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Picking where I left off on my cold weather commuting learning experience here, I picked up a little more experience and wisdom about widgets being wired to the bike.  I also learned the difference between 45F comfort and 33F comfort.  Finally, creature comforts need to be reliable for them to be enjoyed.  As you might be able to tell, day #2 & #3 of riding downtown was not all hugs and puppies.  In fact, some of it sucked.

Day #1 was in the 40’s in the morning all the way in.  I wore my jacket with a heated liner, boots, and street gloves.  Day #2 I wore the same gear and froze my arse off everywherre that was not covered.  I have heated grips, so the hands were OK, but my legs were cold to the bone and to the touch well into the morning…until about three hours after being in a heated classroom.  This surprised me as I figured I would be fine within minutes not hours.

Day #3 was the same cold as Day #2 so I opted for the full 1-pc Fieldsheer Highland Suit.  It’s fully lined, but the 1-pc design did not allow for the heated liner to be connected due to the power cable being too short.  The necessary routing due to having to go through pockets and around the fuel tank versusstraight through the bottom of the jacket.  NOTE:  The Powerlet plug is on the fron dashboard and is not the best location for heated clothing power.  Needless to say, I was much warmer as I still wore the heated liner as another layer.  I would not say I was toasty warm, but still cofortable.

Touching a little more on the Powerlet location, I struggled a little with that connection.  My Caponord had a power outlet right below the left thigh in riding position.  This would have been an ideal location for heated clothing.  The Futura has a factory wired pop-out to get a power source.  This location seems appropriate for radar detectors, GPS, an other peripherals that are bar mounted. 

My struggle was that the wire was just long enough to make the connection, and since I was sing a borrowed unit, I was not going to alter the length…that and I didn’t have the appropriate wire to do a ‘clean’ job.  Twice in three days, the socket needed fiddling with since power was not getting to the liner.  I don’t know if this was from simple vibration or body movements that forced it loose.  The second time was a little unnerving since when I was messing with the connection, it came out and was simply hanging down along the right side of the bike…almost dragging on the ground.  That sucked.  I was on a freeway at 80mph or so, eyes on the road and fishing for this floating wire, one hand on the bars and one hand fishing for this floating wire.  The result was aborting the heat connection and shoving the wad of wire & socket between my nuts and the tank until I got home.

Finally, my MP3 player took a dump.  Its a new Toshiba Gigabeat and out of the box I have had troubles with keeping a charge for more than a couple hours on the 12 HOUR BATTERY LIFE!  I have been on the phone with their customer service and online reading the forums.  Needless to say, I am not alone.  The unit is already on its way for repair…less than one month into ownership.

I received my Gerbings heated jacket and wired it for the same connection as the GM 2-prong Battery Tender connector.  This is a good deal because I’m able to use an existing, fused lead in a ery desireable location that works with both my jacket and 1-pc Highland suit.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it should work well.

This trial served as a reminder to me that details matter.  My little wiring ‘moment’ helped my think about a connection that short where if there is a disconnection, the loose wire length is minimized.  Finally, the cold sucks.  When in doubt, I plan on using the 1-pc suit because being cold for that long is no fun.

EDIT - 25Dec206:  I forgot to mention neck comfort.  The frst two days I went with the neck protection that only the jacket collars provide.  The version of the heated lined I borrowed (and my new one) have a heated collar.  The coverage was decent, but not full wind protection.  I felt it on Day #2 when the temperature was colder.  Day #3 I added a fleece ski-type collar and that did the trick.  I won’t be using this too much longer because its bulky and combersome to adjust with gloves on.  I have since ordered a cold weather balaclava from Under Armor.  That should be a good permanent fix.