The springs and especially the autumns can be a bit of a hassle to a commuting biker up here in the north as when you are leaving for work there can be dense fog and the temperature can get to near, or at most extreme mornings below zero c:s, so to extend your riding season you`d want to gear up on all those detachable thermal linings you might have on your jacket and pants and put on the long johns etc. and move around like robocop cause you`re so tightly packed with clothes you can barely turn your head. The problem is when you get out from work the same day you rode in around frozen puddles the temp can be as high as +15 or up to 20c:s and if you`re not carrying big bags for the surplus clothing you`re facing a sauna on two wheels while riding back home.

There`s an easy solution to this problem, but it`ll cost you dearly.
Electric thermal clothing.

There are a few internationally known brands like Nevercold or KLAN but they have a few little problems:

The first of all you might have guessed already is the price. A fleece jacket with electric radiators of the mentioned brands can cost up to 200eur which is waaay too much I have to spend on something like this.

The second problem is the power. Most of these products are really made to tackle the most extreme weather so the power of the elements can go up to 70w which in normal "+5c weather" is too much and especially when fitted under a riding jacket will bake you.

The third problem is what I`ve read from another forums about the gear is they are mostly designed for hunting and trekking so when fitted under riding gear they will feel uncomfortable and the wiring will press on your elbows and such.

But fear not for there is a VERY cost effective solution for this.

DIY. The idea is not my own as trying to study the subject I bumped into a thread in another forum that had very similar build so I could make this one according to the OP.



So I went to a local car parts shop to buy a universal car seat heater for 16,99. The remaining parts I already had.



I unscrewed the anti-tug piece and saved it for later use.



I then flipped the heater and cut the cloth covering the thing off to reveal the heater wire. It was adhered to a some kind of paper that could be pretty easily ripped apart after making a few cuts with a carpet knife.





Quite a bit of wire there, 11,26m to be precise. Was a bit of a challenge to loose it all into one jacket.





Crummy pics but if someone wants to see that was the pattern I ended up with after some trial and error. The duct tape is not the final solution as I will be getting the inner jacket to my moms so she can sow the wires into place.

More updates coming later.

 

Outstanding idea and work. Hey where I live, the duct tape thing might be a normal fashion statement.
I wonder if it would be possible to add a small, flat battery pack of some kind. That might eliminate the need for plugging it in while you are riding.

 

Nice job Matt, great ingenuity. Anyone can throw money at a problem, but I always like to see inventive solutions that circumnavigate the expense.

Post up a pic after your Mom has added her finishing touch.

Do you think your charging system will take the extra load ?

 

The Nevercold jackets do have a battery pack option but they also have, to my knowledge, lower operating voltage and a transformer in the connecting wire to the bike, but they also cost. Over 200 with the wires and the batt pack even more.

I was actually thinking about the extra load too, but it only adds a 45 watt of load, no more than when I had auxiliary hi beams on a few years ago so I THINK I'll be good. Although I also think I still have the original R/R so I should probly be monitoring how hot it gets.

 

So, earlier today I fitted a new better cigarette lighter socket with thicker wires to my bike and took the jacket to my moms. We hit a little speedbump with the sewing thing, the duct tape actually has so sticky glue in it that when I started peeling it off I was constantly afraid the wire will snap so we decided not to sew the wire on and use it "as is" for now. The wire or the tape is completely invisible when in use cause they are on the outside of the inner thermal lining of the jacket, the only visible change is the wire coming out from under the jacket just behind the left pocket. You cannot feel the wires at all, you can sense the tape because the cloth is somewhat stiffer than before due to the zigzag pattern covering the lower back but it is not at all uncomfortable to wear. The tape will probably start to peel at some point and stick to the rain lining but if it causes problems I`ll just rip the whole thing out and buy another seat heater, they are only 17eur so I think I can live with that...

So, come nightfall I went for a little test ride. The weather was almost ideal to do a test like this as it had just stopped raining and it was very foggy and wet, albeit not that cold so I left the zipper open a bit and rode some 20km into the countryside until I started to feel a litte nippy, turned around, dug the plug from my pocket, plugged in and took off back home. After a minute or so I suddenly felt a wave of warmth spreading through my shoulder blades and upper back, yess it works! The arms don`t, as expected as only one wire runs back and forth, feel warm, but they do get to "not cold". I also noticed that when my shoulders get warm the numbness and cold partially disappears from my fingers too. The lower back only feels warm when I ride at downtown speeds but the nasty draft that got me to doing this in the first place is completely gone. I`ve got cold to my back twice so bad that one time I was not able to straighten myself for 11 days and sitting down or getting up was pure hell, I`d reckon this contraption should prevent that from happening!

180 eur saved for something else. The front tire starts to get a bit bald, think I should invest the savings there...

 

Great result Matt.

Believe me, you don't want to let yourself get that cold, you'll pay for it later in life

 

Good result Matti !
I think I should advise you not to wear it in the rain - a few years back a friend of mine borrowed a heated flight suit from his brother who was a pilot in the airforce. We were all envious until the day we were caught in a rain storm and the next thing the fellow rode his bike off the road, fell to the ground, pulling at the suit, rolling on the ground. It turned out the suit had shorted due to the water - he ended up with red lines all over his body for a couple of weeks....................LoL
So by all means wear the suit but remember the story - hehehe

 

So Pete, you mean he was literally toasty

Would be interesting to see the construction of the flight suit, Matti's version may be better insulated, everything looks plastic coated to me.

 

Haha yea probly a sight to remember. I did take that into consideration though. I fitted a marine grade splashproof lighter socket with a rubber cap and insulated the connectors the best I could with vulcanizing electric tape so it won't short on it's own. I try to avoid riding in rain in the first place so probly won't have an issue there. Although that one could be a bit hard to overheat as the only situation I can think of is that a water droplet would find it's way inside the thermostat housing (basically just heatshrink tube) and short the legs bypassing it. That however is highly unlikely as the thermostat sits behind my left pocket beween duct tape and the rain lining bembrane between the inner and the actual jacket. Not impossible but unlikely. I'd have to be soaked to the bone for that to happen.

 

I know some of our guys and girls have heated waistcoats, so the idea is great.
For me, I need the opposite - a cooled suit for the summer here. Last year we had temps of 48C on my friends bike temp gauge - that's air temp, the road is a lot hotter.
So come on you lot, design a "wetsuit" for those of us in need

Steve, the pattern on my friends skin was in a "grid", like many small squares, like a barbeque grill. I guess a flightsuit has very little between the skin and the electrodes, but as for the construction, sorry, can't help. They have to be good - the temps in fighter planes gets down to -60 or so I'm told. Numnuts becomes a real possibility LoL