My thoughts on a heated jacket liner - If you're on the fence, please read.

[hexkopf]

Great advice, great thread all.

How about pants, I have pretty good leg protection on my R12R with the fairing, tank, and pistons in the way. You guys using heated pants?

Revzilla has a Tourmaster jacket for 169.00 which looks decent. Think I will order it when I get home. Thanks all. What a great forum.

[tbzep]

Great advice, great thread all.

How about pants, I have pretty good leg protection on my R12R with the fairing, tank, and pistons in the way. You guys using heated pants?

Revzilla has a Tourmaster jacket for 169.00 which looks decent. Think I will order it when I get home. Thanks all. What a great forum.

I've done without heated gear so long that the jacket by itself is like sitting in front of a fireplace to me.   Unless you already have immediate plans to ride all day in cold weather, it won't hurt to wait and see if the jacket liner is enough by itself.  You can add the pants later if you find you need them.  You won't save anything on shipping buying them together because pretty much everybody ships stuff free over $80-100.   It also spreads out the hit on your bank account.  

[sleazy rider]

Great advice, great thread all.

How about pants, I have pretty good leg protection on my R12R with the fairing, tank, and pistons in the way. You guys using heated pants?

I have the whole Gerbings liner setup.  Jacket, pants, socks and gloves with dual controller.  I can ride all day, any day as long as the road is clear.

[sagerat]

Gerbing's jacket and gloves arrived about six Christmases ago.  Ahhhh, they are nice.  Only minor gripe is my left glove this year, I swear I'm getting a small electric shock on my ring finger every once in a while.  Between liner, gloves, and my lap robe, I can ride the Ural all the way down to 0F.  Went out last week for about 90 minutes in 20F and was OK, but slightly chilled.  Since the Ural is a naked bike with no handguards, I was pretty impressed.

Now I'm pondering heated socks as I've got a dual controller.  

[hexkopf]

I decided to go with Powerlet RapidFIRe Jacket Liner and Controller Package from Pashnitmoto.com: http://www.pashnit.com/product/powerlet/powerlet_liner.html

Everything I read on this jacket looked good. I will post a review.

[Prozac]

 2) it's a pain to commute to work with it since i have to take it off AT the bike before walking into work.

That truly depends on your installation commander.  Typically, because it is considered PPE, most will allow you to walk into work prior to to taking it off.  That is the way it is here are WPAFB and the reasoning behind it is they truly want to encourage us to wear out PPE.  I always walk in with my full suit on and disrobe at my desk.  I would ask someone what the true policy is.

[jeepinbanditrider]

Depends on the service also.  We (Marines) are sopoused to be in full uniform before we walk away from the bike.  That means jacket and helmet off and cover on along with blouse.  Can't walk around with that gear on which means now I'm juggling a bunch of crap all the time since I usually always ride to work.  

I usually get around this by wearing my uniform under full gear (pants included) so since you can't see any of my uniform underneath I'm not in a uniform at all.

That and I usually just keep a set of cammies in the locker at work and throw them in the top box at the end of the week to take home and clean so I just wear gear or civies into work.

[Prozac]

That is typically how I ride, full gear.  Due to fatalities and our installation commander being a rider, we have been told that he considers it PPE and PPE is considered authorized uniform wear.  I hope to have a one piece before Spring and will utilize that for my commute.  The only other thing that we have been asked is to don our cover so that we may be recognized as military personnel.  I will gladly do this so that I don't have to do the strip and carry.  That really used to suck when it was raining.

[02Tac]

Not heated gear, but I added one of these to the commute helmet - http://www.schampa.com/product_p/hlmskrt01.htm - and it is worht every penny.  The only heated gear I have is a heated face shield to prevent fog up when riding home at O-dark thirty. Other than that, I tend to be acool weather boy and work outside so for riding, layers with a wind stopping layer work well for me into the upper 20s. I am, however, considering some heated glove liners as the ends of teh fingers can get cold on longer rides.

[jimmy]

 

I picked up one of the Mobile Heat Lithium battery heated liners yesterday.  I'm going on a 600 mile ride today and tomorrow so I'll report back on how that worked out.  I think it's made by firstgear also, or maybe Tourmaster.

Did you make it back OK?  How'd the liner work?  

[sfalexi]

Depends on the service also.  We (Marines) are sopoused to be in full uniform before we walk away from the bike.  That means jacket and helmet off and cover on along with blouse.  Can't walk around with that gear on which means now I'm juggling a bunch of crap all the time since I usually always ride to work.  

I usually get around this by wearing my uniform under full gear (pants included) so since you can't see any of my uniform underneath I'm not in a uniform at all.

That and I usually just keep a set of cammies in the locker at work and throw them in the top box at the end of the week to take home and clean so I just wear gear or civies into work.

I wear civies under pants and jacket and have a locker at work where I keep my ACUs.  i also will put the pants and jacket over the uniform if need be.  When I'm riding around base from place to place, I'll wear my ACU goretex and put on a reflective vest (our Command chain hasn't made full gear necessary and sticks with the basic Army requirements)

Alexi

[2RR2NV]

yeah, we are allowed to walk into work in full gear as long as it is covering out uniform. once at work, you are considered on duty  and must abide by the normal uniform rules which means i have to be in uniform til i get out to my bike (for lunch, for job - i do a lot of "out of office" stuff), put my stuff on, and then ride away. when i get back, take all the stuff off and walk into work in uniform. so that is why i don't bother. it take too long to put all the gear on just go a mile or so down the road to take it all off. then repeat process to get back to my office. there are times when i am in and out of my office probably 10 times or more a day. just not worth it. once i get civilian status, oh yeah... it's on!!! not much longer.  WOOOOT!
Last base was quite clear in their policy and what i just described is what happened, but back then, my job didn't leave the office except for lunch and the commute. worked great!

[jeepinbanditrider]

 

Did you make it back OK?  How'd the liner work?  

I made it find despite the low 30s temps.  The jacket sucked though.  It's not like a regular heated jacket with heating elements throughout it has two hand sized heating patches on the front and one about the size of 2 hands on the back.  Very small heating areas overall and not much heat.

[jimmy]

Gotcha.  I have heard that the Mobile Warming Longman shirt is the best of that brand because it is stretchy and fits snugly.

http://www.motorcyclegear.com/street/heated_gear_and_snow_helmets/upper_body/mobile_warming/longmen_shirt_base_layer.html


http://www.webbikeworld.com/heated-motorcycle-clothing/mobile-warming/heated-shirt-heated-vest-review.htm