Gerbing Heated Clothing
The Ultimate "Plug and Play"
 I'm one of those nuts that likes to ride all the time. At least until
the black ice shows up, then I'm off. So most folks would have thought I
was crazy driving out of Seattle in the rain at 44 degrees and making a trip to
Union on the Hood Canal in January. I lost most of my body heat
by the time I reached Tacoma and at the point I made the turn onto Highway
106 I was miserable and in pain.
Luckily help was just around the corner as I turned right on Dalby Road reaching my destination, the headquarters for Gerbing
Heated Clothing.
In 1975 Gordon Gerbing was creating aircraft parts as a sub contractor to the
military. His workers rode motorcycles into work each day and
there were many a cold day when they'd appear with blue lips. So Gordon decided he'd
create a rig using flexible heating wire and
running it through the kids clothes. And thus, the first Gerbing heated clothes
were born. Since then Gerbing has been keeping riders warm all over the
planet.
 Today Gerbing has over 50 people sewing and wiring clothes for the line.
The line includes
outer and inner jackets, vests, pants, gloves and my favorite thing - SOCKS!
Primarily bought by motorcyclists, they are also a favorite with snowmobilers,
pilots, deer hunters, crane operators and just about anyone who does something
outdoors in the colder months.
It's always been a family affair at Gerbing. Gordon, (now in his 70's),
ran the business with his wife
Marilyn and their three sons and their wives until a stroke set him back in
2002. At that point their son, Jeff, took over the reins. Since it's inception Gerbing has been a family owned and
operated business here in the state of Washington.
Safety First
If you like to ride year around, and have ever felt the
pain of biting cold to the point where you have, or almost have, laid your bike
down because you were to cold to operate it, you're not alone. Each year
many riders are involved in collisions and accidents that could have been
avoided if they had more control over their bikes, not having lost their skills
to the outside chill. The Gerbing line affords riders much more control
over their machines in cold weather making the expense well worth it.
Year-around riders would do well to include heated clothing at the top of their accessory
wish list before all those hop up kits, chrome and other doo dads.
Where To Buy It
Gerbing heated clothing and accessories can be purchased
at select retailers, by phone or mail order. For details visit their website at http://www.gerbing.com.
Locally the product is available at Ride West BMW in Seattle and South Sound BMW
in Fife (Tacoma). For Harley riders, see below.
Getting Started
It's a fairly simple hookup at your battery and your on
your way. A jacket, pants, gloves and socks can all be handled by one
battery as they need less than 150 watts to collectively work. You simply
attach a fused connector wire to the two points at your battery and then make your clothing
connections as per the configuration you purchased. In our test it took an
average of five minutes to get the clothing on and connected up to the
thermostat 12 volt line.
If you're riding two up, remember it's better to run two
separate lines from your battery, one for each rider, so you don't burden the
fuse on a single line. And ALWAYS carry an extra set of fuses just in
case.
 Thermostat Options
You
can plug the clothing in direct to your battery, but you'll notice
excessive heat when it's above freezing and particularly at stop lights. Gerbing manufacturers
several different kinds of thermostats to help you maintain your
comfort. Some are portable, some attach to your bike.
The dual thermostat is the way to go. It
affords you the ability to adjust your gloves separate from the rest of your
gear. But the real reason to get this is
because if one channel goes down, you can pull over and reconfigure your
connections all into one channel simply and quickly. This backup trick
proved invaluable during testing as one channel died while coming back from Chuckanut Drive in 40 degree weather.
Custom Orders
So you say you like your clothing setup the way it is, but you still want
some heat. For reasonable fees you can send your own jacket, liner, pants,
gloves and even socks to Gerbing and have the heating wire sewn into them, custom
made. The turnaround time on this custom work is two weeks. You'll
need to call them and discuss what you're sending out to get a price quote.
Harley-Davidson Expansion
 In
2000 Gerbing did a major expansion signing a deal to
be the sole provider for Harley-Davidson's clothing line. Previously HD
had used a competitive brand that provides less heating coverage than Gerbing
offers. This additional business meant an additional building had to be
built behind their current location in Union.
Lifetime Guarantee
All Gerbing accessories come with a one year warranty on the
clothing, two years on the thermostats, and a lifetime guarantee on the wiring
on all garments. This also applies to the HD line. All accessories are made
here in America, with the exception of the gloves, which come by way of
Olympia Gloves out of China.
More Growth
Gerbing continues to grow. In recent years they have
created products for other outdoor markets such as golf, sports fans and
continue to look for new avenues for the product. Now you can sit outdoors
at a football game and stay toasty in the cold weather. They also now
provide systems to law enforcement to keep officers warm while on patrol.
More recently they've introduced battery packs which will warm a set of gloves
for up to three hours if you're just out walking around freely.
Tom Mehren/Winter 2000 (revised 2005) Visit
Gerbing on the web at http://www.gerbing.com
You can contact them directly for a catalog at 1-800-646-5916. (be
sure to mention Sound RIDER!)
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