1st world problem

[bamamate]

I went the Cycle Gear route last year for heated gear. Got glove liners, jacket, pants, and sole inserts. Freaking awesome!!! The jacket has permanent wires for the glove liners or heated gloves. Zippered compartment at your wrist holds the connector. Pretty sure other brands work the same. Pants work the same with a connector for the sole liners to plug into. I went with glove liners so I could wear them with different gloves.

 

[Beemerphile]

I have a couple questions about heated jackets. Do they come wired up for gloves? If not, do they have loops or tabs to put the wires through so they dont come out when you take off the jacket?

I got tired of having to wrestle with the wires last year. In the end, it's always worth the hassle to have warm hands, but it is a hassle.

Nearly all of them come with the gloves pre-wired. Normally they can be separated for dual controls or ganged to a single controller.

 

[itlives]

Nearly all of them come with the gloves pre-wired. Normally they can be separated for dual controls or ganged to a single controller.

Thanks Beemmeuphile!

Bama - I'll check out Cycle Gear. Thanks, I didn't think about them.

 

[waytoobusy]

Too late on the jacket, Beemer. I just bought a Goretex jacket for the rains sure to come with fall. I like layering up anyway. I camp a lot and use the layers as the night wears on. You are right on about the cold rain. BTW- this is for my Super Tenere. I ran up to N. Ark and got some panniers from Bug Dr. and he mentioned something about the rains/grips/cold. On the way back, it was just like he said. I didn't have my waterproof gloves with me but it was like a sauna in the wet gloves!
I'll keep both. I'm pretty good at wiring so I think wiring the gloves and the vest to a dual controller should be easy enough even though all three are from different manufacturers.
It's going to be a good winter!

FWIW- I'll be 60 in Dec but don't have arthritis anywhere!

Who is this Bug Dr. and where is he located? I would like to add panniers to my NC, but Honda is very proud of their products. I am close to Fayetteville.

 

[bamamate]

Bug Dr, Mike, is in Russellville. He was an NC owner but moved to the S10 a year or so ago. He likes giant over weight bikes like the SuperTen and ST1300.

For panniers there are multiple threads out here on the options which there are a lot of options. Soft, hard, plastic, metal, swoopy, blocky…… I personally went with SWMotech mounts since there are adapters for most all panniers available.

 

[bamamate]

Thanks Beemmeuphile!

Bama - I'll check out Cycle Gear. Thanks, I didn't think about them.

Cycle Gear isn't the top quality but for the price and a 3 or 5 year (forget which it is) warranty, I decided to try then and have been pleased. The sales guy said the heated gloves are warmer than the liners. He rides year round and keeps them on med/low. Since I don't have heated grips I wanted more flexibility so went with the liners which have worked well for me. I wear them with my Gortex summer gloves until it gets really cold and then use them with the bulky winter gloves.

It is nice riding in the winter without wearing ten layers and still getting cold. Now I get cold when off the bike. When we camped last spring and it was cold in the morning, I put on the pants/jacket and plugged in for a few minutes to warm up.
You do want the jacket and pants to fit snug. They need to be close to the body to work.

 

[itlives]

Who is this Bug Dr. and where is he located? I would like to add panniers to my NC, but Honda is very proud of their products. I am close to Fayetteville.

The panniers I got from him are for the Tenere. I think for long trips on the NC some soft bags are a better idea than hard.
I have Shad 36's and they knock my mileage down to 46 mpg (when I go 80 mph). Bamamate has the best soft bags I've ever seen (can't remember the brand) but I would go with something like Nelson Rigg and some Givi or SWMotech racks. It's not that I'm cheap....I'm poor.
If I did as much off-road as Bama, I would "find" the money for the same bags he has.
For everyday riding, a good top box and the frunk are all anyone needs (according to me -lol).

 

[Thangmorian]

THUMBS! It was always about the thumbs for me.

On my V-strom I had the zuki hand guards (Just wind deflectors really) and zuki heated grips. I also had Olympia Moto Sports black leather waterproof winter gloves. And well my hands and fingers were toasty but my thumbs were always cold, and numb. Now it could be that I have weird monkey thumbs or something and they stick out or something, and maybe my gloves were not the best, but damn my thumbs were always cold, and everything else was toasty. My commute was 25 miles one way and I wouldn't ride any colder than 20f. I had no other heated gear. I would always end up tucking my thumb up under my palm so it would get some heat.

So I would go with heated gloves and hand guards, but make sure the heated gloves have wires in the fingers and thumbs.

That being said I got a new pair of waterproof winter gloves from Olympia Moto Sports that are safety yellow, thicker, and gauntlet style. They were good on the MP3 down to 30f with no heated grip and no hand guards.

I'm still voting for heated gloves, but probably will put heated grips on the NC instead of buying more gloves. I have a lot of gloves.

Go Your Own Way!