I ran the gloves on my 250 with no prob...but now i have a liner. Checked the numbers and draw is real close to limit. Wouldn't be concerned but I saw the gloves and liner take down an FZ6 in stop and go traffic (which took 20 minutes before we could restart it). Anyone with experience with this ?

I ran both gloves and liner on the 300 last winter, no issues at all. Crank them up! :thumbup:

If you run them both at 100% continuously, it will be close. But if you are running them with the Gerbing thermostat and run them at somewhere less than 100%, it will likely have enough headroom to never be an issue.

I didn't have a heat troller last winter, the thing gave up the ghost the year before. No issues running it with the on/off switch, who can run them at 100% for more than a few minutes anyway? :eek: I usually have snow mobile pants on and heavy gear over the liner too.

Yeah....sno mo gear really works. OK...so I'm not gonna go to the considerable task ( for me) of installing an ammeter.
thanks guyz

I went to a dealer today to look at heated gear and the customer service blew me away with how helpful they were with my questions and concerns. I am seriously looking at the Gerbing jacket.

For those of you who have it, is there anything major I should know about the jacket before making the plunge?

The vest fits under anything.
The liner is a bit bulky

Figure out where you want to put the temp control knob. You can get a portable one, or a permanently installed one on your bike. If you're only using it with one bike, the on-bike one can be more convenient, as then you're only detaching a simple cord every time you get on or off the bike. The portable one means you need to attach the control unit somewhere on your body each time.

Will the portable one fit in the jacket pocket of whatever i wear over the liner, or is having a belt pouch the easiest way? Or can I just Velcro the controller to the side somewhere?

Is the install of the permanent one fairly straightforward? (drill four holes, plug, and go?)

You need to have easy access to the knob while riding, so you can't hide the whole thing away inside a pocket. I usually clip it on the front pocket of my riding pants, and it works fine. I don't carry anything in that pocket so it doesn't matter that it needs to be left fully unzipped so the clip can go over that flap. (I use a portable one on the sportbikes, and a permanent one on my RT).

I don't think the wiring challenging on the permanent one, but that said, I had the shop install it each time so I'm not speaking from great experience here. :) The problem is that you want to mount the knob somewhere accessible, probably up near the dash or inside the left side fairing, so running all the wires where they need to go will take some disassembly of the bike.

I'll call the shop and see if they can order and install the permanent one, though looking at the cockpit has me questioning where I would install the knobs. The perfect place (IMO) is currently covered by my work access sticker. Maybe the portable one would work for this year and next winter I can upgrade to the permanent one.

Thanks Alex! :)
eddiekay the liner being bulky, is that uncomfortably bulky with a semi tight outer jacket or is it more like wearing an extra sweater underneath? I bought my big jacket large enough to layer underneath but too much bulk makes it hard for me to breathe.

I find the new ones not bulky at all; they are pretty thin IMO. :idunno:

I just solve the problem by living in AZ :rolleyes:

I ended up picking up a new jacket a few weeks ago and OMG I AM IN LOVE!

I have the dual controller for when/if I ever get gloves and found the best place for me to put it was to add velcro to the back and attach it to the side of my tank bag. This lets me operate it easily, I can still see the glow of the LED, and the cord is long enough I can get off the bike before disconnecting.

First test run I cranked the thing up to HIGH. I'm a desert rat, so heat doesn't bother me. I left it on high for the hour ride out to Sand Mountain and was oh so toasty warm. At the same time I had on my DeLorme GPS and phone through two USB ports, as well as my running lights, LED wheel lights, and Koso gauge. According to my voltmeter, I was running steady at 13.5-14 (little lights were green anyway).

On the return, it had gotten dark enough I needed my brights. Leaving the jacket on high I flipped the switch. Within seconds, I watched as the voltmeter dropped into the orange/red levels (um, 12 I think?). So back to low beams.

I lowered the setting so where the controller was blinking and tried the high beams again. Took some finessing, but I was able to adjust the controller to get it so where the "pulsing" of the controller did not drop below the green level on the voltmeter. I did notice there is a subtle pulsing of the headlights (both when on low and high) that corresponds to the draw of the jacket when not on full heat. Not so much where it's on/off/on/off but just a slight dimming. Not sure if this is a distraction to oncoming vehicles - further testing is required.

The combination of the High beams on for awhile and the full blast jacket is the only time I see a drop in the voltmeter. Though I noticed that while in town (low beams), jacket on high, and either the brake light or a turn signal will slowly start the voltmeter lights to go down. I suppose a short light this wouldn't be an issue, but for long lights or slow and go traffic, I need to remember to lower the setting.

The biggest thing that has helped was installing the little voltmeter that came from RaceTech Electric. Really really simple to install (red to a hot wire, black to a bolt on the frame) but that has allowed me to monitor my battery as I'm fiddling with this.

I am seriously looking forward to riding this winter!! Hopefully the valleys will stay dry, mountains can get all the snow they need just leave me my desert. :lol:

I resisted getting electric gear for years, thinking those who needed it were wusses. After getting it, I ride with it probably 6 months out of the year, even here in California. I don't discount my earlier perception, I just realized that I'm happy being a wuss. :)

I resisted getting electric gear for years, thinking those who needed it were wusses. After getting it, I ride with it probably 6 months out of the year, even here in California. I don't discount my earlier perception, I just realized that I'm happy being a wuss. :)

Oh, I know I am a weather wuss. But my layers were getting to the point where movement was becoming difficult so needed a new solution. This really hurt my wallet but i think it will pay for itself before too long and I'm glad I got it.

I'm riding around in my own personal oven. Yay!

Just the thread I'm looking for. Soooo: I also resisted heated gear for years. But this winter will be the first time that I'll be riding 45 minutes each way to/from work at interstate speeds. Temps here aren't insane, but I'll get a good bunch of 20* days, and a few teens. I think it's time to invest in heated gear.

My big issues are hands and feet. Anyone rock the socks or insoles? I assume many people do gloves? I'm not as concerned with torso and legs. But I'm trying to imagine how the wiring goes -- you run wires from your gloves and from your boots to a troller clipped to your pocket? Does that just turn you into a bundle of wires?

I'm also wondering if anyone has other solutions for the feet, as they seem the hardest to me. They get cold fast, and well-fitting boots don't have a lot of room for liners or wires. I keep thinking that if I really just need gloves, maybe I'll go with battery-operated, like these: http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/mobile-warming-ltd-max-heated-gloves.

Any thoughts on any of that? So many choices!

Honestly, none of that other stuff matters. The way the body works, is that as it gets cold, it shuts down blood flow to the extremities to protect the things that are most important (heart, other organs, brain). It conserves heat by letting arms/legs/fingers/toes get cold. That's why they get cold first while your torso does not.

But - if in cold conditions, you have some way to keep your torso toasty warm, your body happily pumps that warm blood everywhere it is supposed to go, and your fingers/toes/arms/legs don't really get cold either.

This is a fortunate development when we take it all the way to motorcycle electric systems, as many bikes only have enough spare electrical capacity to run a jacket liner at full blast. Adding heated gloves and/or socks can be enough to overtax the charging system. If a bike has heated grips and I have my heated jacket liner, I'm comfy well into freezing temps.

I'm with you on the cold feet and hands. While i know the body works as Alex described, i tend to find my core gets cold first and once it does i'm down for the count until i warm back up. Hence my purchase of the liner.

However, while riding last weekend my hands and feet still got cold, though not as cold as they have been in the past. Just an extra non-heated liner (gold glove, sold at places like REI) under my heavy therma-something gloves kept my fingers tolerable and a pair of rain booties over my shoes kept the wind out enough that my toes didn't get cold.

A solution i've used in the past are those hot hands heated packets. Stuck one to the inner glove on the back on my hand and on top of my socks over my toes and those seemed to keep the chill away for a few hours.

But, honestly, keep your core, arms, and legs warm and the blood will continue to flow out to the fingers and toes.

You guys are brilliant. Good stuff. I think I'll definitely need gloves anyway, just because I don't have either heated grips or hand guards, so those puppies just sit out in the wind. But I think the other investment will be a vest or jacket, and I'll just trust that to keep blood flowing to my toes.

I'm actually considering just doing the Mobile Warming stuff now, as both their gloves and their vest/jacket are very highly rated, and I wouldn't have to worry about wiring the bike or getting a controller (as the battery pack is its own, individual controller). So, I trade the inconvenience of having to charge, but gain the convenience of not having to be wired to the bike, and not having to wire each piece to a controller. Not pulling the trigger yet, but looking like a good option! :thumbup:

Just as an FYI, if you get the whole suit, Gerbing (and I would presume all over major brands) pieces all plug into themselves, so controller to the jacket, jacket to the gloves and pants, pants to the insoles. Keeps the wires all tidy. The other option is the dual controller where you can take the gloves or another piece and control its temp separately from the rest.

I suppose it also comes down to how long you ride. A few hours the battery will work. All day, might be better to go with the direct connect. :)

Just wondering why does nobody uses Venture stuff?? crap?

Just as an FYI, if you get the whole suit, Gerbing (and I would presume all over major brands) pieces all plug into themselves, so controller to the jacket, jacket to the gloves and pants, pants to the insoles. Keeps the wires all tidy. The other option is the dual controller where you can take the gloves or another piece and control its temp separately from the rest.

I suppose it also comes down to how long you ride. A few hours the battery will work. All day, might be better to go with the direct connect. :)

That is good to know. I think if I rode fairly irregularly in the cold, for long trips, I would definitely go Gerbing. But instead I will ride every day, for only 45 mins at a time, so the batteries sound pretty convenient. But I'm still weighing it out. :)