My Experience with Heated Motorcycle Clothing

Summary: Not long ago I had no idea about heated motorcycle clothing. I researched the topic and bought some heated liners and socks. 20,000km later I have enough experience to state how great, practical and useful heated motorcycle clothing really is.

My quick assessment:

• I am glad I bought this stuff!
• I would not want to ride without it!
• I was more comfortable on the bike than my wife at home (I am not kidding).
• I used the gear basically all the time during the second half of my trip Around Australia.
• I can highly recommend it.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Clothing Setup in the Past
• Heated Clothing Research
• Experience
• Present Clothing Setup
• Heated Clothing Conclusion

Introduction

Not long ago I posted questions regarding the usefulness of heated clothing. I had not clue; in fact, I almost felt this is something for whimps and old farts like me, who are getting softer as we get older. The latter may hold true, the question about using heated clothing is most certainly a valid and serious one.

Questions like these prove to me — over and over — how prejudiced people are. While I may have initial doubts, I quickly push them aside and start putting different hats on, exploring the pros and cons surrounding a particular topic; so with this one.

Usually a need drives the initial analysis. At the time I had plans to go Around Australia on my maxi-scooter, a Suzuki Burgman 650 Executive. The planned timeframe would present me with temperatures ranging from 40 plus degrees Celsius in North Australia, to as low as 0 °C in the bottom (southern) parts of Australia. When I was thinking about the type of clothing I had to take with me on this trip, it came quickly apparent that I would need a similar range of thermal qualities in the clothes I had to take with me.

Time is another aspect I had to consider; time as in: how long would I be exposed to the environment, or the duration of the daily ride. I had an idea to ride 24,000 km in 40 days, or 600 km on average per day. This means six to eight hours in the saddle per day, depending on road conditions and the number of stops I would have along the way.

I do regular 1,000 km plus day trips, and remembered quite vividly, the type of clothing arrangement I would start the day with, how I changed this set-up during the day, and in most cases ended up in the evening in the way I started the day. The temperate range on the day would determine which layers got removed and added during the day.

Clothing Setup in the Past

Looking at long-range weather forecasts and historic weather data, it became clear what temperature range I would be exposed to. Days with differences in temperature of 20 degrees Celsius were highly likely.
I remembered a recent 1,000 km day, where I started out at 8 °C, almost 30 °C around noon, and 11 °C upon arrival back home. On that day I started with:

1. Top:
   1. Long-sleeve under shirt
   2. Sweatshirt
   3. Winter jacket
   4. Quilted liner for the winter jacket
   5. Autumn / spring gloves
2. Bottom:
   1. Long johns
   2. Kevlar jeans
   3. Armoured motorcycle pants
   4. Quilted liner for motorcycle pants
   5. Long socks
   6. Motorcycle waterproof boots

During the day I removed quilted liner for the winter jacket, quilted liner for motorcycle pants, I wished I had a T-shirt rather than a sweat shirt, and eventually removed the armoured motorcycle pants. To get some cooling on the top, I changed the autumn/spring gloves to summer gloves.

After feeling comfy for a while, I put the layers on in reverse order; except, I did not feel like motorcycle pants, which ultimately led to cold legs, because I was to lazy to stop and rather endured this state for the couple of hours home.

It is easy to recognise the number of stops required to reduce, add or change clothing during the day!

Another factor is wind chill. Motorcyclist, even cyclists are well aware of the wind and its cooling property in relation to speed. The former becomes more evident and effective with increased speed. Without going into the mathematical details, the wind chill at 100 km/h will drop the experienced temperature, by 10 °C compared to the ambient temperature! This is significant, and many motorcyclist / cyclists do not factor this into the equation when setting themselves up for the day.
A nice 30 °C autumn day becomes a 20 °C experience for the rider. The 8 °C I mentioned earlier will translate to an already chilling −2 °C.

To cut a long story short: sitting on a bike for a day may allow for mistakes in the apparel set-up, but it does not cut it on continuous and longer riding days. The other aspect is fatigue management. Again in short: the colder the core body temperature, the quicker tiredness and fatigue kicks in; health impacts, such as heart attacks, and frozen limbs not even considered.

Heated Clothing Research

I had already selected the clothes I was going to take on the trip. I understood my set-up was more than I liked to take with me, and more than I liked to change on a daily basis. I was expecting to be in colder territory once I would reach Perth on my anti-clockwise journey around Australia — all the way home to Brisbane on Australia's east coast.

I started my research by reading about heated clothing and clothing such as underwear on various international forums, such as adventure rider forums, and more so long distance rider forums. It quickly became apparent that — in particular the experienced riders — make regular if not exclusive use of heated gear and specifically designed underwear. Wow! I was impressed by what I read; the arguments pro heated and under garment where clear, logical and convincing.

Further research identified the key candidates to purchase from, and… I made a quick decision to buy a heated jacket and pant liner, plus heated socks. At first I thought: Max, you are in Australia, the socks seem to be an overkill. I also took into account how my feet play a vital part in my perception and management of body heat. I know of quite a few riders, including myself, where as long as the feet are warm, the body endures cold far better. Once I am cold, I will only get / feel warm after my feet are warm. Why muck around? The cost of the socks was negligible, considering their potential for making a significant difference — and I ordered a pair of heated socks too.

I Bought Heated Clothes

After my heated gear arrived, I quickly did a dry run. I pulled a car battery charger out of the workshop, hooked up the individual pieces of heated clothing, and… almost felt I had bought gear far too powerful — speak warm — clothing. The clothes got so hot, I almost felt a burning sensation. Oops. What have I done? Well, I realised that I did not connect the heat controller — a device that allows stepless adjustments to the heat output of the particular garment — and was blasting full energy into the pieces of heated clothing.

I had not time to road test the heated clothing before I went on my trip, though had an idea on how to make use of it. I also expected to wear the heated gear after reaching Perth, half way on my trip around Australia.

I made significant changes to the number and type of clothing I was going to take on my trip. I reduced the number of items I carried with me. I will focus on the heated clothing in this report, though would like to mention that another factor for reducing the number of clothing items was the purchase of LD Comfort underwear. The latter has a lesser impact on temperature experience and a greater impact on the number of clothing items to carry.

Experience

What I was going to experience on my actual trip Around Australia was an unexpected surprise and a steep learning curve.

While I was expecting to wear the heated gear after Perth, 21 days and 12,000 km into the trip, I put them on day 3! I knew how different people have a different approach to wearing the heated clothing, I had yet not discovered my preference for optimal wear and effect. I sometimes wonder why I and others sometimes behave the way we do. It was raining on and off on day 3 of my trip. The rain was not strong enough to warrant full-blown lock down with full wet suit and diving hood. Yet the neck tube was already leaking the odd drop into the neck. The water then had a cooling effect. I opted to put the heated jacket liner on, to achieve both, drying the inner layer and warming the body. It worked like a charm. Marvellous; a cosy feeling; simply great!

Present Clothing Setup

So, rather than deliberately reporting that here is when I was doing what when, I show the following list in contrast to the clothing change action list above:

1. Top:
   1. Long-sleeve LD Comfort shirt
   2. T-shirt
   3. Heated liner
   4. Air-mesh adventure (long) jacket;
      Once the ambient temperature was below 20 °C I added the quilted liner to the jacket
   5. Autumn / spring gloves
2. Bottom:
   1. LD Comfort undies;
      Knee-long for warmer / northern half of the trip; long version for second, colder, southern part of the trip
   2. Heated liner
   3. Kevlar jeans
   4. Long socks, plus heated socks for second half of the trip
   5. Motorcycle waterproof boots

I used the heat-controller unit to adjust the heat output of the socks and liners as required. What constituted a clothing change in the past was now a minor adjustment to the heat-output of the liners as required. I made use of the full range of adjustments; from all off to 3/4 on.

The installation and operation of the extra components for the heated clothing is easy, and does not pose a burden on handling and managing the ride. I am using two heat controllers, one for the jacket liner, and one for the pant liner and socks. This set-up has the advantage of controlling the upper and lower body separately. E.g. the upper body could receive warmth directly from the sun, while the lower body in the shade does not; hence, the lower body requires more heat input than the upper body.

Heated Clothing Conclusion

My initial scepticism towards heated motorcycle clothing was — within days of using it — turned into a strong, supporting stance for heated motorcycle clothing.

Instead of stopping multiple times during a full day trip in order to change clothes, I can now adjust the temperature I feel with the turn of a knob on my dashboard, and without changing any clothing for that matter. The convenience, as well as the health-related benefits, outweighs the cost for the heated clothing by far.

I wish I had bought heated clothing much earlier. If you ride long distance, heated clothing is a must. It reduces stopping time, ensures core body temperature is maintained, significant reduces energy loss and associated fatigue, and eliminates cold spells. If you ride longer day trips you will find heated clothing very convenient, to the point that the general dislike of riding during the colder seasons is removed, encouraging and allowing you to ride more often.

Enjoy!

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