There are two words that I would use to describe Gerbing products, “expensive” and “quality.” They are expensive but if you want to stay warm, they are a good choice in Heated Clothing. The question, are they too expensive, is something you will need work through for yourself. I would suggest you ask yourself two questions. How much cold weather or year round riding do you do? How much do you hate being cold?

A coat liner at $210, or a vest at $139, pants liner at $199, classic gloves at $139 or G3 gloves at $169, and a dual temperature control at $99 and a single temperature control switch at $70 you get an idea of what I mean. If you do limited cold weather riding or if you are comfortable and never really get cold when you’re all bundled up, my guess you won’t be able to justify the money you will need to spend to purchase these clothes.

We were fortunate to find a great discounted price from RMCG. (Thanks Bob and Nick) Had that not been the case, even with the amount of year round riding we do, we would have been hard pressed to buy it.

That being said, if you you’re willing to shell out the big bucks to stay toasty, this is a great choice.

It isn’t hard to hook up. You have a fused pigtail that hooks directly to your battery and you can easily route the connector out from under your seat or side cover.  Your coat liner has a pigtail that hangs down on the left side just above the lower seam. When you sit down, just reach left and hook the two connectors together. The gloves hook into a connector extending down each sleeve of your liner.  

If you prefer to use the heated gloves by themselves without the liner, this is not a problem. Gerbing has thought of every combination of use and made it easy for you. When you purchase your gloves you get a fused pigtail for your battery and a “T” patch cord that takes the place of your coat liner. This patch cord runs up the back of your coat and down each sleeve. I would suggest you secure this patch cord with safety pins so it doesn’t cause any issues.

For a few dollars more, Gerbing also offers the dual temperature control switch. That gives you the ability to operate your gloves a little warmer than your other gear.

Hopefully giving us an idea how effective the Gerbing heated gear will be at the cooler temperatures we tested them several times in December. Not that it was exceptionally cold when we left the house, but 38 to 42 degrees should be cold enough to test the gear. More importantly, maybe even give us practice hooking up the cords in the coat liner and gloves so we don’t hang our self.

We turned the power on, by the time we got the cords connected and out of the way for travel we were at a very comfortable 114 degrees, sweat rolling down our cheeks and fogging glasses. This gear gets hot … quick! I have heard people forgo the temperature control switch and run it direct. I have no idea how you could do that. The temp control is a must in my opinion or you will roast.

We took several trips; the shortest was a 20 minute jaunt to breakfast, the longest was a 1.5 hour ride to Colorado Springs for lunch. With the short trip, it’s more like sitting in a sauna and you don’t get much opportunity to cool off.  It’s also a lot of work to hook up. The longer trip out the highway allowed us to cool off and better test the gear.

I was wearing the Gerbing coat liner with a nylon wind breaker, Gerbing gloves, lined jeans and chaps. At highway speed with the temperature in the low 40’s I had the temp control just turned on. After 10 minutes or so I turned the temp control up ¼ turn and within minutes I was sweating and turned the control back down.

This gear will keep you toasty at very cold temperatures. The key is to limit the wind flow through the material.

My suggestion would be to mount the temperature control switch permanently in a handy to reach position like a side cover or saddle bag and organize the wires in such a way so you don’t get tangled up. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

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Review By: Cliff
Company Website Link:   Gerbing Clothing