Is It All Coming Back to you Now, Bunky??!!
Electric Clothing Vendors
Is
It All Coming Back to you Now, Bunky??!!
Something to consider. Lithium ion battery technology and carbon-fiber electrically conductive heating elements or infrared heating panels make (rechargeable) Battery Operated heated clothing something to consider. You won't get as warm and the heat won't last as long (so take spare batteries), but it may be just enough to get you through (and you won't have to wire your bike - and can move the clothing from bike to bike).
Using
Pliable and flexible hair-thin micro-fiber heating elements,
VentureHeat has 12V Jacket Liners, Pant Liners, Gloves and boot insoles.
They
also have lithium ion battery heated gloves and jacket liners (no wiring,
easy bike to bike transfers, wear it off the bike and stay warm - but get extra
batteries).
http://blog.ventureheat.com/2012/10/24/12v-heated-motorcycle-gear-2/
Utilizing
Far Infared technology and Carbon Nanocore (carbon nanotube). heating elements,
the Powerlet 
Proform Heated Jacket Liner,
Powerlet Heated Glove Liners and the Powerlet Dual
Wireless Temperature Controller may be the new
Hot Ticket.
http://www.webbikeworld.com/heated-motorcycle-clothing/powerlet-rapidfire-heated-clothing/
At least one manufacturer, Tourmaster, currently uses
carbon-fiber in their
gloves, vests and pants.
The
vest is well rated, the
gloves are not.
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/461/10327/ITEM/Tour-Master-Synergy-Leather-Gloves.aspx
First Gear
has carbon-fiber gloves (men only), but their jacket liners are heated wire.
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/461/10885/ITEM/Firstgear-Carbon-Heated-Gloves-.aspx
The rest of the heated clothing vendors use heated wire technology.
Gerbing has a new and likely better approach to the traditional heated wire called Microwire. Microwire is a ribbon of Teflon-coated stainless steel wires made up of many .000472 in. strands running through the front, back, sleeves and collar of their Heated Jacket Liner and through the fingers and hand of their Gloves. These wires heat instantly. Traditional heated wire is .078 in. thick, Microwire is .025 in. thick. Microwire is lighter, stronger, more flexible, and heats significantly quicker.
We have personal experiance with and believe the best traditional heated wire stuff comes from:
Warm and Safe
makers of the original heat troller controls
and excellent jacket liners, gloves and controls. They make stuff for
other retailers. We have their jacket
liners and gloves and can recommend their products.
http://www.warmnsafe.com/
The next best heated wire stuff and the only Microwire stuff comes from:
Gerbing
which
makes a full line of heated clothing
Microwire including gloves
and glove liners (or they will wire your
own gloves for $79) and socks (which are difficult to walk on so save your
money). We had the heated wire gloves (which I replaced with Warm and Safe gloves) and socks
(which have been replaced with insoles). They also make "Core Heat"
(they call it microwave) clothing and gloves that are battery (not 12v)
operated. The second link is a review of Gerbing's
heated wire liner.
The third link is a review of Gerbing's
Microwire
gloves
http://www.gerbing.com/
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/heated-jacket/
http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-gloves/gerbing-hybrid-gloves/
First Gear
makes heated gloves, jacket liners and pants.
http://www.firstgear-usa.com/fgweb3.nsf/home?openform
http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-gloves/firstgear-carbon/
Jett
makes the best battery operated (non 12v) vest
utilizing infrared heated panels.
The second link is a review.
http://www.jett.us.com/
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/heated-vest/battery-heated-vest/2007-jett-vest.htm
After that you can pretty much take your pick. In no particular order, here is a current list.
Powerlet
makes heated jackets, vests, gloves and power connectors.
http://www.powerletproducts.com/shop-by-product/heated-clothing/HEATCLTHNG
Warm Gear
has heated panel jackets, vests, pants and gloves.
http://cozywinters.com/heated-clothing/
Chilli
makes a vest distributed by Sargent.
http://www.sargentcycle.com/chillivest.htm
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/heated-vest/
Aerostich
has a vest and a liner.
http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Kanetsu-Electrics-p-1-c-284.html
1st Heat
has jackets, chaps and vests.
http://www.1stheat.com/
Links to Battery Operated
Everything:
http://www.tgoemall.com/mallbodywarm.htm
Extreme Comfort has battery
operated boot heaters and glove liners.
http://www.electrichandwarmers.com/index.html
Brookstone
markets battery operated, infrared heating panels, jackets, vests and glove
liners.
(just search on heated jacket and heated glove liner)
http://www.brookstone.com
A.J.Prindel
markets a similiar less expensive battery operated,
infrared heating panels, heated vest.
http://www.nextag.com/heated-vest/search-html
Giali has jackets,
waistcoats, vests, harness, gloves, socks, trousers, grip covers.
http://www.giali.com/
Kustom Komfort has DYI
heating systems for clothing.
http://www.kustomkomfort.com
Internet BMW Riders
instructions for making your own heated clothing.
http://www.ibmwr.org/otech/heatedclothing.html
Body Warmer
has a vest and a very odd full body heating strip.
http://www.bodywarmer.com/
BMW and HD have vests, available at their dealerships.
The reviews
were taken from Web Bike World. They review just about everything you can
think of.
http://www.webbikeworld.com/
Good
Hunting
(If you know of other
Manufacturers of Heated Motorcycle clothing,
drop
me a line and I'll add them to the list.)
