heated gear

That Warm & Safe shirt looks interesting.
How washable is that, if it is at all?

Just random info...I switched to Hotwired gear from Cycle Gear because my old time favorite, the prev gen Tourmaster stuff doesn't exist any more, and this was the closest to it.

I have put about 3000 miles on the stuff so far (not a ton I know) and it's perfectly great. The jacket has a pretty high collar which is heated, which I really like a lot. Note that the controller they sell/sometimes comes with it sucks balls IMO. I use it with a Warm n Safe wireless jobber to great effect. One tiny issue with this that might matter to someone is that the little zippered pocket on the jacket doesn't really fit the WnS receiver, but you can get it in there. If I cared I suppose I could bring it to an alteration shop and have them make a better pocket (this is all in the liner; no heated stuff involved), but it doesn't really bother me.

I've got the 1st gen Tourmaster. So it's good to know the hotwired gear is a pretty good replacement for it when it wears out. Seems like it's affordable too.

Question for those who wear heated socks. I just got a set of Warm & Safe socks. Do you wear regular socks under or over (or not at all) the heated socks?

I'm trying to figure out the best layering technique and the logistics of how to deal with the cables when you have heated pants and socks.

I'm currently on an extended ride using the Hotwired jacket and I'll tell you, best $180 spent on any upgrade. Northern Utah , McCall, Idaho and central Oregon all found temps into the mid to upper 20's and two canyons north of Burns, Or. down to 15°....upper body warm and toasty on the medium setting. Hands, not as much even with heated grips....hippo or equal is now on the list.
Highly recommend Hotwired for the money!

Why not go with the heated gloves as well? The problem with heated grips is that the cold comes from the outside, the heat from the inside. Heated gloves should heat from the outside as well.

a little Goggle-fu should find you gloves that are optimized for use with heated grips; good insulation on the outside, and thin on the palm to better allow the heat from the grips to reach your hands.

one of the problems some people have is that they wear heavy gloves with their heated grips, thereby insulating themselves from the heat the grips provide.

I was wearing a thin pair of dress socks underneath the warm and safe, and then one day forgot to change my “darn tuff” socks and slipped the heated pair over top. Much more comfortable this way, not much tighter in the boot. I don’t have the heated pants. Cables are run underneath shin/knee armour, and then the remaining length of cable is wrapped once loosely around my waist, over top of all other gear and plugged into the jacket.

I believe the socks are plugged into the pants, pants either plugged into jacket, or you can run the lower half (pants/socks) on their own controller.

Lower gear setup:

Under Armour compression pants
W&S socks
Knee/shin armour
Compression soft armour shorts
Riding pants
Sidi boots

Mine are like that and they actually do work ok, but I really don't ride in weather much below freezing and only for about 30 minutes at a time, so my hands don't have time to really start getting too cold.

If I end up with a longer commute in a colder state I'd likely switch to heated gloves.

Heavy gloves bring their own issues. I find they are universally NEVER properly pre-curved so insulation bunches up in your grip which gives me a sort of disconnected feeling from the throttle, resulting in me squeezing tighter to have fine control - and that gets uncomfortable pretty quickly. Despite your statement above, I have yet to find gloves that are truly optimized for heated grip use (well-insulated backs and finger tips but none on the palm.) There are some snowmobile gloves that reportedly perform well from a warmth standpoint but they don't have proper armour. I wonder if any of the heated gear makers will ever come up with heated gloves where all the heat is concentrated in the fingertips and backs of the hands?

Heated grips and bar muffs. Regularly commute 45 min down to 15F wearing summer gloves.

Yep. Same here.

Heated gloves are too bulky for me... no feel for the controls. I'm using an older pair of Held Stevie with the heated grips and until the upper 20' s and below, all was good. Thin palms and some "padding" on the back works...a hippo " like " bar muff that is easy on and off to shed the wind chill should be perfect...for me, anyway.
Heated jacket is all I have. I use a base layer, heated jacket and down vest over ( sub 30° ) and a Kathmandu jacket, no heated socks, pants etc. Dakar pants, Sidi crossfire boots, compression shorts , Motoskeevie padded shorts. marino wool socks and Arai XD4 . At 14° and 60mph ( hour long ) fingertips were the only items on this old body that were feeling the effects...this year anyway.

Whatever you do, do not wear cotton under them. Cotton soaks up sweat and you’ll be sloshing around in cold water although you’re not likely to get electrocuted (insulated filaments and not enough voltage.)
If your wearing uninsulated boots and ONLY if their amply sized you can try polypropylene or some such base layering and especially merino wool or silk which might be your thinnest option. Keep in mind that compressed insulation is no insulation at all!
Happy & safe riding

must be i've had better luck than you; while many heavy gloves are indeed unsuitable for reasons like what you list, this is no "universally" so.

keep looking!

I certainly can't claim to have tried on every glove available but I've been through the entire available stock in more than one store. It never ceases to amaze me the number of jackets that are cut like casual jackets with the sleeves hanging down (I have two leather jackets that are not) and the number of gloves that are designed to fit properly only when your fingers are straight. As I noted earlier, the combination of features including insulated finger tips and back of hands, pre-curved fingers and decent armour has proved to be the unicorn of gloves for me.

I use Hestra ergo-grip gloves, because they are pre-curved. They’re probably considered to be more ski gloves than motorcycling, though, and could use less insulation the palm for heated grips.

The insulation is in the removable liner, so I’ve thought they might work well with an electric glove liner, instead.

David Hough has suggested Elk-skin may be the top choice, and I see Aerostitch has some I would like to try.

I replaced my 20 year-old Gerbings with Hotwired Jacket liner. Mainly because it is cheap. I mostly use the middle or low setting, but I find the setting button really hard to find while I am riding with gloves on. The old Girbings heat controller was much easier to use. Also I use Powerlet heated glove liners inside medium weight Black Diamond climbing gloves (REI). I must admit the heated glove liners are too hot so lately I haven't plugged them in and turned on only heated grips. I am thinking of trying the Hestra ergo-grip waterproof glove above. They look thin enough on the palms.

I use the Aerostich elk-skin gloves with hippo hands in the middle of winter in NJ (lowest 11ºF) and with heated grips my hands are warm.
The thin gloves keep the hand warm and hippo hands block wind completely.
No other heated gear - but that's ok for my sub 1 hour commute.

I wear a pair of the Aerostich unlined elk skin gauntlets with heated grips and a pair of Giant Loop's Bushwacker hand guards. The GL hand guards keep the direct wind off your hands while the elk skin transfers the grip heat nicely