My plans to spend $5000 on the Busa this year turned into $15000 worth of repairs on the crawl space of my house. I did get some new gear though. My thinking was to go touring oriented during the winter and sporty in the summer (bike can quickly be converted for summer trips), so I decided to try and extend my riding season to 12 months with some heated gear.
For the heated gear I decided to go with Gerbing gloves, jacket, & socks. The weather here isn't that severe so I figured I didn't need pants (heated pants that is - sorry for the ugly image!). This stuff is all very high quality and well thought out. I added 2 controls, one for jacket & golves and the other for the socks. It wasn't that cold here today (47 degrees F) but here is a quicky review:
Jacket: Very nice in every way - looks good enough to wear out! it would be nice if the cut were geared for a more squatty reaching riding position but I guess most heated gear guys are riding BMW's and sitting straight up. I would say order this on the big side but a loose heated jacket is next to useless. Anyway it worked fine and I'm a pretty big guy.
Gloves: The gloves were new but I found them very cumbersome. I am used to racing gloves, so I was struggling a bit with having a pillow between me and the hand controls of the bike. Also the gloves don't have any armoring, so that makes me a bit nervous. I have been hit in the knuckles before and i really want some hard stuff on my hands. With all that said, the gloves do work well. My hands stayed warm and comfy and most importantly there was no loss of feel in the fingers do to the cold. Bottom line is this gear is designed for the committed touring rider and not for an hour of hooliganing. Parctice putting on the gloves before your first gas stop or you will end up looking like a total idiot. You can't plug in the gloves with one on, so there is a process of pluggin everything in, then putting on each glove. I'm going to loose some riding buddies waiting for me to get all this stuff right!
Socks: These didn't work for me. I got the socks thinking there would be heating up the calfs. But there is only heating in the foot area and the rest is a thin material with a stretch band at the top. Problem number 1 is this means you can't wear a good pair of socks that insulate the calf area. Problem number 2 is the cord tie in is annoying when walking. These are clearly intended for a good set of insulated riding boots. If you boots aren't the winter type, go with the insole type heated gear so you can still wear thick socks. They do however work very well to keep the toes toasty.
Controllers: These I don't like. There are a couple issues. First, there is no positive "click" when the power is turned on. There is a slight "click", but good luck feeling that with gloves. Second the knobs are plastic and they don't have the little metal inserts that keep the shaft from stripping out the plastic. My knobs were already popping off after one ride (the controller's knobs, that is
). Third is the knob doesn't have a white mark so you know where it's set at a glance. Fourth, one of my controllers was seizing up after just one ride and I'll have to send it back. For gear of this quality, I think they cut too much quality on these IMHO. The knob and pots on the controls for something like this should be military quality - Gerbing needs to re-think this part of their system.
I also got a Cortech tank bag to hold all of this stuff. The bag is shaped and has a nice form to it. There are also several different sizes to pick from. These bags are not for stuffing like soft bags, but they look better and the larger one has a lot of space in it. The quality of this bag seems pretty good but we'll have to see if the shape holds up to the long and abusive road. These tank bags are held onto the bike by a clamp that screws into the ring around the gas cap. You buy the appropriate ring for your bike seperately (beware if you are ordering as there are no provisions for strapping this bag down). The bracket system is plastic, which was an immediate cause for concern and sure enough with gloved hands I broke off a part of it fumbling with it at the gas pump. The clamp still worked though and it's pretty handy. Still, I wonder how long the plastic clamp will last with gas splashing on it and the abuse of riding on a Hayabusa. I would feel much more comfortable with a strap option on this bag just in case the plastic fails on the road. Also this is not a bag for stuffing as that clamp doesn't look all that harty. Still, it looks tons better than the soft bags out there and is actually pretty handy once you get used to the clamp.
I installed the controls for the heated gear into the lid of the tank bag so I could easily adjust while riding. I don't know if this was a good idea as I found myself constantly fiddling with it! Anyway this is a very functional setup. The cords hang out of the back of the bag right there to plug the jacket into. All my other stuff went into the bag with room to spare (radar, ipod, visor spray, cleaning rag, baseball cap, clear visor, tool kit, extra fuses, tire kit, pocket knife and first aid kit). Only real concern is you can't just take the bag with you off the bike if theft is an issue (because of all the wiring going to it). BTW, I was concerned with all the bolts on the bag facing my paint on the gas tank but there was no problems with it contacting the paint so scratching shouldn't be an issue.
All in all I was happy with the setup. It needs a little adjustment and I really wish the controls on the heated gear were better. Nice thing is I can switch out to the smaller tank bag for summer riding or sporty riding - only takes a few minutes.
For the heated gear I decided to go with Gerbing gloves, jacket, & socks. The weather here isn't that severe so I figured I didn't need pants (heated pants that is - sorry for the ugly image!). This stuff is all very high quality and well thought out. I added 2 controls, one for jacket & golves and the other for the socks. It wasn't that cold here today (47 degrees F) but here is a quicky review:
Jacket: Very nice in every way - looks good enough to wear out! it would be nice if the cut were geared for a more squatty reaching riding position but I guess most heated gear guys are riding BMW's and sitting straight up. I would say order this on the big side but a loose heated jacket is next to useless. Anyway it worked fine and I'm a pretty big guy.
Gloves: The gloves were new but I found them very cumbersome. I am used to racing gloves, so I was struggling a bit with having a pillow between me and the hand controls of the bike. Also the gloves don't have any armoring, so that makes me a bit nervous. I have been hit in the knuckles before and i really want some hard stuff on my hands. With all that said, the gloves do work well. My hands stayed warm and comfy and most importantly there was no loss of feel in the fingers do to the cold. Bottom line is this gear is designed for the committed touring rider and not for an hour of hooliganing. Parctice putting on the gloves before your first gas stop or you will end up looking like a total idiot. You can't plug in the gloves with one on, so there is a process of pluggin everything in, then putting on each glove. I'm going to loose some riding buddies waiting for me to get all this stuff right!
Socks: These didn't work for me. I got the socks thinking there would be heating up the calfs. But there is only heating in the foot area and the rest is a thin material with a stretch band at the top. Problem number 1 is this means you can't wear a good pair of socks that insulate the calf area. Problem number 2 is the cord tie in is annoying when walking. These are clearly intended for a good set of insulated riding boots. If you boots aren't the winter type, go with the insole type heated gear so you can still wear thick socks. They do however work very well to keep the toes toasty.
Controllers: These I don't like. There are a couple issues. First, there is no positive "click" when the power is turned on. There is a slight "click", but good luck feeling that with gloves. Second the knobs are plastic and they don't have the little metal inserts that keep the shaft from stripping out the plastic. My knobs were already popping off after one ride (the controller's knobs, that is
). Third is the knob doesn't have a white mark so you know where it's set at a glance. Fourth, one of my controllers was seizing up after just one ride and I'll have to send it back. For gear of this quality, I think they cut too much quality on these IMHO. The knob and pots on the controls for something like this should be military quality - Gerbing needs to re-think this part of their system.I also got a Cortech tank bag to hold all of this stuff. The bag is shaped and has a nice form to it. There are also several different sizes to pick from. These bags are not for stuffing like soft bags, but they look better and the larger one has a lot of space in it. The quality of this bag seems pretty good but we'll have to see if the shape holds up to the long and abusive road. These tank bags are held onto the bike by a clamp that screws into the ring around the gas cap. You buy the appropriate ring for your bike seperately (beware if you are ordering as there are no provisions for strapping this bag down). The bracket system is plastic, which was an immediate cause for concern and sure enough with gloved hands I broke off a part of it fumbling with it at the gas pump. The clamp still worked though and it's pretty handy. Still, I wonder how long the plastic clamp will last with gas splashing on it and the abuse of riding on a Hayabusa. I would feel much more comfortable with a strap option on this bag just in case the plastic fails on the road. Also this is not a bag for stuffing as that clamp doesn't look all that harty. Still, it looks tons better than the soft bags out there and is actually pretty handy once you get used to the clamp.
I installed the controls for the heated gear into the lid of the tank bag so I could easily adjust while riding. I don't know if this was a good idea as I found myself constantly fiddling with it! Anyway this is a very functional setup. The cords hang out of the back of the bag right there to plug the jacket into. All my other stuff went into the bag with room to spare (radar, ipod, visor spray, cleaning rag, baseball cap, clear visor, tool kit, extra fuses, tire kit, pocket knife and first aid kit). Only real concern is you can't just take the bag with you off the bike if theft is an issue (because of all the wiring going to it). BTW, I was concerned with all the bolts on the bag facing my paint on the gas tank but there was no problems with it contacting the paint so scratching shouldn't be an issue.
All in all I was happy with the setup. It needs a little adjustment and I really wish the controls on the heated gear were better. Nice thing is I can switch out to the smaller tank bag for summer riding or sporty riding - only takes a few minutes.
