Electric Vests

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ScooterG...did you ever get your heated clothing and associated hook ups taken care of? I'm in the market for this stuff (SOON!!) in order to attend White Stag in Jan. HELP!

 
Could be electric vest harmful due to elctromagnetic field?
If you are worried about this you probably shouldn't even consider the risk of riding a motorcycle...... :D :D :D
Nice smile!

Risk of cancer is included into the Bike riding risk :unsure: ?
No but the risk of some brain dead cager taking you out is far greater than any risk from any electromagnetic field.

 
Could be electric vest harmful due to elctromagnetic field?
If you are worried about this you probably shouldn't even consider the risk of riding a motorcycle...... :D :D :D
Nice smile!

Risk of cancer is included into the Bike riding risk :unsure: ?
Good lord some people are stoopid. everyone knows this:

The wiring in your house will cause cancer from EMFs.

The wiring on your motorcycle will cause cancer from EMFs.

The power lines next to the road you are riding on will cause cancer from EMF's

You will only be safe from EMFs if you sell all of your possessions and go live in a Teepee, just make sure it is nowhere near those evil power lines.

Oh yeah, I forgot...Sunspots cause bursts of electromagnetic fields to travel across the earth. If the earth is made of igneous rock it will conduct geomagnetically induced currents, which will cause cancer from EMF's.

Basically you are screwed, you are going to get cancer and DIE :alien:

So you should call in sick and go riding :D

 
Hmmm, I ran aux lights and heat-trollers on my Concours (with a weaksauce alternator) and never encountered that problem, even on long rides.
Perhaps our aux lighting is different?

To do a comparison you'd need to know: spare watts available and the load placed on the system by the various aux items (for both bikes).

 
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So the first questions I have are:
1)  What type of controller should I get?  The Widder Electronic Controller?  Or a Heat-troller from WarmNSafe.com?  Recently, I have seen people recommend the Heat-troller a lot?  Why?
I, for one, would really like to see more comments on this question. What about the Gerbings controller?
Rumor is that Gerbing's controller is an unauthorized knock off of the first generation heat troller. Gerbing used to sell the HT under license. They sent it off shore and got it reverse engineered and then started selling "their controller". HT found a design problem, fixed it, and replaced all genuine HT's at no cost to the owners. Gerbings knock off is unchanged from that first generation copy they made.

My choice for gear: Widder vest and arm chaps (it's designed to layer under your additional layers to keep the heat in while the Gerbing is a liner that layers push farther and farther away from you so the heat isn't contained as effiently). The arm chaps are as easy as sliding into sleeved liners once you have them set up right.

I've been using the in-line Widder digital controller for tens of thousands of miles now (since about 1999 iirc) and it just keeps on working. If I were to look elsewhere it'd be to Heat Troller.

 
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A whole bunch of hours with the Gerbing's (jacket liner, union ridge pants, gloves)and no problems whatsoever. I run everything off of 1 controller that has a belt clip and never had a problem with one body part being too cold while another was too hot. It just seems to work well together. I have heard some people say the gloves don't get warm enough. I heard Gerbings will double the wiring at no charge if that's what you want done.

BTW - Unless they changed something, Gerbings never goes on sale. However, HD puts outerware on sale occaisionally and, due to the sale, I was able to get the HD version of the Gerbings liner and controller for a couple bucks less than the regular Gerbings. It's the same stuff - just with an HD label on it. And, since it's a jacket liner, so, you don't see it.

If I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way. I toyed with the idea of getting the union ridge jacket, but, the liner folds up small and packs away nicely. Works good under my mesh jacket for those warm days/cool nights.

So, until I start running into a power consumption problem, I'll stick with the Gerbings. It'll work real well with the red '07 FJR with the upgraded charging system :D

 
'Nother Gerbings fan here. I don't like Widder's arm chap concept since when I'm cold enough for a vest I'm cold enough for a complete liner. I'd heard some controversy over their electronic controller but it works fine for me. No way would I consider a simple switch.

One of my buddies has a Widder vest and he swears by it. So maybe you can't go wrong.

 
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