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I love to ride in the cold. Review my BB3000Gold trip for some of the extremes that I have ridden in. I originally opted for Widder products. I did a lot of research and it was hard to break through the hype. I liked the design logic put forth on Widder's web page and decided to go with the Widder Vest, Gloves and Chaps. Click Here for my original setup.
After one riding season, I realized for extended rides that I needed to re-evaluate my electric apparel:
I made the decision to go with the Gerbing Heated Clothing.
The
thin jacket liner provided heated sleeves, chest, back, and collar. The liner
requires 77 Watts of power as opposed to the 35 watts of power required by the
Widder vest. However, power is not an issue on the GL1800.
The jacket comes standard wired for control of both the jacket liner and gloves from one controller. I strongly recommend that you have them wire the jacket so that you can control the gloves and jacket liner independently.
I am not a collar type of guy. You wouldn't catch me in a turtle neck as I find them too confining. However, the heated collar does an excellent job of keeping the cold air from going down the back of your neck. My neck is too large to allow me to zip the jacket all the way to the top of the collar but it is still very comfortable.
If you have a backrest, you might want them to spread the wiring in the back to the sides. I find that I get hot spots on my back where my back touches the backrest.
The Gerbing Thin Jacket Liner retails for $199.00. The Widder vest with Collar is $128.97. When you add the Arm Chaps at $79.99, the Widder upper total is $208.96. So the Gerbing liner is actually less expensive than the Widder system.
Widder has the following posted on their web site as to why they have chosen not to make a jacket liner.
| WHY WE CHOSE NOT TO MAKE A HEATED JACKET
LINER
When we started the R&D to heat riders' arms, we were already aware of the inherent limitations of jacket liners when used for heated clothing. These are:
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The Widder Arm Chaps only require 20 watts, so combined with the vest, only a total of 55 watts is needed to power the Widder uppers. 22 Watts less than that required by the Gerbing Thin Jacket Liner. The argument against bulk is an exaggeration. The thin liner is basically the like wearing a wind breaker under your jacket.
The comment about the cuff is very important. Your gauntlet glove should actually go inside your outer jacket sleeve not over it. Why? Thane Skiller an experience LD Rider, pointed out to me that if you wear your gauntlets over the jacket then water will run into your gloves if you get caught in the rain. This is where the extra cuff actually becomes an advantage. You place the gauntlet glove over the cuff of the jacket liner and under the the cuff of the outer jacket and then any air that gets through the sleeve is between the jacket liner and the outer jacket. So rather than being extra bulk the extra cuff is actually and asset to the function of the system.
I wear a Joe Rocket Ballistic as an outer Jacket.
I originally purchased the Gerbing Union Ridge Pants.
These pants were excellent but did not have armored knees. After an accident, I decided that armor was a priority and decided to purchase Gerbing's Ultimate pants. If armor is not a priority, this would be a good choice. Two words of caution: 1) Like the recommendation with the jacket liner, have them split the wiring so that you can control the pants and socks separately and 2) buy the pants long. They will ride up when in the setting position.
The Union Ridge Pants retail for $229.00 and require 44 watts of power. This is much higher than the $98.50 and 33 watts for the Widder Leg chaps. However, with these pants you actually have a pair of riding pants.
Gerbing
advertises their Ultimate Jacket & Pants as being loaded with features,
including
As I stated, my priority was to have armored pants. Given the excellent performance of the Union Ridge Pants, I figured that the Gerbing Ultimate Pants would be the ultimate solution. Unfortunately this was not the case.
The first thing, which is obvious from the picture but I didn't pick up on because I had the Union Ridge pants, is that there are no pockets. You can have pockets added at an extra cost if requested at the time of the ordering but they can not be added later. Hmmm. Looks like they would make that more obvious. Who wants pants without pockets?
They also did not make the pants long enough even though I had express a concern about that because of my experience with the Union Ridge pants. They could make this modification, if I would return the pants. I ordered the 500 Denier Nylon. I was concerned that it would be too heavy but is was very flexible. I really liked the knee pads as they were not contoured like so many of the pants, which allowed them to take much less space when folded. The liner was a quilted liner. I guess this is standard as they didn't ask if I wanted the thin liner or quilted.
So what is wrong with the pants besides not having pockets? They are advertised as "All Weather" pants. While they were very warm and had the armor that I desired, they were not water resistant. I got caught in a fairly heavy rain and the pants leaked at the seams. I was soaked from my knees to my waist. The temperature was 10-25 degrees. I had 1000 miles of riding to get home. Had I not had a heated Corbin seat I would have been very cold in addition to getting jock itch.
Gerbing advised that I should have sprayed the seams with Kiwi Campdry. These pants were new. If that is the case, they should have sprayed them before shipping them. If they did, it didn't work. If they didn't, they should have included this advise in their instructions. $80.00 Frogg Toggs don't leak and do not have to maintained with a spray. Why should a pair of "Ultimate Pants" require such treatment. Gerbing offered to exchange the Ultimate pants for their Rainer pants. These pants look excellent. They have sealed seams, in fact they have double zippers. They have pockets and are armored, although the armor is contoured. They sent me an XL which is too small in the waist. These are only available in stock sizes so the XXL is going to be too long for this short fat guy. So I have decided to keep the Gerbing insulated liner and will search for a pair of armored over-pants that are water resistant. The pant liners are $199.00.
The Widder Gloves are nicely insulated and are warm even when not plugged in and they only draw 22 watts. However as pointed out above they are not waterproof. A good rain and they will weigh about 5 pounds each. The Gerbing gloves are advertised to be waterproof, although they recommend that you treat them periodically. In the rain where the Gerbing Ultimate Pants failed the gloves appeared to have adequate water protection. However, the liner is very thin. In comparing my gloves to other's Gerbing gloves I found that some of the others had a heavier insulation. I contacted Gerbing and was told that each new batch of gloves that they get could be different. This is not the type of quality control one would expect. Gerbing does not put any wiring in the palm of the glove, so with the thin liner palm side of the hand get cold. I opted to go with heated grips which solved my problem but this should not have been necessary. The gloves are advertised to heat the entire length of each finger as well as the palm and back of the hand. I don't believe there are any wires at all in the palm. These gloves are $139 and require 22 watts of power. The Widder Gloves are $79.00 and require 20 watts of power.
I have been told that Gerbing has a glove liner. I have not been able to find it on their web site. Since I added the heated grips, I will continue to wear the Gerbing gloves. I tried on a pair of the liner and they were not very comfortable. You could feel the wire on the top of your finger. They are made from material similar to that their socks are made of.
At this point I believe the best o option is the Widder Gloves with Aerostich Triple Digit Rain Cover available from http://www.aerostich.com/riderwearhouse.store
I heard a lot of reports about how uncomfortable the electric socks were because of the fact that your have to walk on wires. All I can say is that if you are going to do a lot of walking, you should stop and take off the socks. While you are on the bike, you hardly notice the wires. Feet are a critical element in resisting the cold. Do not go without electric socks. Wear them as an over-sock ad your will hardly notice the wires. The Gerbing socks are $59.00 and require 22 watts of power.
Whether you go with permanently mounted controls or portable controls is an individual choice. I prefer the portable ones. I actually have two portable controllers velcroed together. This allows me to control the jacket, gloves, pants, and socks independently. I hang the controls from my jacket and they are easily accessible. I run the power wires back to the rear cowling opening. See the Widder page for a similar setup.
