Heated Gear

Some people ride in some really cold temperatures and there are others that just need a little more warmth than others (you know the ones that wear their jacket with the quilted liner in 70 and 80 degree temperatures). Well for you they make heated gear. This is usually a suit or individual pieces that attach to your bike’s battery for power and have heating elements to keep you warm. Think of it as riding around with an electric blanket wrapped around you. Starting to feel warm yet?

Garments

Heated gear comes in many flavors from many different manufacturers and oh yeah, for many dollars. Heated suits can set you back quite a few of those hard earned dollars but thankfully you don’t have to buy a suit. Most manufacturers offer individual items and liners. This way, you buy only what you need.

Heated gloves and glove liners allow you to keep your hands toasty warm while still giving you flexibility. Heated jackets or jacket liners help reduce the amount of layering you need to achieve a comfortable ride. Heated pants and pant liners keep your legs from getting stiff from the cold. And yes, they even have heated socks if you need them.

Wearing All the Gear

Most manufacturers allow you to connect all of the individual pieces together to form one large heated suit if you will. These pieces can be disconnected as needed to get the gear on and off and to tailor the heating required.

Be sure to check with the manufacturer though. Their heated gear might need to be worn a certain way. For instance, to get the gloves to function, you might have to also wear their jacket or liner. Not a big deal you say. Well, if you have a bike with full fairings and a windshield, you might only want heated gloves. If you have to buy a jacket or a liner to make their gloves work, those will be very expensive heated gloves! But don’t worry, you can easily find heated gear that works together or by itself.

Can Your Bike Handle the Heat

OK, your excited. Infinite warmth is only a purchase or two away. Before you go nuts, check your motorcycle’s manual or check with your motorcycle dealer to see if your bike can take the heat (well actually, if it can take the drain on its electrical system).

Some bikes are designed to do only what they do with little or no extra power to spare. Their electrical system just isn’t designed to put out excess power so you can add heated gear, lights, anything. These bikes are usually the ones with smaller engines. However, some bikes have enough power to run a small city (just joking) but you have already put so many extras on there that heated gear would cause your bike to burst into flames (actually it will burn out parts of your electrical system or keep the electrical system from recharging your battery, leaving you stranded). Those extra lights, radar detector, XM radio, GPS, etc. have used up any spare power you had.

Determine how much power your bike has available for extras and subtract anything you have added. This number is what you have left for heated gear. For example, your motorcycle dealer (or manual) says you have 3amps of available power for extras on your model bike and you want to add heated gear. The gloves you chose take 2.1amps and the jacket liner takes 6.7amps for a total of 8.8amps. With this bike, you can’t run the jacket liner, just the gloves.

Installation

Before installing any heated gear, read the instructions to make sure you are doing it correctly. You don’t want to destroy your bike’s electrical system before you have a chance to try out your new gear. But typically, you have to install a fused lead directly to your battery and then connect it to your heated gear. Be very careful to keep this lead away from the heat of the engine/exhaust and don’t let it get pinched. If you don’t have the skills to install the lead yourself or don’t feel comfortable doing it, please take your bike to an authorized service center for your model. This could save you a lot of headaches and money in the future.

Use

Once you have everything connected and you are ready to ride, be sure to double check all your heated gear’s connections and make sure the heat controller(s) are off before you start the bike (some manufacturers even ask you to have the heated gear disconnected before starting the bike just to make sure you don’t damage your bike’s electrical system with the extra load).

Once you have the bike running, start the heated gear off on its lowest setting and adjust it up as needed. Having the gear too hot will cause you to sweat and we all know that sweating in the cold can make you very uncomfortable. Some gear even has individual controllers for each item, allowing you to put the heat were you need it most.

Hopefully we have given you a few tips on how to make the winter rides a little more pleasurable with heated gear and given you some things to keep in mind when you go to purchase that heated gear. Now get out there and enjoy a warm, comfortable ride.

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