Ducati Monster Forum

Got a Tourmaster heated jacket for Christmas. Hooked it up directly to the battery with the supplied coaxial cable lead and in-line 15amp fuse; took 10 minutes.  My kind of "mod."

Went for a 40 minute highway cruise this afternoon; 42 degrees.  Leather non-perf jacket, t-shirt and non-perf leather pants.  Warm and toasty, no worries, jacket set on "Low".  

There are three heat settings with this jacket: High, Medium, and Low.  Scanning the TM Product Guide indicates that "Low" is 126.5 degrees; "Medium" works at a max of 150.8 and "High" gens out an impressive 167.9 degrees, the approximate temperature at which skin turns to vapor.

With a wind chill in the upper 30's, the Low setting was perfect.  I started the ride with the jacket set on Medium, but after about ten minutes it felt like a sauna.  I can't imagine what kind of weather conditions would warrant High so Low is how I rode  ;D

The jacket has full length sleeves and a turtle neck with heat coils through out, in addition to the heating elements in the main body of the jacket.  Buy a size that will fit snug; Airspace = Bad.

A heated jacket should extend my riding season by a good month or two so let's ride  [evil]

Here's a link for the jacket:  http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?action=post;msg=817675;topic=45270.0;sesc=15ac7c1f63eefb7eb1740d420aa77743 (http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?action=post;msg=817675;topic=45270.0;sesc=15ac7c1f63eefb7eb1740d420aa77743)

Neat stuff! [thumbsup] My biggest problem with riding in that kind of temp is watering eyes. That cold air makes them tear up big time and it's real distraction. Takes my mind off my freezing torso and limbs! [laugh]

I bet you rode the Triumph.  Just a guess. [moto]

The 999 already has a built in heater. [laugh]

Roger that  [laugh]  But I do have an adaptor for the Duc SAE plug that works the battery tender.


Yep.  As OFT noted, the SBK has a distinct advantage in colder weather with it's built in bun warmer. The air-cooled Speedie produces no engine heat so the real test for the Tourmaster jacket was the Triumph.


Two other observations from the test ride yesterday; the jacket has pre-wired leads for TM heated pants and gloves, but once your "core" body temperature is warm, I think the heated pants would be overkill.  The tips of my fingers though still got unreasonably frozen but I think before I shell out the coin for the heated gloves I'll get an after market set of heated grips and see it that does the trick.

 [beer]

Thanks for sharing the results of your new heated jacket. It's timely, as I was heading to Maxim's Honda tomorrow to price out some Gerbing heated gear for extending my riding this winter. I'll be sure to look at "exact fitting" of the jacket liner as you suggested. Thanks.  [thumbsup]

Heated grips wouldn't do me a lot of good. I tend to just rest the palm of my hand on the grip and barely wrap my thumb and index finger around it. I drape all the other fingers over both levers. Winter gloves and liners for me. But I do hate the way they kill the feel. I'm screwed either way. The fingers are frozen with no feel or all gloved up and no feel. [bang]

Have any of you guys used nitrile gloves under your regular riding gloves?  I've heard of this 'trick' from a couple of off-road guys, but I've never tried it myself.  They are supposed to be great at blocking the wind from getting to your digits... nothing about ambient temps, but some cats swear by them.

I have a set of grip heaters that I bought last year and still haven't installed...   :-[

Don't know about the nitrile glove trick. Does nitrile breath? If it didn't I would think your hands would perspire then that moisture would get cold making matters worse. But what do I know? Never worn nitrile gloves. I don't have a problem with germs or leaving my fingerprints around. [laugh]

That's my take on nitrile gloves too.  When I "work" on my bike I'll wear nitrile gloves.  Granted it usually isn't freezing cold in my garage when I'm working but the gloves don't breath and water inside builds up in 10 or 15 minutes.  YRMV  ;D

One more thing about the Tourmaster Jacket; Gerbing gloves work with this jacket too.

Here's a link for Gerbing Gloves:  http://www.gerbing.com/Products/Gloves/T5.html (http://www.gerbing.com/Products/Gloves/T5.html)

And another for TM Gloves: http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/catalog/Synergy-Electric-Gloves-p-260_59.html (http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/catalog/Synergy-Electric-Gloves-p-260_59.html)

I think at least two riders on this forum use Gerbing equipment and in talking with them over the last couple of winter riding seasons, they're happy with the performance.

I've also added a Tourmaster jacket link for my original post.  This is the Tourmaster website and shows the price for the jacket at 200 bucks.  Most online shops will routinely have it for sale at 180.  This price includes the jacket controller/three way switch.  Not sure if Gerbing gear is priced like that so that may be one thing to check if you're in the market for heated gear.

I've got a Gerbing long sleeve mock turtle jacket liner, & the gloves, & they are awesome! They Gerbing has a continuous rheastat, not just low-med-high. Mucho Nice [thumbsup]
Kept me warm whilst riding in sleet & snow in Utah.

Heated gear is good stuff!   [thumbsup]
The pant liners are nice too -but only really needed for long trips in the cold.

+1

Got the Gerbings last year and love it.  Good technology and adjustability on the controller.  I have leather overpants (not assless chaps like m-rat) and haven't needed the pants liner down to high 20's.  Keeping the thorax and fingers warm is the key.  Plus a balaclava when below 40 or so.  My eyeballs still get cold though. 

I'm guessing Gerbings has better fitment on the jacket liners (not familiar with Tourmaster).  They have very good fitment charts and sizes for various girths and armlengths so you can get it just right.  The Honda shop in Allen(?) has a really good sales rep that knows his sheet.  He can get you fitted perfectly.

Their gloves are nice with a few options.  There is one with pretty good protection, no hard armor that I recall, but good leather protection for sport riders.  Still lousy feel compared to racing-type gloves, but for winter you can't expect too much.  Just be happy you're in Texas and not Wyoming, and suck it up.  [beer]

It's Maxim Honda, next door (due South in the next parking lot) from Harley Davidson.  :)

That's where I got mine.   [thumbsup]

O.K. so here's a plot twist for you - my jacket controller croaked and the jacket won't function without it.

The jacket came from New Enough so I'll give them a call in the morning.  I do know the controllers are available separately but it will be interesting to see how they want to handle it.

Will keep you posted.

I wear my old ski gear underneath. Any pics of these
anyone wired up for this stuff?  Just asking.

Wired up with the jacket or ski gear?

neat. i'd like a heated jacket and gloves

I called NewEnough (now known as MotorcycleGear.com) this afternoon.  They called Tour Master in California and they're sending me a new jacket controller directly.  Total time on the phone, less than five minutes.  No drama, no costs to me.  Yea.

NewEnough rocks.

+1  I like those guys.  [thumbsup]

if this shitty weather doesn't improve I'm going to be forced into buying one.  [bang]

In my recent exhaustive experiments with motorcycling and frostbite  [roll]  cold hands are still an issue at sub 30 degress even with a fully operational electric jacket cranked to "BROIL".  Tourmaster, thoughtfully, makes matching electric gloves that plug in neatly to the end of the jacket sleeves that cost about 150 bucks  :-X

So naturally I cheaped-out and went to CycleGear yeasterday and bought a pair glove liners, bigger winter goalie mitts gloves and a balaclava (all the Alpinestar winter gloves were 25 bucks on sale, BTW).

I guess if all that doesn't work, then it's time for some heated grips; pitch the new winter gloves and liners.  Go back to my old single layer gloves (at least I'll still have the Steven Sagal stealth-ninja balaclava...)  Gettin' a mental picture now, are 'ya?   [laugh]

And if the heated grips don't work, I'm gonna' be totally pissed because for the money I just spent I could have bought the plug-n-play Tourmaster heated gloves.  Yesterday.  [bang]  

Strange how that always seems to happen...

I tried liners and "winter" gloves from Cycle Gear. I fianlly broke down and got the G3 Gerbing's heated gloves last season. Those along with a balaclava and my Joe Rocket Meteor, I'm pretty comfy!

I'm a big fan of the G3 gloves.    [thumbsup]

Balaclava makes a big difference [thumbsup]. Layers ending
with wind protection and GoreTex have done me well.
I don't know sh1t about electric gear except for my
electric blanket.  ;D

For years I did the same.

If I go back to riding without heated gear, I'm going kicking and screaming.  [laugh]

Same here, though I only went a year w/out. The Gerbings was an investment for sure, but one of the best ones I made. I've got the jacket liner and gloves with the dual temp controller. I can go all day in sub-freezing with that combo and though my legs can get a little chilly, my core's warm enough to still be comfortable.

I'll go ahead and show my ignorance.................

How can you tell if your bikes electrical system can handle the additional load?

+1. I've never hookedanything up the the
2 pronged thingy poking out :P

With the tourmasterr jacket, the tourmaster-supplied lead that comes off the battery terminals has an inline blade fuse.  The fuse is rated at "7.5" (amps?) 

The jacket itself uses very little juice but I guess if your bike already had a couple of other accessories running, you might have an issue.

"Amps" <--I think it should have a capital "A" (I may be wrong about that) ...even though it is a slang.

an Ampere is a measure of the amount of electric charge passing a point per unit time.  
6241000000000000000 electrons, or one coulomb, passing a given point each second constitutes one ampere.

...so just multiply by 7.5 to solve how many electrons are whizzing around you in those wires in your jacket.

No wonder you feel warm!  [laugh]