clarke Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 As I'm getting soft in my old age I went and bought a Keis Heated Jacket and some Heated Gloves. Been using them for a month now so thought I'd share some thoughts. The jacket (long sleeved) is good - it heats really well and I've not gone passed setting 2 of 4 and can ride comfortably with this my motorbike jacket (no winter lining) and a t-shirt. Note, the Keis jacket isn't waterproof or armoured or designed to offer any protection so you have to wear it under a jacket. It plugs into the bike via a wiring loom and uses 7.5 amp fuse. It comes with a 'free' controller at the moment, but unfortunately the controller sits in the jacket pocket rather than on the handlebars so you can't adjust the temperature whilst riding which is a shame. It also makes it a bit of a pain to set up as you have to plug the Keis jacket in & set the temperature before you can zip up your normal jacket. Two other things to mention is the collar is quite high so I struggle to do my normal jacket up fully, though it's not bothered me yet. Probably my biggest criticism of the jacket is the wires in the sleeve that are for connecting Keis Heated Gloves to it so you don't have to run an extra wiring loom. Unfortunately these wires aren't long enough to connect to the heated outer gloves, which I would have preferred to use (Keis said they were designed to work together then suggested I purchase additional 300mm wires to get them to work) so I ended up buying the inner gloves. These are good, but again not waterproof so have to go under your normal gloves. Makes you feel like you've got fat hands, but keep you nice and warm. You do have to use a larger fuse to run the jacket and gloves together - 10 amps, so I bought an adapter loom so I can plug the jacket into my Optimate connection (7.5amp) and the jacket & gloves into the Keiss loom. Overall I'd give them 8/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttaskmaster Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Their stuff looks expensive, but pretty good. I'd be mostly concerned about current drain and how waterproof the connectors are. Any thoughts on that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarke Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 Currently I'm only commuting about 7 miles each way @ 40mph in stop/start traffic. So far no issues with power drain though I do tend to put the optimate on the bike every 3-4 weeks. Had no issues so far though someone I work with also has the same gear and it killed off his 5 year old battery. I'd definitely use a battery conditioner if using heated gear. As for connections, I've not used the jacket when it's chucked it down yet but the jacket connection is under my normal jacket at the waist and the sleeve connections are also covered by the jacket. I suspect the connections are ok in the rain as the outer glove connections are exposed to the elements all the time. One thing that might be an issue is the collar as if I can't do up the outer jacket & the Keis gets wet it could be bad as the instructions say not to use when wet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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