A few years ago at the BMW convention in John Day, I noticed some riders walking around with tails hanging out of their coats.
Turns out these black cords were attached to a heated vest or liner. Being the freezing-cold wimp that I am, I thought a personal heater sounded like a pretty cool idea. Then I checked out prices and decided I could just add an extra layer of polar fleece instead.
Getting ready for Alaska, we knew we weren’t going to have the luxury to wait for better weather when and if we got hit with cold and wet stuff, and I knew from experience how being cold can really affect my riding skills and brain function.
So, we began looking at that expensive heated gear again. We tried on many different brands, and first determined that we wanted a complete jacket liner with sleeves and not just the vest. Price difference between the two was marginal, and warm arms sounded good too.
Next we looked at what the bikes would be able to run without running out of juice. The Versys could handle anything we threw at it, the F650 would be able to run the heated liner and grips, but I’d have to turn something off if we were idling through town. It was a hassle to do the math, but reassuring to know I wouldn’t be sucking the battery dry every time I turned up the heat.
For a heated liner to transfer heat efficiently, it needs to fit close to your body. For riding gear to work, it can’t be restrictive. Those two seem like they’d be mutually exclusive, but the addition of elastic panels allows the best heated gear to snuggle in close without strangling the wearer. Next we looked at materials and packability. All heated gear is relatively heavy, some is bulky. Some is made of polar fleece (bulky), others from a taffeta like material (like your suit coat is lined with) that doesn’t have much give to it.
There are a few major brands of heated gear, and we first looked at our favorite Rider Warehouse catalog (the Aerostitch distributor). This gear is top of the line, but also top of the price. http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-Kanetsu-WINDSTOPPER-Electric-Liner-p-18922.html Their Kanetsu liner is a fleece jacket style, and their controller is the standard high/low/on/off.
Next we looked at Gerbings, a company that seems like they’ve been making heated gear since the dawn of time. Their liner has a jacket look, and is nicely constructed http://www.gerbing.com/Products/Liners/heatedJacketLiner.html# of a heavier material. Gerbings has options for on/off switch, or thermostatically controlled units. That thermostat sounded nice, but we didn’t need the bulk that these jackets offer.
Finally, while checking out something on the First Gear site, I noticed they had recently added heated gear http://www.firstgear-usa.com/fgweb3.nsf/Products/BDE81FA82FD049C086257340005D8A7F?opendocument this was especially great for us because that meant I could purchase at dealer cost. Plus we loved our First Gear Kilimanjaro coats, and their new TPG pants are also great, so we knew we could trust their quality.
The jacket design used by First Gear (made by Warm and Safe) is a soft almost silk-feel material with no padding or insulation. The jacket is designed to be worn with a lightweight shirt underneath, then your outerwear on top.
Two things (besides cost) really sold us on the First Gear liners ; First, the elastic areas kept the liner close to the body, transferring warmth more efficiently. Second, the jackets were temperature neutral – meaning they didn’t add heat unless you had them turned on. Anyone who’s ridden through a mountain pass on a warm spring day knows that 30 miles of freezing air can be brutal, but no one wants to stop, add clothing, ride the pass, then stop and remove clothing on the other side. The same goes for summer thunderstorms where you can be hot one second, chilly and damp feeling the next, and 50 miles later hot and dry again. With the First Gear liner, you can crank up the heat when needed, then turn off the power and open your coat vents and continue riding when the temperature warms back up.
When you’re figuring the cost of the liner, you’ll need to purchase the liner itself, and the controller separately. First Gear offers thermostatic (dial) controllers in three styles; portable (move beteween bikes), semi-portable (add a mount to each bike), or mounted. We choose mounted because we felt they would be less likely to be damaged or fail.
Mounting the controller unit is not simple, but we accomplished it on both bikes over a weekend. I feel anyone with a basic understanding of electrics and mechanics would have no trouble. The most time consuming part is selecting a spot for the controller and then weaving the wiring through the chassis to keep everything accessible without being in the way, or in danger of melting. My only complaint about the First Gear controller is the circuit board for the dial is exposed, and can be affected by moisture. Although we’ve had absolutely no failures, the indicator light does sometimes flash after Mike gets done washing the bikes. This doesn’t hurt anything and the light goes out after a few hours. Still, I think this design should be updated.
Adding a heated liner to your riding accessories can help you reduce the amount of other cold-weather gear you need to bring along, and also reduce that Michelin-man feeling you get when you’re completely bundled up against the cold and barely able to swing a leg over the bike.
After using the liners for almost a year, I can say they are one of the best investments we’ve made. They’ve made riding easier and more fun.
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Update March 2010 – The controller on my unit started having some issues on the way back from Newfoundland. A spring ride finally did it in, and I thought we’d be ponying up for another one, but decided to give Warm & Safe a call. Ended up talking to the owner, Mike, and he was amazingly helpful and honest. He said we’d done everything right, and the problem stumped him. He paid to ship a replacement unit to me right then – so we could swap the bad for the good and not be waiting for the new parts! The new controller came, we got it installed and sent the bad one back and it’s all working perfectly again.
Although I’d rather never have trouble with parts, if I do, I wish all companies were as good to work with as Warm & Safe!
