I've got the Warm and Safe liner and gloves running off a Gerbing dual controller. Just ran with gloves for a year, but got the liner last year. Best purchase. It really helps when it's 15 degrees out on 66. I don't have to bulk up with an extra sweat shirt.
-
+1 on the Warm N Safe gear, I have the pants, jacket liner and gloves.... Don't ride below 60 degrees without em! :)
-
After hemming and hawing for three years, I finally bought a heated jacked liner and soles a year and a half ago. The soles are pretty much worthless, but today I'd pay double for the liner if I had to. It revolutionizes winter riding. My friend I ride with now kid each other that we can't wait for cold weather because of our heated gear.
-
I hear all good things about Gerbings, though I have First Gear.
Look for the Made in USA tag on the Gerbings, this alone will make me buy Gerbings next time.
They pulled work out of China and brought back to the USA, that alone deserves support!
-
I hear all good things about Gerbings, though I have First Gear.
Look for the Made in USA tag on the Gerbings, this alone will make me buy Gerbings next time.
They pulled work out of China and brought back to the USA, that alone deserves support!
I never really looked for a Made In The USA label, but these last few years have really swayed me. I'm happy to wear a Gerbings heated jacket liner that says Made in the U S of A and a pair of overpants that say the same.
The feedback about their products say it all, great customer service, competitive pricing, and unmatched performance.
I've found myself more and more looking for the label to assure my content with the product I'm buying. The label does make a difference.
Now, I know we're all riding import bikes, but, I've givin the top US manufacturer the chance. They couldn't compete. And until one can, I'll ride what I ride. There once was a label that was striving to outperform the imports, but an unnamed company mothballed them. I won't name names, but the Buell I own was manufactured by them.
-darrell
-
I HIGHLY recommend this gentleman if you decide on Gerbings. Customer service is OUTSTANDING.
http://www.heatedclothing4you.com/ (http://www.heatedclothing4you.com/)
-
I love my jacket liner, pant liner and gloves. I also love the looks I get while riding in cold weather.
-
I've got the full Gerbing setup. T5 gloves, full liner, and insoles. The gloves and liner are great. The insoles so so. I have a second portable controller that I use to power the insoles separately, which seems to work better.
The insoles have to be at a higher power level than gloves or liner because it’s not direct heat. If I had a choice I’d go with heated socks but Gerbing doesn’t make them any more.
Buy a dual controller, you’ll want the liner and gloves at different settings. Ideally you want to be just comfortable not too cold, not too hot. Rarely will you use full power.
I went with a portable dual controller Velcroed and zip tied to the top of the clutch reservoir. The cables from the controller are at the bottom of the left handlebar for easy plug in. Buy the coiled cable extensions, they work much better.
-
Do not know if anyone is aware of this but Gerbing will also customize your liner, I.E. Send them the liner from your jacket and they will add the wiring and coax plugs to it making it a perfect fit for your zip-in liner/coat combination. I have not done this, I seem to forget to send mine in every spring, so I can not comment on the effectiveness but it is another option....
-
Not below 60 without heated gear????
It was 45 (43-48) on my commute to work yesterday morning. Drove 85 miles of mostly interstate. Tourmaster Sonora jacket with the liners over a short sleeve Polo. Olympia riding pants without the liner over my jeans. Standard gauntlet style race style gloves and Shift riding shoes. I was comfortable enough with the stock screen in full up position.
Of course, those 2011 stock heated grips along with off/on use of the heated Corbin seat helped a lot.
-
Not below 60 without heated gear????
It was 45 (43-48) on my commute to work yesterday morning. Drove 85 miles of mostly interstate. Tourmaster Sonora jacket with the liners over a short sleeve Polo. Olympia riding pants without the liner over my jeans. Standard gauntlet style race style gloves and Shift riding shoes. I was comfortable enough with the stock screen in full up position.
Of course, those 2011 stock heated grips along with off/on use of the heated Corbin seat helped a lot.
Dude, its soooo nice though with the heat. I think the other poster has the same euphoric feeling I get when you get to bust out the heated gear. Just waiting for the weather to drop enough to feel the heat. I love it.
I just plugged mine in to test it. Super nice...Can't wait. Last year was brutal, but actually looking forward to commute now in 10 F.
-
10F might be a little cold although I have ridden my C-14 (with my wife!) in 11F weather. That was about the limit of Gerbings too, at least with light street clothes under them and nothing else. Something like rain gear on top of the outer clothing probably would have made it better but there must be some practical limit, right? ;)
My wife and I both have Gerbing jacket liners, outer pants, gloves and WarmGear heated socks. All of it works extremely well although occasionally the socks allow the wires to slip out of the material and make loops, which in turn will burn our feet. Once the wires are re-woven through the socks all is well again.
The only downside to wearing heated gear is that it can and occasionally will fail and depending on how you are dressed, it might make it impossible to continue. I got stuck once in mid- 20F weather when the connector on the heated gear controller failed; we were about 40 miles from home and I could not ride that far without heated clothing as I was otherwise dressed pretty lightly. I actually stopped at a local Radio Shack, bought a connector and a roll of electrical tape, borrowed a knife and re-wired the end of the controller in the store. It was ugly but worked well until I could replace it with a <real> connector. I would suggest you dress a little heavier than you absolutely have to if you are counting on heated clothing and have any appreciable distance to cover, especially if traveling at high speed on the highway.
Brian
Dude, its soooo nice though with the heat. I think the other poster has the same euphoric feeling I get when you get to bust out the heated gear. Just waiting for the weather to drop enough to feel the heat. I love it.
I just plugged mine in to test it. Super nice...Can't wait. Last year was brutal, but actually looking forward to commute now in 10 F.
-
Your wife is a real trooper to ride, let alone in 11F weather. Hat's off to her.
-
You guys rock! I enjoy the heated gear too. It got down to 37 Fri night on the girl and I which isn't much, but if it'd have been 11F we'd have still dunnit too (http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j180/stevewfl/bigthumb.gif)
-
I did the 1k Iron Butt in the mid 30's and raining, the heated gear was great until the fuse blew. I have NEVER taken an off ramp so fast in my life! Got the fuse replaced in about 3 minutes and got back on the road.
-
I routinely ride down into the upper 40's with just the liner in my jacket and a pair of insulated gauntlets. It's only a twenty minute ride into work for me, but that's at 70mph on the freeway. Honestly, I could ride for hours like that. If it gets colder than that, I swap out my regular gear for an insulated suit by FirstGear. I can easily ride into the 20's and 30's with it. I cannot wear that suit if it's warmer than 50 degrees because it is way too hot.
Of course, I've never used heated gear so it is entirely possible that it is really great and I just don't know it. Here in Texas I just can't justify it, though.
-
The only downside to wearing heated gear is that it can and occasionally will fail and depending on how you are dressed, it might make it impossible to continue. I got stuck once in mid- 20F weather when the connector on the heated gear controller failed; we were about 40 miles from home and I could not ride that far without heated clothing as I was otherwise dressed pretty lightly. I actually stopped at a local Radio Shack, bought a connector and a roll of electrical tape, borrowed a knife and re-wired the end of the controller in the store. It was ugly but worked well until I could replace it with a <real> connector. I would suggest you dress a little heavier than you absolutely have to if you are counting on heated clothing and have any appreciable distance to cover, especially if traveling at high speed on the highway.
Brian
:thumbs: :chugbeer:
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb336/jaywilcox/dkfjoiiuw.jpg)
-
I routinely ride down into the upper 40's with just the liner in my jacket and a pair of insulated gauntlets. It's only a twenty minute ride into work for me, but that's at 70mph on the freeway. Honestly, I could ride for hours like that. If it gets colder than that, I swap out my regular gear for an insulated suit by FirstGear. I can easily ride into the 20's and 30's with it. I cannot wear that suit if it's warmer than 50 degrees because it is way too hot.
Of course, I've never used heated gear so it is entirely possible that it is really great and I just don't know it. Here in Texas I just can't justify it, though.
I'm in Texas too, but I normally try to do my riding between 45 and 100 degrees F, although I have pushed both ends by as much as 10 degrees. This past summer almost all of my riding took place before 11:00 a.m.
I would like to have a heated vest though. Might be able to get a few more weeks of riding.
-
Don't bother with a vest. Buy a liner instead. Warm torso, cold arms = no fun.
-
Don't bother with a vest. Buy a liner instead. Warm torso, cold arms = no fun.
My Wife has a vest and loves it...
-
Yeah, she is- thanks.
There is more to that story: we ended up getting stuck that night and had to call a flat- bed to tow the bike home. You should have seen the look on the truck driver's face, especially when I asked him if he was going to pick up the other stuck bike too :-) :-) . It turned out that I was trying to draw far too much current through the main fuse (my fault, not the bike's) and it opened on that ride because we were using the heated clothes near and sometimes at, 100% output. I was drawing close to 50 amps through a 30 amp fuse. That is why I mentioned wearing heavier clothing than you absolutely need when using heated clothes.... if the heat does not work, the clothes themselves have to keep you from freezing to death. We were not dressed for that and the wait for the tow was pretty long and cold although I did give Andrea a few minutes of heat from the bike's battery.
Brian
Your wife is a real trooper to ride, let alone in 11F weather. Hat's off to her.
-
Brian, that musta been terrible and lesson learned for me for sure. So now do you always use a 50 amp fuse? Or running a separate controller and circuit for Andrea?
-
I use an older 77w Gerbing jacket liner (non-micro wire) and set of 25w Gerbing ATV gloves. I can ride indefinitely down to freezing. Don't know about colder than that because of fears of ice when below freezing. Have been out in 28F for a couple hours and did fine.
Dual controller was a must. Gloves wouldn't get hot enough on a single. When gloves warm enough, jacket roasting.
Heated gear has been the best motorcycle accessory I've ever purchased by far.
-
No, still using a 30 amp fuse, just re-wired my gear to spread the load around a little bit.
I had wired all of our heated gear directly to the battery, which might have been OK but certainly a full load on that fuse. But I also powered the new headlights (HIDs) directly from the battery too. The main fuse in the bike, the one that is hiding behind the battery, is in the circuit between the battery and the rest of the bike other than the starter motor. So once the bike was running I was drawing all the current for all heated clothing and the headlights (somewhere around 31 amps) as well as whatever current the battery was using to charge from the alternator (guessing 5 to 10 amps) through that 30 amp fuse. No wonder it popped. What I did was to remove the whip for Andrea's heated clothes from the battery side and put it on the alternator side, which is the other side of the fuse. The bike still has to power everything from the alternator of course but the power to run her heated gear no longer passes through that fuse.
We have always had out own heated gear controllers but now they have different sources for power from the bike.
By the way, the only thing left on the bike that worked after the main fused opened was.... the heated gear. ;)
This is what the bike looks like with an open main fuse....
(http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f82/BDF08012008/Bikeonflatbed.jpg)
Brian
Bian, that musta been terrible and lesson learned for me for sure. So now do you always use a 50 amp fuse? Or running a separate controller and circuit for Andrea?
-
This is what the bike looks like with an open main fuse...
It's not that bad, if it wasn't for the bazooka. Did you get rid of it?
-
I got my Gerbing's jacket liner 3 years ago. I spent the whole first winter walking around kicking my own butt for not doing this earlier!
-
Solve one problem walk into another........
If you ride in colder weather, your faceshield fogs up. You might also want to think about anti-fog treaments or some other way to be fog free. I bought a pinlock visor for my RF-1100.
-
If a pinlock is available for your helmet, definitely go for it. If not, I had pretty good luck with a universal stick-on from Fog-City. Of course you'll want to buy a second visor for your helmet, so you can take the Fog-City visor off in the spring, but it works pretty well at controlling visor fog. (Doesn't help with your glasses though.)
Love my Gerbing liner, and my First Gear gloves. Ride year round now, only stop for heavy precip, regardless of the temp.
-
i've blown my farkle budget for the month. glad Nov is right around the corner.