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electric Heat

TRJeff

Member
My old Eclipse electric vest has finaly quit, any recomendations, new vest or a full heated jacket? I have been looking at Aerostich Kanetsu windblock electric vests and jackets but don't know if I need heated sleeves or not.
 
I have the Gerbing jacket liner and think that it's the greatest thing since...free beer! Not to knock the other stuff, but I can recommend the Gerbing goodies 100%

RW
 
G-e-r-b-i-n-g

The full liner - not just vest. High heated collar, nice folks and good customer service.
 
I just bought the Gerbing liner after asking my club and everyone on IBMWR. Gerbing was the clear favorite.

As for a controller, someone suggested that I opt for a real Heat-Troller instead of the Gerbing Chinese-made rip-off version. I'm not unhappy that I took that advice, either.

I used the combination for the first time on my way to/from the GM400 in Vermont. Very nice, very essential.

The only problem I during the entire trip was that my new brand-new Gerbing brand BMW-to-jacket adapter cord died at the BMW plug end. Seems the connecter came unscrewed internally, which caused the plug to melt and then quit working.

(I ended up cutting the end off and crimping some spade connectors to it, and then bypassing my BMW plug recepticle. Lesson: carry extra crimp connectors in addition to the Leatherman. Second lesson: people who drive motor-coaches tend to carry *everything* with them, so they are a good part-source on the open road, and are probably willing to help if asked nicely.)

Anyway, there's no substitute for quality-made products. The jacket is American-made, so I hope that means something.
 
I just ordered a new Aerostich vest (my old one was stolen months ago). Why didn't I opt for the gerbing? I tried one and found it ill-fitting, ugly (I like to be able to walk around in public with this stuff) and, dare I say it?, too warm. I like the vest because I can throw it on and forget that it's there until I need some heat. By itself it doesn't insulate much and so I can just use it to add a little heat or if I want to be really warm, put a fleece over the top. IOW, it gives me more layering options that a full jacket does. The ideal solution, IMHO, would be to do what a certain Mr.Brick does, have both a jacket liner and a vest.

Besides, the gerbing with all the needed doohickeys is a big pile of money - more than twice the cost of a vest.
 
Another vote for Gerbing

Gerbing heat under a Gore?« Windstopper shell makes an unbeatable lightweight cold-weather combination under your regular riding jacket.
Vests are nice, but you'll never regret the extra money spent on something with sleeves and a heated collar.
 
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Re: Another vote for Gerbing

IndyGT said:
Gerbing heat under a Gore?« Windstopper shell makes an unbeatable lightweight cold-weather combination.
Vests are nice, but you'll never regret the extra money spent on something with sleeves and a heated collar.

Then you don't know how thin my wallet is. :D
 
Re: Another vote for Gerbing

IndyGT said:
Gerbing heat under a Gore?« Windstopper shell makes an unbeatable lightweight cold-weather combination.
Vests are nice, but you'll never regret the extra money spent on something with sleeves and a heated collar.

At least until you fall down and wish you'd have been wearing a MOTORCYCLING jacket, with armor in the elbows and shoulders. Warm is good, but warm and protected is even better.
I prefer a vest, simply because most of my gear would be uncomfortable with added bulk in the arms and I find that a warm torso keeps the rest of me plenty warm, right down to my toes and fingers.
 
Re: Re: Another vote for Gerbing

dlearl said:
At least until you fall down and wish you'd have been wearing a MOTORCYCLING jacket, with armor in the elbows and shoulders. Warm is good, but warm and protected is even better.
I prefer a vest, simply because most of my gear would be uncomfortable with added bulk in the arms and I find that a warm torso keeps the rest of me plenty warm, right down to my toes and fingers.

Yep
 
I'm a wuss. I wear a polypro Tshirt with the Gerbings jacket on top, finished up with a 100 weight fleece jacket. I have a standard on/off switch, which seems to work in spite of it not having a wizzbang thermostat. Got about 7 or 8 years on it now and it works well. I find that with warm arms, I can ride down into the 30s with summer gloves, glove liners and heated grips with complete comfort.

Different people have different tolerances for cold and mine's always been low, even when I lived in Mass.
 
I ordered the aerostich liner and could not tell the difference between it being on and off. I returned it and the customer service person said " they don't put off that much heat."
I then went to mortons bmw to try on a gerbing so I could get my size. Then I planned to order it from Michael G. Vlahos since he said he sold a liner that could heat the gloves & pants separate from the jacket that gerbing made special for him. The cost was $30 more.

While at Morton's I asked about having a liner with separate wiring. I was told that Gerbing will configure the liners for no additional cost. I ordered one that the jacket is on one circuit and the gloves and pants on another. I just got it today and will be trying it out tomorrow.

As far as Michael G. Vlahos I won't be buying anything from there.
 
Re: Re: Another vote for Gerbing

knary said:
Then you don't know how thin my wallet is. :D

This brings up something I've been wondering.

My hands get cold long before anything else and I've been thinking about getting some of those battery powered heated gloves.

Anyone had experience with them? :dunno

I know the vest or jacket is supposed to allow your body to send more warm blood to the extremeties, but the battery powered gloves would be a cheap fix that wouldn't tax my bike's archaic electrical system.
 
glove heat

Just my mostly un-educated guess, but if you have gloves that would "tax" the electrical system, then any battery you'd hook them to won't last long either.

Personally, I bought the Gerbing liner, and I love it. But, I also installed heated grips, and I wouldn't be without them either.

I highly recommend the DualStar kit: http://www.dual-star.com/index2/Rider/heated_grip_kit1.htm
It's $29.99, and has specific left and right elements. The installation was easy with the excellent instructions. I routed my wires externally and held them in place with zip-ties. The elements are self-adhesive and take about 10 minutes to put in place, and put rubber grips on...the rest is wiring.

Gene
 
I have never had a problem with cold hands but my wife has.
The last cold trip we took while we were standing around in a parking lot and her hands got cold.
Then we took off and turned on the Gerbing jacket liners. After a while her hands warmed up because of the sleeves being heated. That never happened when we had vests.
 
gambrinus said:
I have the Gerbing jacket liner and think that it's the greatest thing since...free beer! Not to knock the other stuff, but I can recommend the Gerbing goodies 100%

RW

What gambrinus said. I can recommend the Gerbing 100% as well.

As for vest vs. jacket, well I like my arms & they never did anything to me. So I say let them be warm.

I use a thermostat that is installed on the left side of the beak next to the accessory outlet on my R1150GSA. The plug for the jacket is routed to come out from the front of the seat between the seat & gas tank. This is a very nice set-up for me & works very well.
 
Thanks Gene for the Dual Star recommendation. ANybody else have a recommendation for aftermarket grip heat? My bike has some that the PO installed and they suck.
I'd like some that are not only well-made for a good price, but also produce USEABLE heat- the crappy old ones I'm looking to replace get too hot even on the low setting!
 
I only ride with gloves on, but the first time I used the grips, I thought LOW was pretty warm, but it was high 50's outside. Since then, I've used them down to the upper 30's and they work great at Low, and it's nice to have High in reserve. Low is comfortable enough that I never have to take my hands off the grips...unlike when I *had* to keep one hand by the engine.

One of the best investments I ever made.

FWIW, I purposely chose the DualStar model because the left and right elements are not the same. Orionrider pointed out that the kit he purchased from Aerostitch had the same element for each side, so he added a layer of 2-liter bottle plastic under the throttle grip, just to equalize the temperature.

Best wishes. good luck, warm hands, open roads, etc.
 
one vote for the expensive model bmw vest

I purchased the exensive bmw vest and am quite happy with the results and would recommend. I was looking at Gerbering since you can expand to heated arms and it also got high marks from my neighbor. I chose the bmw model because of fit, two settings for heat, material, nothing around the neck and it did not bind under my jacket.

When trying on less expensive bmw model I found that it ran small, needed extra large for correct fit. The expensive model seemed to run true to size, usually I wear a large and that is what fit.

When wearing my joe rocket 3.0 pants and jacket with liner it's low setting to ~34 and high setting below that.

I would also recommend one of those wind stopper under helmet neck gaiters, picked one and tested this past weekend for a couple of hours at temp of 30 - 40 and it was like summer with vest on low and grips on high.

hope this helps....
 
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