Home-brew electric clothing

[Flash]

Just like a newbie, I tried posting, WITH PHOTOS. Here's the post with a more civilized link to the pics....

For the last 10 years I've been taking a annual bike/camping trip at the beginning of June up through Nova Scotia, Cape Breton island, Newfoundland, and Labrador. My first bike on the trip was my trusty 91 Kaw ZX10, then a Sportster. I used to joke to my (now Ex) Father-in-law that we should go into business as motorcycle gear testers, for all the foul weather and on the road inconveniences we've encountered. (McGuyver's got nothing on us!)
I'm reminded of the saying, "Adventure is discomfort in retrospect".
When I approach any maintenance tasks on my bikes, my mindset is shaped by the thought of depending on my mount while being 800 miles from nowhere, and that really forces me to take my time and make sure the job gets done correctly. I guess that's why I have been recently bitten by the "airhead bug". Seems like a great mount for dependable long distance touring.
Y'all seem like the crowd that might appreciate this one. I found this site on the web.
http://www.shadowriders.org/faq/electricvests.html
I made an electric vest out of an old field jacket liner, and hook it to my bikes with a previously wired battery tender connection. I don't have a rheostat hooked up to it, but it works great as is. (and Yes, it gets cold up there in June)
Here's a couple of pics.
http://home.comcast.net/~obrien8541/site/?/page/electricVest/

[Lucky_Lou]

mmmm nowing my luck if i were to make one i would fry first time it rained.
Lou

[montmil]

Dang, Flash, cool, I mean warm, idea!

Years ago, I fabbed an electric riding suit from an old, pink electric blanket.  Not only did I look like a deranged rabbit on a moped, the extension cord severely limited my driving range.  

Lou, your thoughts about riding in rain jogged a memory from 1965 of my college days as three of us were heading home, in heavy rain, after attending a hill climb event in west Texas.

Buddy's BSA Lightning, with the wonderful Lucas electrics, was generating bright, HT arcs along a track of least resistance... that being from the fuel tank to Johnnie Beck's testicles. I was laughing so hard, I nearly drowned. A true story. I promise. Really...

Monte

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Years ago, I fabbed an electric riding suit from an old, pink electric blanket.Not only did I look like a deranged rabbit on a moped, the extension cord severely limited my driving range.

No comment from me, you've created a mental image worthy of incredible hilarity. [smiley=ROTFLMAO.gif]

[Dave 2]

Buddy's BSA Lightning, with the wonderful Lucas electrics, was generating bright, HT arcs along a track of least resistance... that being from the fuel tank to Johnnie Beck's testicles. I was laughing so hard, I nearly drowned.

Monte, Was he smiling?

[Lucky_Lou]

Years ago, I fabbed an electric riding suit from an old, pink electric blanket.Not only did I look like a deranged rabbit on a moped, the extension cord severely limited my driving range.

No comment from me, you've created a mental image worthy of incredible hilarity. [smiley=ROTFLMAO.gif]

You two have just shattered a dream....didnt know it rained in Texas never has when ive been there.But lets face it if your riding in those conditions you need B**ls of steel.
Lou

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Lou, just show up sometime in the second half of January, 1st half of February.  It always rains during that time, plus the temp is hovering around 40F and the wind is out of the north.  We call it Stock Show weather because it is always like that during the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.

That would be great weather to try out a fluffy pink electric blanket heated vest.  Just don't stop off in any biker bars or Hooters on the way.

[larstorders]

I've been using a home made electric vest for over 12 months now and it's totally brilliant. Just got home after a very non seasonal, cold wet day, about 260 miles. I'm warm, alert, and not at all tired, yet only wore a T shirt, , electric vest,  sweat shirt and unlined leather jacket up top. Electric clothing allows me to do a lot more riding a lot more enjoyably. I'll be fixing up a dual wired vest, before winter comes, just in case one of them tiny wires breaks.
I've used heated grips in years gone by and there's no comparison in effectiveness to a well sorted electric vest set up.

[Bengt_Phorqs]

I've been using a home made electric vest for over 12 months now and it's totally brilliant.  

Did you make that from a pattern or plans?  Tell us more.  I've heard good things about the electrified garments but I'm way to cheap to spend the money on the Gerbings stuff.  Usually I just layer up.

[larstorders]

My vest comprised

One very tight fitting and lightly quilted Gilet/body warmer, that fits very snugly over a T shirt. I believe its important to be warming the body (circulation actually) rather than the clothing .

A bit of electrical cable such as might be used for a household mains lamp.

Floating fuse.

Power connectors. I found the Bosch type used by BMW to be a bit unreliable, so now use connectors which are designed for recharging radio controlled cars, as they have adequate power rating and don't pulll apart too easily ( in fact using a needle file the retaining clips can be tuned to provide the seperating resistance which suits you best).

A bit of shrink on electrical sleeve.

The heating element wire. I bought mine from a guy on ebay. Essentially, 10 metres of wire having a resistance of about 0.3 ohm per metre, say 30 gauge (which is really quite fine)  http://www.cirris.com/testing/resistance/wire.html will  produce a 48 watt jacket, which will do nicely.
The wire should be braided and have a durable heat resistant coating.

I just took  a big darning needle and sewed the heating wire into the Gilet. As the element wire is so fine, the two ends can best connected to the power cable using a miniature block connector, which is then located securely by sewing it up in the Gilet’s pocket.  The power lead off the battery is fuse protected and the connector just hangs comfortably on my machine when not in use. It doubles as a battery minder/ roaming lamp/whatever, connection too.

Here's the complete heated jacket with a new floating fuse and connector to connect to battery. One year old.



Connectors



detail of heating element

[Flash]

Here's the link: http://www.shadowriders.org/faq/electricvests.html

I used the type of wire they specified in that article, and just weaved it in and out of the vest in a pattern like an electric blanket. I drew a freehand pattern on the vest with a magic marker as a guide line
I started at the right hip (closest to my battery tender connector on the bike), wove the wire up to the neck and back to the waist, over and over again. When I had woven the wire all the way to the far side, I brought the wire back to the start point by sewing in along the bottom seam. After I soldered it to the connector, I used fabric thread to secure the soldered connection firmly to the vest so that it would'nt pull the wires out.  Total cost was about $12.00US, and that includes buying the connectors.

[larstorders]

The link Flash has posted was the same one that I used for a guide to make my heated vest.