[St] Hmm... toasty!

[Gavin Lawrie <gavin.lawrie@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

This is a note to thank all those who contributed to the recent  
discussion of heated gear (e.g. the one about Widder stuff).

I had a 90 mile ride this am through near-freezing fog to the UK's  
major bike show (which started today).  Got *very* cold.  So while at  
the show I splashed out on a simple heated waistcoat, and am pleased  
to say that on way back (even colder conditions) I was much impressed  
by how warm it kept me.  I've long been a sceptic, and doubt I would  
have tried it had I not been reading the experiences described  
herein.  So thanks all.  Appreciate it!

For the technically minded, I ended up with a vest from an unknown (to  
me) provider called Klan.  Packaging had lots of italian on it, so  
perhaps it is a Euro brand.  Main reasons for choosing were a) it was  
cheap compared to the brands I had heard of that I could find on sale  
(Gebring, Exo2) - £125 vs £180 for the Exo2 equivalent, and the  
heating bit could be removed from the zippy / pocket waistcoat it was  
attached to.  I wear a Hein Gericke PSX XCR jacket, which is great but  
designed to fit close to body, so not much room for lots of layers  
underneath.  So the very thin heating element bit fits in nicely with  
my other layers below the jacket.  The Exo2 and Gebring products were  
more bulky, and so would have been harder to fit in.  Jacket came with  
BMW style plug, an on-off switch and a pretty long cable.  Cable  
connects to jacket with neat waterproof jack-plug arrangement.

The bike show was OK.  A massive £28 to get in - with two halls of  
exhibits.  One for the bike manufacturers - most UK brands there, but  
I didn't see Aprilia.  New "98 cubic inches" Triumph twin on a twirly  
disk thing, but not to touch.  Tiger SE (which looked better than in  
pictures).  But not much else of remark from Triumph.  BMW were  
showing the whole of the revamped K1300 range - released to dealers in  
January they say.  175bhp, slightly lower revs, slightly better fuel  
consumption.  Ducati rep said that they don't do sport-tourers any  
more - the ST3 having been dropped from the range quietly a year ago  
(though a dealer he was talking to quickly leapt in with a "I've got  
one in stock" bid for glory :) ).  Saw the new Buell 1125CR too - ugly  
as an ugly thing in the flesh, and not very pleasant to look at  
either!  But still, a great day out. Much better than working :D

Regards

Gavin

ST'03
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