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Arctic Armor

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Last winter I rode across I-10, Houston to El Paso, and almost froze my rather ample posterior right off in the wee hours of the morning. I was wearing a stitch with an electric vest. At about 4:00 AM, the temp was down about 35 degrees. After shivering to sleep in a hotel room at 5:00 AM, I decided 35 f was a bit too cold for casual touring.

I have this friend who lives in the great white north and I told him about how I froze that February night. He suggested I should toss the stitch and buy a suit by Arctic Armor. (No, I don't work for Arctic Armor.) My buddy says he rides his atv out onto frozen lakes to fish for 8-10 hours wearing his Arctic Armor suit . He says a man wearing the suit will actually float should he break through the ice.

I realize the above suit probably would not do well when meeting asphalt at 70 mph but at least you'd be warm before that point. The price really isn't all that bad at $330. No, I haven't bought on yet, but it sure would be nice to have the freedom to travel during the winter months.

http://www.profishingsupply.com/arcticarmor/index.html
 
I have ridden regularly in 20° temps wearing a Joe Rocket Meteor jacket and JR Ballistic pants. I have several thinsulate liners for them and will sometimes wear two under the jacket.

I just picked up a First Gear Kilimanjaro and it seems to be as good as the JR stuff except there is a slight draft up the back. I found it works better keeping the draft out if you remove the liner, put it on first and zip it up before putting on the jacket.

I can't imagine being cold with a heated vest under a stitch though.
 
Wind chill is a major deal. It's truly amazing how cold it can be and stay comfortable behind a fairing. A couple of weeks ago I rode at night at 35 degrees with a Roadcrafter Light, polartec, electric vest, and mock turtleneck. I had jeans with some brand of thermals on the bottom and I was very comfortable behind a decent fairing (Concours 14 with taller Cee Baileys screen-pictured in the avatar). Years ago, I rode at 19 degrees for a short while on my ST1100 Honda with Tourmaster gear/same electric vest and was OK - not exactly warm but OK. Stich's seal very well - with proper layering you shouldn't be having a problem at 35 degrees.
 
What else besides the stich and vest were you wearing? I wear a undershirt, then thermal, then electric liner, then stich (one piece road crafter) and am good in the 30s. When really cold I'll do a balaclava and neck gaiter.
 
I was riding a DR 650 with a stock seat and no faring. I generally do what the stitch people suggest and wear a thin cotton long sleeved tee under the heated vest. I added layers on top of the vest. I've ridden the same gear in the twenties for short durations, (under 100 miles,) with no problem. On this ride, I left Houston in the rain and rode all night giving up just short of El Paso. (I was fine until about 4:00 AM.) I was in Los Angeles by midnight.
 
The rain may have been a contributing factor: it always makes things colder when you're damp/wet.
 
I've ridden around 1600 miles below 32F this winter, around 70 at 17F... most of the rest of it around 24-28... first and foremost is wind proofing... if the wind flows through your gear, your out of luck... I wear thermal long-johns, normal pants, a thinsulate liner, and tourmaster caliper pants... I wear just a normal t-shirt, tour-master 2.0 jacket liner, thinsulate and my normal riding jacket. Wear a balacava and full face modular. My only issue is gloves.. I want to buy a new pair, but what I want to buy hasn't come out yet... despite having reviews from early December..

But yeah, rain can really hurt keeping warm, and if its soaks thinsulate or similar, then you have lost the effective capability of those.


Might check out http://polarbearchallenge.ning.com/ and see what some of them do.
 
I usually ride in a wide variety of conditions to include temps below freezing. This year has been a bit tougher as I got back from Iraq later than usual. (I stayed to shut off most of the lights). What I noticed is that my internal thermostat is skewed to the Mr. Heatmiser end of the spectrum an not to the Mr. Freeze end of things, so it feels quite a bit colder to me, and yet we are having a mild winter. Perhaps it was just so stinkn' hot here in Texas this past summer, your internal bias for hot or cold is off a bit.

To combat the cool morning temps I just dress in layers. A long sleeve t-shirt instead of a standard tee does wonders. While I like the Artic Armor suits, you may want to go back to basics such as layering, before buying the suit. Too bad they are not hi-Vis like the Olympia offerings.
 
todkapuz said:
My only issue is gloves.. I want to buy a new pair, but what I want to buy hasn't come out yet... despite having reviews from early December..
Click to expand...

What gloves are you after? Only reason I ask is because I fought it for years, trying every high dollar winter glove on the market only to come away very disappointed. So finally I broke down and bought some Gerbings and my hands haven't been cold since.

Funny thing about your hands, is that I've found that it's lowered my riding threshold by about 10 degrees simply by having warm hands. I can deal with much more if my hands are nice and toasty.
 
DFW_Warrior said:
What gloves are you after? Only reason I ask is because I fought it for years, trying every high dollar winter glove on the market only to come away very disappointed. So finally I broke down and bought some Gerbings and my hands haven't been cold since.

Funny thing about your hands, is that I've found that it's lowered my riding threshold by about 10 degrees simply by having warm hands. I can deal with much more if my hands are nice and toasty.
Click to expand...

Yeah... hands are my limiting factor at the moment... I could have gone a lot further in 17F .. but had to stop for numbness in fingers... I was looking at the tourmaster synergy 2.0 gloves since I love my jacket liner... but for some reason or another, they still havent released.. despite them having sent review gloves last quarter last year... mostly because of the ease to connect to my existing system (plugs in the sleeves of my jacket liner)...

I've heard nothing but good praise of Gerbings, except for something about the carbonfiber system breaking with age? (not sure how synergy 2.0's stainless microfiber will last... it has the same general near-instant heat etc that the gerbin carbon microwire system touts). If I can find someone with them and see if they plug into my leads... then good to go and I'd buy them... I just dont want more wires than I have to.

I've also considered the ... now the name slips me.... but the fabric mitt things that stay on the handlebars... I just kinda fear that solution to some degree.. despite knowing a person that has used it for many winters.
 
I am fairly certain that Tourmaster and Gerbing both use the same coaxial plug for their gear, so plug compatibility should be a non-issue. One issue though is that you will want to have separate heat controls for the jacket and gloves. I have the dual control one and always have the two zones at different settings, usually I keep the gloves higher than the jacket.

That mitt thingy is Hippo Hands if I recall.
 
Just the 'stich and heated vest? No wonder you got cold. You need some insulation.

I don't own heated gear, but I've toured in my Olympia Phantom with the thermal liner in plus another thermal pullover. I'd be good for a few hours at a time in 35F temps with rain, then I'd need to stop in a gas station and drink a coffee or hot chocolate or something to get heat back into my core. With a heated vest I would have been fine indefinitely.
 
Hey there Bill,
I lost track of you. Please call me and lets get together and ride together again. Hardy 903 529 1000(home)
 
hardybaker said:
Hey there Bill,
I lost track of you. Please call me and lets get together and ride together again. Hardy 903 529 1000(home)
Click to expand...

Hey Hardy.... Sure thing. I was thinking about going out to Black Gap to explore before it gets too warm. As a matter of fact, I've got all my gear laid out and the KLR is ready to ride.
 
I like liners over vest for two reasons. First, it heats a larger body surface area and just feels warmer. Second, the turtleneck collar portion is heated and makes a huge difference in comfort.
 
ed29 said:
I am fairly certain that Tourmaster and Gerbing both use the same coaxial plug for their gear, so plug compatibility should be a non-issue. One issue though is that you will want to have separate heat controls for the jacket and gloves. I have the dual control one and always have the two zones at different settings, usually I keep the gloves higher than the jacket.

That mitt thingy is Hippo Hands if I recall.
Click to expand...

Yes yes... Hippo Hands...

Yeah the Syn 2 jacket has 2 inputs.... 1 for jacket and 1 for pass through to gloves, and even comes with a dual zone controller for such reason... so i'll have to look into the gerbing
 
I have ridden into the upper 20s (with snow) with jacket/pants with liners, neck covering and heater gloves. The key for me was the gloves. I do like it better when it is colder out though, my bike stays parked June-Sept most years.
 
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