| Author | Message | ||
     Johnboy777 |
Just a quick update. My second cold weather test @ 27* went well tonight (although it was not all that long @ just over an hour and a half- w/about an hour of freeway @ 65-70mph ). I had my Transition II Jacket w/liner, Columbia neck gator, balavacavallakala neck thingy, polar fleece vest (ala Jim Tressle) First Gear HT over pants, jeans with DuoFold long johns, insulated work boots w/ smart wool socks and my new BMW WinterPro Gloves. The thicker WinterPro glove took a little getting used you, especially the clutch, but I’m a klutz. Another thing I tried was Cat Crap, an anti-fog lens cleaner. It works better than the Scott anti-fog cloths, but leaves more of a film on the shield. I did half the shield in Scott and half in Cat Crap. The only thing that suffered were my hands; they were cold after the first 1/2 hour or so. The gloves are great, nice construction, great fit with pre-formed palms and all, but I guess I was surprised by their lack of warmth. Perhaps I’m asking too much of the gloves @ 27deg.?? I don’t know. The tops of the hands were NOT cold, just the finger tips and palms on the grip surface, heated grips will cure this I imagine. My prior cold weather gloves were the Aerostitch Elk gloves w/poly liners that were good to about 45-50deg. I ordered the Uly grip kit 2 weeks ago, (not here as yet) so I’ll get them on ASAP and try test #3. I think I’m getting pretty close though, gear-wise. John (Message edited by johnboy777 on January 09, 2008) | ||
| Xbimmer |
The thicker WinterPro glove took a little getting used you, especially the clutch... ...but I guess I was surprised by their lack of warmth. Perhaps I’m asking too much of the gloves @ 27deg.?? That's the beauty of electric gear. Efficiency vs. bulk. Good idea to carry some bulk though in case of electric gear failure, which can happen. My Cold Front Carbon Tourmaster gloves work pretty well down to freezing, but dull my feeling for the controls. Grips and/or Gerbing gloves are next on my list. The First Gear/ Warm & Safe jacket liner I just bought for my wife is working out great. I'll probably pick one up for myself, but I may go Gerbing because I can pick sleeve lengths. My new Synergy vest rocks but the dangly controller is proving to be a PITB. When you can keep your torso warmer using power your bike is already producing your extremities fare better in severe cold. We'll be putting our new gear to the real test soon, desert/mountain ride expected to be in the 'teens.  | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Hey Xbimmer, Yeah, I think i'll try the Synergy vest next, as well. Did you get the collared Synergy vest? John | ||
| Xbimmer |
Collared vest John, I was actually looking for the Synergy jacket liner but they are/were backordered everywhere. Nice thing about any of the jacket liners is the ability to easily hook up gloves if desired. Collar on my vest does get warm, but not real noticeable. Vest gets plenty warm though even on the low setting, and my wife so far hasn't run her jacket liner past "5" on the Widder controller and she's toasty. | ||
| Adrian_8 |
They have a large supply of the Gerbing gear at www.Derbycycles.com. I have the jacket, G-3 gloves and the 2 way controller. Being cold and miserable is optional now days... | ||
| Dr_greg |
+1 for the Gerbing jacket liner. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Thanks, Dr Greg & Adrian_8, I stopped at the local BMW shop at lunch time and tried both the Gerbing G3 and the Classics. The Classics felt as bulky as my winter gloves but the G3's felt like summer gloves, very cool. Gerbing also makes a liner for my 46" chest and Gorilla-like 37" sleeves. They wanted $199 for the liner and $169 for the G3's. I guess I'll need the dual controller as well. G3 LINK: http://www.gerbing.com/heat/glovesg3.html  | ||
| Curly |
The problem with cold weather riding is cold weather is relative. One of my riding buddies can ride all day in 30-40 degree weather with just a shirt under his Darien and says he's comfortable. If i'm riding at anything under 60 degrees i'm searching for clothes. But Gerbing gear fixed all that. It's pricey but it's hard to put a price on warmth without all the bulk.  | ||
| Court |
Dr. Greg: I'm not sure "very cool" is a great description of heated gloves. How about . .. "they are HOT". Gerbing is top-shelf stuff. | ||
| Bienhoabob |
Looks like a good deal on heated vest/liner. www.aerostich.com/product.php?productid=17468 | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Looks like a good deal on heated vest/liner. www.aerostich.com/product.php?productid=17468 to me, it looks like they're selling just the sleeves...no??? . | ||
| Florida_lime |
to me, it looks like they're selling just the sleeves...no??? +1 ! | ||
| Bienhoabob |
I think you guys are right. Just sleeves, sorry about that. Too good to be true. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Any one know if I can mix 'n match the Gerbing G3 gloves with a Heat-troller controller by Warn & Safe I can't imagine these things are proprietary ...Thanks | ||
| Crusty |
Johnboy; Yes you can. My wife has a Gerbing's jacket liner, and we bought the heat troller specifically so that she could control the liner and gloves separately. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Jonnyboy, Did your nads recover or just crack off? | ||
| Florida_lime |
Good thing that wasn't a question for Ft_Bstrd, he'd put up pictures !  | ||
| Jlnance |
Oh, he may still do it. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Jonnyboy, Did your nads recover or just crack off?  (Message edited by johnboy777 on January 13, 2008) | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Well I was out for just over two hours today @ 39deg. ... all the gear worked great except for thr BMW ProWinter Gloves. Those gloves are friggin' worthless ... honestly, they're winter gloves that don't work @ 39deg. My hands froze solid. How warm are those winters in Bavaria, anyway? John H. . | ||
| Crusty |
Now, I hate BMWs. I don't like their engineering, the factory's attitude toward their customers or their overblown (and false)reputation for quality motorcycles. However, I've found that most BMW branded clothing and gear is usually first class (and correspondingly overpriced). You must have gotten the item that isn't up to snuff. I've always has problems finding decent winter riding gloves. I think I'm going to try the Warmnsafe heated gloves next, along with the factory heated grips. | ||
| Chrisgrant |
I saw somewhere some heated gloves that are made for heated grips. They are thinner on the palms and have 2 heating elements on the thumbs so they stay warm too. I can't remember who makes them right now but I will research. | ||
| Florida_lime |
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/326450.html | ||
| Chrisgrant |
Heres the post that I was talking about. Maximum has them. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/319005.html | ||
| Florida_lime |
Maximum said he has them in the other post, too  | ||
| Chrisgrant |
I wonder what his take on them is, now that he has had them for a while. Where u at Max? | ||
| Florida_lime |
Last week I did a 6 hours day in the 16-24 degree range. Here was my gear... Hands - Buell OEM heated grips for the palms and Warm-n-Safe heated gloves for the top of the hands. This was a very effective combination as my hands were never cold. I did use some moisture wicking glove liners too, which was more to help my hands from burning when using the heated gloves on high! This is the only 'review' I've seen him give for his set-up. from the thread I listed | ||
| Maximum |
Sorry guys, it was drill weekend with the Colorado Guard. I'm working on a report on the Warm-n-Safe gloves right now...so give me 30 minutes and I will try to have a new thread posted on the subject. | ||
| Michael1 |
I just took a nice ride on Saturday in sunny Cleveland with it 32F outside. I would have never liked riding in that, but with my new Tourmaster Synergy heated vesy (w/ collar) and my old heated grips...I was nothing but happy behind my ZG +4. I have no idea why I waited so long to buy heated gear... Oh yeah...it was the cost of the stuff. I bought the Synergy from helmetshop.com for $113 plus free shipping. And they had it in stock... Hook up was easy, I just need to work on a way to get the cord from the battery to my vest. I have the cord run between the frame and the seat right now. It is too short to run it out the spot where the ECM plug is. I put on around 100 miles on Saturday and it felt like I could have went on for a lot longer. I was wearing my Olympia AST jacket w/ liner. Symergy vest (only used low on city streets, med on highways), cotton t-shirt and a waffle undershirt. On my legs was Olympia Airglide pants w/ liners and a pair of fleece "thermal" type pants. Smart wool socks and Sidi Canyon boots rounded out the outfit. The sad part, I was wearing my summer gloves (perfed Teknic's w/ no guantlet). Mmmm... I miss riding. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Michael1, I got to wring out my Synergy collared vest this weekend too. I don't know what temp it was when we got to our destination at Tonopah NV but at 3:00 pm it started snowing a little while I was gassing up. My vest and my wife's First Gear/Warm & Safe jacket liner worked great. I never set my controller higher than medium. For those of us who've done this ride before we agreed it was pleasantly cold, not nearly as cold as other years. My only complaint with my Synergy vest is that somehow the controller would occasionally shut off. At first I thought that I was bumping it strapped to my leg but that turned out to not be the issue. It takes a good solid push on the buttons to change settings so maybe it's an internal problem. The Synergy, Gerbing, and Warm & Safe/First Gear stuff use the DC coax connectors. I like spares so a couple weeks ago I searched and found Gerbing extensions to be a great deal, $5.00 each for 8, 12, or 24" cords, half the cost of the other guys. I ordered two 8" and a 24", attached one 8" to my vest to connect to the battery harness. I would suggest the 12" for that purpose since the Synergy vest plug is crazy short. If you order online at http://www.gerbing.com I would follow up with a phone call or email. They didn't ship my cords until a week after I ordered them. | ||
| Michael1 |
Xbimmer - I've have heard that some controllers for the Synergy stuff tend to malfunction. The good news is that Tourmaster will replace the controller at no cost. Mine has been very good so far. I hope I got a good one. Thanks for the link on the cord extensions... I will get one of those to help out my "short" cord problem. | ||
| Chrisb |
I have, Harley/Gerbing gloves Warm n safe jacket liner Heat troller Everything connects. I had the a heat troller fry itself on a road trip on time. I called gerbing (They used to sell the heat troller brand) A very nice lady said "Send it back and we'll replace it as long as you havent messed it" "Also they way you ship it to us is the way we'll send it back. So if You fedex it we'll fedex it back no charge." A few days later I had a new heat troller. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Update on my Synergy vest, crapped out on me yesterday. Controller has been acting weird and now it won't activate when plugged in. Power runs from the battery cord and the Gerbing extension so I'm assuming it's either the controller or an internal wiring issue in the vest. Tourmaster has been good in the past responding to my emailed Q's so we'll see what they have to say. Maybe I'll drop by tomorrow since they're a few miles down the road from me. I hope reliability doesn't become an issue with the Synergy line, this vest is otherwise excellent. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Synergy vest update again. Rode through a torrential windy downpour today and just waltzed right in to Helmet House, man what a nice place! Explained my predicament to the girl at the front desk, as she was explaining that warranty issues should be addressed with the vendor another young woman stepped up and told me that since the rep for Helmet City (who I bought the vest from) was in the house she would see whether he could help me out. Soon enough the rep came down, listened to what I had to say, and asked me to wait a bit. Came back a few minutes later with a new controller, we went out and plugged it in and sure enough my vest was good again. We talked a bit about motorcycles, and as much as I was thanking him for taking care of my issue (he didn't have to handle it in that fashion) he was thanking me for my input on their new product line. That's how companies keep business IMHO. I hadn't really expected such a positive experience. More businesses could learn from these guys. XBimmer was warm again on the way home! |
