Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Helmets and Gear Heated clothing

I'm going to buy some heated gloves and maybe jacket liner, arm chaps and legs. I ride 12 months and will be making my annual 1100 mile round trip to Talladega Superspeedway Oct. 3-6. Coming home (550 miles through the Appalachian Mtns. and Tennessee Valley) Sunday night/Monday morning can get me cold to the bone. I want as much heated gear as the '02 America's charging system (with fused charging wire added from the regulator directly to the battery with a .5 volt increase at the battery) and my $$$ will allow. All suggestions as to what, what brand, where from, results, problems, ect. will be appreciated. Thanks, Steve

You might want to look at the webBikeWorld reviews. I bought the Tourmaster Synergy and like it a lot. Can get very hot. See review at http://www.webbikeworld.com/heated-motorcycle-clothing/tourmaster-synergy/vest.htm. Also seems like a good value.

I bought a Gerbing jacket liner this year for my trip to Arizona last May. It worked great and got me through 30's and snow flurries as I left Montana. Definitely get the variable setting controller. I don't think I ever had it on full blast, even going over Monida Pass. I was wearing my Fieldsheer Zero Condition jacket over the top of it. I'll probably get the gloves this winter. My gauntlets with extra "Michael Jackson" glove liners are really only good down to about 40-ish.

Over a couple year's time, I bought the entire Gerbing setup - jacket liner, pants, gloves, socks, and the controller.
Info and opinions:
Our alternators put out 27 amps. My entire outfit listed above requires 15-16 of those. I never had a battery problem but others have when riding in city traffic situations - light to light. You have to get above 2000 rpm's or better to make enough juice to keep the battery up.
I have never had to turn the heat controller beyond halfway even when riding in near freezing temps. The cycling of the solid-state heat controller will make your lights "flicker" as it cycles on and off. This is a little aggravating at night...

I originally bought glove liners instead of gloves. Then I bought the standard gloves. I would recommend getting a gauntlet style glove. The wind can steal the heat as fast as the clothing makes it, so blocking the wind with chaps or a rainsuit will help keep you warmer. A good windproof jacket is essential.
After using this stuff, I have found that I don't use the socks anymore. Keeping the legs and the core warm is usually enough.
Hooking all of this stuff together can be a pain, but being able to ride without freezing makes it worthwhile.

I would also recommend installing the Triumph (or some other brand) accessory socket for ease of use. But you may want to rewire it to the battery with an inline fuse as the stock harness for it goes to a 10 amp fuse in the box. #3 if I remember correctly.

If you want to lower your power consumption to make room for heated clothes, changing out the signals and tail light bulbs to LEDs will help. If you run driving lights, using 35 watt bulbs instead of 55 watt bulbs helps too.

I use a Gerbing jacket, but there are many other great choices too. I would think whatever Aerostitch sells would get the job done too. The battery pack units some manufacturers offer seem like a great idea.

As Gerbing's web site suggests, keeping the jacket tight to the body helps the overall process tremendously. A slightly too small zippered fleece vest helps accomplish this.

Do you mean putting the fleece vest OVER the heated jacket to pull it tight? What do you wear under it? Just a T shirt?

Also, don't forget to pack a couple extra layers on longrides. It would suck to blow a fuse or have it fail somehow and be stuck 100 miles from home without enough layers.

My system worked better after adding the wire, and better once again after adding a ground wire too. If you havent already
G

Where did you run the ground Geoff???

I have a gerbings plug right off the battery...

well, the regulator has 5 wires. The black w/red tracer is positive output, which should go to pos battery. The black with white tracer is the one that should go to battery negative post. The other 3 wires, all black, remain in place and go to the 3 output wires from the alternator. I took the 2 out of the plug, and ran 12 guage wire right back to the battery, and picked up almost a whole volt (.8)
G

Is this "the battery mod" of which I have heard people spake? So basically you are just replacing one wire with a heavier one?

Is there an original thread about that going around? Possibly with some more pics, etc?

Great link! I remember seeing that, but taking a look at the pic it makes a lot more sense now.

Anyone know where you can get refrigerated clothes!!!!!

More Chrome!!!