Electric clothing advice

Venturing into territory I truly do not understand, I would like to ask
those in this group who use electrics,

which do you prefer, Vest or Jacket, and why?

Miss Pretty Thing just bought me a Jacket, but I am not sure if I want a
jacket or a vest. I think vest would be easier, less bulky, and I am not
so concerned about arm warmth, it is only for riding in the Bay Area.

But I am looking for opinions. Are the sleeves better?

--
Assuring you of my best intentions at all times,

Charles Statman
Rocket Scientist/Wonderboy/Women's Legs Shaven

DoD the Un-Numbered One

 

Vest. It's easier to pack and put on/take off.
If you warm your core, your extremeties stay warm.

The vest works best when it's close to the skin, like over a t-shirt.

Now that I have the vest, I'll take it on all my tours.

I suggest you trade it in for a vest and get Miss Pretty Thing one
as well... nothing like seeing your pretty thing become a frozen thing
in the middle of a long ride.


Eric

Good to see you up and getting riding gear btw.

 

jacket. gerbing jacket liner. accept no substitutes.

 

That depends on how tightly you like your pillion to be hugging you.
;-}
R, UB

 

this is what I am leaning toward, but everyone says something different.
BOTH vest and jacket have good arguments. DOH!

She already has a vest, and plugs on her 929 and DR-Z. I can barely
keep up with her. She's no Pillion Pilot.....

Thanks. I got news from docs on Tuesday, time to build strength and red
blood counts, but NO MORE Chemo! Just monitoring and making sure the
nasty cancers are dead or in remission. Very good news.

At current rate, I may be up to riding in a few weeks, but will not push
it till my senses are all back to capacity.

--
Assuring you of my best intentions at all times,

Charles Statman
Rocket Scientist/Wonderboy/Women's Legs Shaven

DoD the Un-Numbered One

 

I initially wanted to get a jacket, but Itried them on at the show and
I couldn't find one that would fit my torso and be long enough for my
monkey arms. I wound up buying myself a Widder vest and the next week
got the "arm chaps". I use the vest alone for the most part, but when it
cools down below 50 I'll put the arms on it.

If Gerbing had a jacket that fit me, I'd have bought it. But, like I
said, I'm a wuss about the cold. (And it's supposed to be -4 here in
Tahoe tonight!) The vest has been fine so far, and I like that I can add
arms to it when the temperature drops even further.

-B

 

You can order the correct size you need from their factory. I got a bunch
of electric clothes and the Gerbing jacket cannot be beat (along with their
electronic heat control). Much better than the vest or chaps since it also
knocks down the wind chill. I retired the vest several years ago. Still,
if your bike doesn't have ample stator power the vest may be the better
choice as it has less current draw.

Bent~

 

I've had electric vests since around 1990 I'd say. Widder and Eclipse.
Currenty I have a Widder.

For me the vest has always been plenty. Keeping the torso warm is the key
I think. When it's cold I wear a thin polypro shirt, the vest on top of
that, then a fleece pullover, and a 'Stich. It's gotten me through 100+
miles of snowy weather in Idaho and Nevada before and I don't plan to
ride in anything colder than that. I like how it takes up virtually no space
too. Eliminates the need for extra layers.

 

Add to that a few pairs of glove liners for your gloves. For snow, I would
wear heavier Triumph gloves with a glove liner. I found that if I wore my
summer gloves, my hands would get painfully cold, and even the Widder vest
didn't stop that. Of course, the Triumph Tiger had hand guards, which
solved that. But on the sport bikes, it ended up being one hand on the
engine, the other on throttle, and every so often a momentary stop to put
both gloves on the tail pipe, or on the engine. Particularly one time
coming over Mt. Hamilton in some very unexpected snow.

 

Taking Erik's advice, and some of the emailed advisories, I traded the
jacket in on a vest. And I bought appropriate pigtails for battery
tenders, converters from battery tender to gerbing, etc. etc. and
installed all the difficult stuff this afternoon.

Of course I am still not up to riding, but once I am, I will use the
vest and report.

I believe the 2 main pro-vest factors for me are:

less bulky so it fits easily in tank bag or under jackets

and,

don't need to have long sleeve shirt under it.


cause you are supposed to wear cloth between electics and body. I like
the idea of leaving on a ride in T chirt under my 'stich, then be able
to pull vest from tankbag if it gets cool in the evenings.

Will see. May end up with jacket in future too, but will report.


--
Assuring you of my best intentions at all times,

Charles Statman
Rocket Scientist/Wonderboy/Women's Legs Shaven

DoD the Un-Numbered One

 

.... I traded the jacket in on a vest. And I bought appropriate pigtails
for battery

Worse thing about a vest is it does nothing to protect you from wind chill.
Try riding with a vest on some 30 degree cold country rode at midnight. If
you have an electric jacket, you'll put it on in short order over a vest.
Personal experience submitted...and damhik.
I never carry my vests (I have 3, gut gets bigger and passenger needs one).
Compressed size of the liner jacket is about the same as the vest and the
cold protection is far superior.
I also had some minor mods done to the Gerbing's stuff. The cuff area
allowed wind to enter the lower pants area. I had a 2" piece of Velcro sewn
on the allow the cuff to be cinched tighter and keep the wind out. I also
carry some rubber bands to stretch over the bicep and forearm area to keep
the heated sleeves closer to the skin. Feels much better. Their electric
gloves are good.
Their electric socks took some practice. Thin liner sock (hate feeling the
heating wires while walking and keeps me from having to laundry the electric
socks as often. Over that I put some Stormsocks (sp?) from Campmor. They
are a neoprene stretch sock and they block the wind whereas the Gerbings
heated sock is a thin open weave sock. Gerbing missed on the sock material
design. Again, cold wind...ugh!

Mack