What the hell is wrong with that guy?

Is what most people probably think when they see you riding a motorcycle in the high 20's with 30 mph winds. I guess it comes with the territory when you buy a new motorcycle 2 days before Christmas in the North East. You don't exactly want to put it in a garage until it gets nice enough to ride comfortably.So after coming close to freezing a few times, but still not being smart enough to store the new motorcycle for the winter, I decided I needed to invest in some cold weather riding gear. However I wasn't trying to pay the arm and leg they want for the off-the-shelf heated jackets for sale out there ($150+). After searching the internets, I found some good resources for making an existing jacket into a heated jacket and decided to give it a shot.

This is the result. All in all, it probably cost me roughly $15-$20 for the wires and connectors needed to add the heat, and probably about 2 hours to thread the wire through the jacket.

I just took it for a test ride, and it does the trick. It feels like you're wrapped in a heated blanket. Absolutely beautiful. Next up... running some wire and adding some heated glove liners. Then I'm in business...




For anyone interested in trying to make one themselves... here's some resources I found helpful. All you really need is a crimping tool, maybe a voltmeter to test the resistance of the wire, some shrink tubing/soldering iron, and a larger needle to thread the wire. I just wired mine up with wire nuts and some electrical tape before finalizing the connections so I could make sure it worked and didn't need to be altered.

http://home.mebtel.net/~rbutterfield/Heat.html
http://www.hastie.org.uk/heatedjacket.html