My ghetto heated gear

Well, I was too cheap to buy heated gear so I put out the 20 bucks for some wire and connectors and made my own. Ran across this on the internet....where information should be free! Just weave about 30 feet of 32 gauge teflon coated wire into the liners of my coat and pants then solder the power connector to the ends.

Most expensive part is buying the power cable to the bike. Bought it from the dealer. I cut off the connector that came with the coil cable then added a switch even though the picture doesn't show it. Just pretend you see a switch at the point where the Y connection and the green heat shrink is located.

Here's the coat section. About 25 feet of wire. The resistance of the wire is .173 ohms per foot. The real resistance of the wire and power connection of coat turned out to be 3.8 ohms. When you connect to the 13.8 volts of the bike it will draw about 3.6 amps and give you about 50 watts of heat in the coat.

I used tape to lay out where the wire will be woven into the liner. The ends of the teflon wire need to wind up at the same place and I wanted the heat to be felt in a specific area and avoided weaving the wire where I didn't think I needed extra heat like under the arms and my stomach.

After I got the wire positioned, I left the tape and removed the wire. Using a needle it is just like sewing. Running the wire about 4-6 inches in the liner and briefly exiting the liner near the tape location then back into the liner. In and out of the liner will hold the wire in the location you want. It doesn't have to be taught just a little loose kind of like the picture but inside the liner.

Same technique for the pants. There I used a little more wire, about 30 feet. The total resistance of the pants turned out to be about 4.6 ohms which draws 3 amps. the pants are about 41 watts. Again, weaving the wire where the heat would be needed the most. Mainly on the outer part of the legs and avoiding my special places. No heat needed on my rear because I have a heated seet and not much wind hitting the interior of the thighs so no wire needed in that area.

This is where the wires exit the liner and the connection is made to the power connector. I soldered the wires then used heat shrink tubing so wires didn't short out. Push the white wire back into the liner and sew the power connection wire to the liner for a mechanical connection strain relief. The weakest part of the system will be at the solder connection of the two wires. If it flexes too much at that point the thin teflon wire will break. This is another purpose of the heat shrink tubing. To keep it from flexing at that specific location. The rest of the length of wire can handle all the flexing of daily use.

Can you give us an evaluation of the effectiveness of your gear? It looks like a great idea (and cheap!).

Ghetto microwire

This is the interior of the leg. It shows the partial path of the wire and how much you actual see after it was completed. The green arrows show some of the places where the wire exits and reenters. The red line shows the wires approximate path inside the liner.

The 32 gauge teflon wire is about .022 inches in diameter (pretty thin). For a comparison: 5 sheets of paper, about the diameter of the d string on a violin, one third the diameter of pencil lead. Its really thin and really can't feel it within the liner.

Is this going to be OK if it gets wet?

I made my heated jacket liner. I used a lightweight jacket with a mesh lining to make it easier to sew the wire. I used 30' of 30awg copper Radio Shack wire. My Honda ST pulls 15 volts and it gets really warm. (75 watts) $20 invested going on 3 years.

I have ridden down to 14 degrees F comfortable for 1 hour.

Great job on the above. You do good work.

Ralph Sims

This is what I can do on my k1300gt.

If I don't prepare and just throw on my coat and pants over a t shirt and sweat pants. I can ride in 40f degree temp but I have to turn the heat on and off manually. I can sustain riding comfortably for duration of the trip (hundreds of miles and stops for rest and gas).

If I throw on a set of thermal underwear I can ride in a little cooler temp.

If I really prepare and remove the liner from coat and put on a thin jacket in between the outer jacket and liner. I also have another layer on my legs but my pants are partially mesh. I good down to 24f degree for a long sustained ride.

I accidentally rode for about an hour, unprepared, on a 14f degree day but I was a little cool at my destination and would of needed some warmup time to continue.

I use the 8 amp accessory jack so I needed to keep the power usage down for coat and pants.

I really can't feel the heat in the pants but I also don't feel the cold. I can usually feel a little heat on my lower back exactly where I need and want to feel the heat. Just happened to work out the way I wanted it to.

DRUDOLPH148006 said:

Is this going to be OK if it gets wet?

Click to expand...

Yes.

No different than any other manufacture. Although I think you lose the effective heating due to the water but you are not going to be electrocuted.