Hey Ron- I'm interested. But I have questions.
First gear is great stuff. My wife's jacket is FG. Mine is Olympia and I really love the feel and fit. At the moment I'm leaning toward the Olympia jump suit style cold weather suit (~$400). My thing is speed of in/out. I plan on using it over street clothes back & forth to work, etc. It has to be 'one button simple' or I won't use it long.
I'm in Texas so it rarely gets below 30. But I like the idea of powered heaters at key points with controls. On in the morning off in the afternoon. Add gloves and one of those neck/head things. Cost is not a huge issue. Flexibility, quality way above average, every option available... That's what I look for.
So- hearing that.... Should I still try the FG complete set?
Thanks bro.
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Everyone has a different idea of what is ideal, that is why there are so many options out there. As mentioned before, some gear includes the heat controller and some don't. Each has it's benefits and I am not sure what the price to price cost is when you compare the two. Getting the heat controller separate usually gives you more options. Gettting it built in or with the garment usually is less expensive.
I can tell you that the Firstgear stuff is very good quality and it will definitly keep you warm. Heated gear gives you a lot of flexability because you can turn it up or turn it off. It isn't bulky, just the opposite. The jacket, pants, socks are very thin and you really don't know you're wearing them. You can wear street cloths over them.
The Heat-Troller comes in many varieties from hard wired/installed on the bike (like what I have) to remote control that you can put in your pocket and other in-between options.
Again, I can't speak for all of the units out there. The Heat-Troller uses pulse heating. In otherwords, set at 50% the Heat-Troller sends full voltage to the garment 1/2 of the time and zero voltage 1/2 of the time. This really conserves energy, a good idea on the somewhat anemic Spyder charging system.
Pulse controllers manage heat by regulating the time energy is sent to the garment, very efficient. Non-pulse controllers manage heat by regulating the amount of voltage continually sent to the garment wasting a lot of energy, depending on how high you have it set. The higher the setting, the less energy wasted, the lower the setting the more energy wasted.
Set to 50%, the non-pulse controller continously sends 1/2 of the available voltage to the garment and wastes the unused energy. They will use about the same amount of energy turned all the way up as they do at a low setting. Not a good idea with the Spyder because of our rather anemic charging system.
You just want to avoid a non-pulse controller.
Most people in reasonably cold conditions will run between 20%~50% of the heating capabiliby of electric gear. With a pulse controller you're really not using that much energy. The Gloves are 15w each (30watts). The jacket is 65w or 90w depending on which one you get. With the wrong kind of controller you'll be using about 120 watts pretty much all the time (higher output jacket). With a pulse controller you'll cut that at least in 1/2 and probabaly closer to 2/3's in most condidtions.
Add the passenger gloves (another 30 watts total), the pants, (15 watts) and socks (18 watts for both) and you're looking at over 180 watts. If you passenger is also going to add jacket, pants, socks the pulse controller looks even better.
The main thing is to know what you need and know the product. Somewhat tough in this cybernetic age but still just as important.
opcorn:
