Winter Clothing, what are you wearing.
- Thread starter Lanval
- Start date
- Tags clothing cold gloves heated rain temperature undergarment winter
Just hooked up the power, and tried out the jacket. I like the way the collar comes up high, and heats up very quickly especially the arms. I thought it was not wired in the back, but it is, just needs to be more conforming and better contact to the body. I only got the 65W, which I believe it will work. And yes, even without it being powered, it is warm.
Chicago-land, check our temps as it gets cold enough to be meaningful ripping along the Slab. Forgetting the temp for the moment, the first order of business is deciding if there is enough traction for the bike? Chicago-land gets plenty of snow and ice and enough salt to make the pavement feel like it is coated with ball bearings.. Patch ice on manhole covers and rime on steel plating make traction management the top riding priority. Yes, painted lines have traction grit in them but the grit is often covered with slush negating much of the grip. Sure, the daily high might be above freezing. But rush hour commuting takes place in the dark and in much lower temps. Tires never warm enough. There is no sport mode. Survival mode only. Traffic management means extra braking distance and keeping the cagers off one's six. It is not considered cold in chicago until snow/ice does not melt at any time during the day.
Old School Simple&Cheap: Wear everything you own. Nylon dress sock covered by a heavy wool sock in a loosely laced boot works pretty good for a while. The boot must be loose so as to not constrict blood circulation. Put the boot in a rubber boot if it is sloppy out there. For longer rides drop a chemical heat pack in the boot. Modern upgrade is to buy a cheap/on sale sno-mobile boot with thick felt in it. A large boot might require a rider adjustment to make it work and/or a slight adjustment in levers to make it fit the bike better. Gloves/mitts: Go to the olde resale shoppe and buy some very light knit gloves that ladies might wear for decoration. Wear the knit gloves inside any fleece lined glove/mitt. Modern upgrades are winter work gloves and ski/board gloves. They can cost a lot but often work really well. Best gloves I ever had (lost'em, sigh) were ski gloves. I like a gauntlet to seal the jacket cuff from wind. Forget the hi-zoot, expensive polar gear (unless you are a gear whore), Walgreens will discount women's acrylic tights for about $10 which work great and are e-z to keep clean. Insulated/flannel-lined jeans are great. A long sleeved acrylic Tee works great on top as the base garment. (Add elec .garment here if avail.) Add heavy acrylic fleece over Tee. Cover with riding gear of choice or heavy outer wear like insulated Carharts. Modern upgrade is to put on all of this and buy a rain-suit that covers it all. The rain suit serves as a wind shell and keeps the road slop off your good gear. Buy a cheap hi-viz, traffic vest over it all for decent conspicuity in winter's gloom.
Biggest headache is sealing the draft at the neck. A light balaclava is a good start. Add a fleece neck gaiter that lays over the collar of your jacket. The gaiter stops a lot of draft and if covered in slop, it will tend to wick the slop over the jacket collar and not down inside your gear. Bulky scarves might work for short rides but usually come adrift on longer rides. Pin-Locs do keep visors clear to a usable degree. As another posted, cracking the visor can work if the nose is protected. Maybe cut a little foam piece to hold it open a smidgen if the first detent is too much? Maybe opening the chin vent a bit is enough?
Having workable gear is only half the problem of cold weather riding. Ya gotta know its limits. Imagine my surprise to find that my elec gear had 'flamed out' and now my unheated and minimal layered gear was only good for about 20min of riding but I was a little over an hour from home? Amazing how fast hypothermia sets in and decision making skills deteriorate with riding skills compromised soon after! Having a comprehensive winter riding plan is a damn good idea.
If going for a longish winter ride, some supplies might be in order? A few chemical heat packs are never a waste of effort to carry around. Stuff an activated packet in each jean pocket. Big box stores usually sell a heat pack (2 for $5) for back-ache sufferers that wraps around the waist to keep it in place which is a pure god-send if the elec vest fails. Having the elec vest fuse holder out where a rider could replace the fuse w/o having to dig into the bike and having replacement fuses easily accessible could be a damn good idea. Planning to stop for hydration on longer rides is a good idea. I once put a warm bottle of water into a foam cozy to see how long it would take to freeze in my top box on a ride.
Riding through a snow fall or riding on a day when the snow sparkles makes winter riding an exquisite experience and not to be missed. But great care must be exercised to make it happen.
fran
Old School Simple&Cheap: Wear everything you own. Nylon dress sock covered by a heavy wool sock in a loosely laced boot works pretty good for a while. The boot must be loose so as to not constrict blood circulation. Put the boot in a rubber boot if it is sloppy out there. For longer rides drop a chemical heat pack in the boot. Modern upgrade is to buy a cheap/on sale sno-mobile boot with thick felt in it. A large boot might require a rider adjustment to make it work and/or a slight adjustment in levers to make it fit the bike better. Gloves/mitts: Go to the olde resale shoppe and buy some very light knit gloves that ladies might wear for decoration. Wear the knit gloves inside any fleece lined glove/mitt. Modern upgrades are winter work gloves and ski/board gloves. They can cost a lot but often work really well. Best gloves I ever had (lost'em, sigh) were ski gloves. I like a gauntlet to seal the jacket cuff from wind. Forget the hi-zoot, expensive polar gear (unless you are a gear whore), Walgreens will discount women's acrylic tights for about $10 which work great and are e-z to keep clean. Insulated/flannel-lined jeans are great. A long sleeved acrylic Tee works great on top as the base garment. (Add elec .garment here if avail.) Add heavy acrylic fleece over Tee. Cover with riding gear of choice or heavy outer wear like insulated Carharts. Modern upgrade is to put on all of this and buy a rain-suit that covers it all. The rain suit serves as a wind shell and keeps the road slop off your good gear. Buy a cheap hi-viz, traffic vest over it all for decent conspicuity in winter's gloom.
Biggest headache is sealing the draft at the neck. A light balaclava is a good start. Add a fleece neck gaiter that lays over the collar of your jacket. The gaiter stops a lot of draft and if covered in slop, it will tend to wick the slop over the jacket collar and not down inside your gear. Bulky scarves might work for short rides but usually come adrift on longer rides. Pin-Locs do keep visors clear to a usable degree. As another posted, cracking the visor can work if the nose is protected. Maybe cut a little foam piece to hold it open a smidgen if the first detent is too much? Maybe opening the chin vent a bit is enough?
Having workable gear is only half the problem of cold weather riding. Ya gotta know its limits. Imagine my surprise to find that my elec gear had 'flamed out' and now my unheated and minimal layered gear was only good for about 20min of riding but I was a little over an hour from home? Amazing how fast hypothermia sets in and decision making skills deteriorate with riding skills compromised soon after! Having a comprehensive winter riding plan is a damn good idea.
If going for a longish winter ride, some supplies might be in order? A few chemical heat packs are never a waste of effort to carry around. Stuff an activated packet in each jean pocket. Big box stores usually sell a heat pack (2 for $5) for back-ache sufferers that wraps around the waist to keep it in place which is a pure god-send if the elec vest fails. Having the elec vest fuse holder out where a rider could replace the fuse w/o having to dig into the bike and having replacement fuses easily accessible could be a damn good idea. Planning to stop for hydration on longer rides is a good idea. I once put a warm bottle of water into a foam cozy to see how long it would take to freeze in my top box on a ride.
Riding through a snow fall or riding on a day when the snow sparkles makes winter riding an exquisite experience and not to be missed. But great care must be exercised to make it happen.
fran
Another benefit of Warm and Safe Heated Clothing is that when plugged in, but not turned on, you still get 30% heat through the clothing. So, if in my case, that I had replaced the batteries for the start of winter riding, without re-pairing the clothing to the controller I still had "lightly", 30%, warmth coming through. My fault in assuming everything was OK before heading out at midnight for a SS1600 ride. I survived, but the -2 degrees Celcius was hard to cope with at times, especially just before sun up when it's the coldest. Lesson learnt, the hard way.
I had my heated gear fail on me when I was 200 miles from home. I had an extra heated vest with me, but the plug on the wire to the battery had fried. Single points of failure suck. The next week I had the two plugs installed, a primary and a backup. I always carry an extra vest and if it's really cold an extra set of heated chaps.
I wear a first gear ride suit, Gerbing heated gloves Gerbing jacket liner, and Gerbing socks. needless to say I love riding but I cant stand being cold so my gear keeps me nice and warm even riding through the mountains of North Carolina. Worst case my heated gear fails I still have the snow suit to limp home nice and slow.
It's easiest when I'm riding my Road Glide Ultra with full upper and lower fairings, but this setup has worked well for my on all my bikes, even the lowly Rebel:
My gear is fairly simple. I have fleece pants (warm weather PJ bottoms) that I like to wear under my jeans. They have a fly hole that makes stops a lot faster. Then jeans over them, and my basic leather chaps over that. Harley boots with my winter socks keep my tootsies toasty. I wear my thermal undershirt (warm weather PJ tops, to be honest) with a flannel shirt over that. If it's under 35°F or under I'll add my favorite hoodie. Then the Harley leather riding coat. I have gauntlet style leather snowmobile gloves that are adequate behind the metal grip shields. I have a scarf I like if I need something on my neck and then of course the modular full face helmet.
I've found layering like that makes it easy to adjust for rising or lowering temperatures along a journey. I'm thinking of trying some heated gloves but am resisting. I don't want to get dependent on something that can fail.
My gear is fairly simple. I have fleece pants (warm weather PJ bottoms) that I like to wear under my jeans. They have a fly hole that makes stops a lot faster. Then jeans over them, and my basic leather chaps over that. Harley boots with my winter socks keep my tootsies toasty. I wear my thermal undershirt (warm weather PJ tops, to be honest) with a flannel shirt over that. If it's under 35°F or under I'll add my favorite hoodie. Then the Harley leather riding coat. I have gauntlet style leather snowmobile gloves that are adequate behind the metal grip shields. I have a scarf I like if I need something on my neck and then of course the modular full face helmet.
I've found layering like that makes it easy to adjust for rising or lowering temperatures along a journey. I'm thinking of trying some heated gloves but am resisting. I don't want to get dependent on something that can fail.
I made my first "cold weather" ride yesterday. It was in the mid 40's, so not exactly cold, but I'm on the Gulf Coast so this is about as cold as it's been this year. I had my usual jeans and a t-shirt as a base layer. Long sleeved t-shirt this time. Over that was my new Gerbing long sleeved heated jacket, then a wind breaking layer and mesh riding jacket. I also had a wind breaking layer and mesh riding pants over my jeans. I kept the vest on the lowest setting, which was more than warm enough for interstate speeds. I don't plan on doing much riding when temps drop below freezing for safety reasons, so I'm pretty happy with my setup. The only thing I didn't like was my cold hands, but I have heated grips that were delivered today, so I should be able to solve that problem in about half an hour.
Just a comment on the gear above. Cotton is not your friend, fleece is hands down better in every respect. You can get fleece lined jeans at the same price point as flannel. But again jeans are cotton. You might also do better shopping “military surplus”, just a thought. Silk base layers, top and bottoms- $15.00 pair are warm and thin. Fleece mid layers-$40.00 pair very warm. I have found that armored riding pants work very well as a next layer. Usually break the wind well, covers the hips and crotch, where as chaps don’t, and the knee protectors do a superior job slowing down windchill to the legs. Really cold and I go to a heavy wool sweater with a windblock liner which I wear inside out. Hey, never said it was a fashion show. Bib style or suspenders in place of a belt allow you to eliminate much constriction which equal better circulation, better circulation sends more and warmer blood flow to the extremities. I always carry good, not cheap, rain gear for that all important wind breaking top layer. Heated gear, yup, I have both a vest and a jacket liner, Aerostich Kanetsu Airvantage branded, not inexpensive but better than anything I had experienced in my many years. The added bonus, which I can’t emphasize enough, is their inflatable bladders which add an extra layer of insulation as well as snugging the heated matrix against your body eliminating air gaps. That bladder in itself is an excellent wind block and should the heat fail doesn’t totally leave you in the cold. Always pack an extra thick warm top to swap to if your heated gear should fail. These have helped me stay out in temperatures down to -20F for hours on end.
As I mentioned earlier, you can get away without wearing expensive and bulky glove liners or heated gloves if you use bar muffs like the ones Wunderlich sells. I can ride in single digit, rainy weather, with only a lightweight pair of touchscreen-compatible gloves on and the grip heat set to 2 or 3.
If you can keep the wind and rain/snow/water off of your hands, you've gone a very long way in keeping them warm.
If you can keep the wind and rain/snow/water off of your hands, you've gone a very long way in keeping them warm.
I use barkbuster storm handguards on my fjr1300. They keep the winter wind from stripping away the heat from my warmnsafe glove liners at interstate speeds.
Protection. Can be bike specific. I didn’t need heated glove liners or handguards/muffs on my bmw. I need anything I can get on my FJR.
On a separate but related note- I cannot believe I waited so long to get triple digit rain covers. Easy to put on and remove on the road, and the first time I’ve been able to ride all day long in pouring rain and still have dry gloves, hands, and sleeves. A must-have in my book.
Protection. Can be bike specific. I didn’t need heated glove liners or handguards/muffs on my bmw. I need anything I can get on my FJR.
On a separate but related note- I cannot believe I waited so long to get triple digit rain covers. Easy to put on and remove on the road, and the first time I’ve been able to ride all day long in pouring rain and still have dry gloves, hands, and sleeves. A must-have in my book.