Gerbing Heated Pant Liner review
Dec. 2005

If you ride much in cool, cold, or damp weather, you’ve probably experienced it. No matter how warm your upper body is, your lower body gets little reprieve. It can often feel cold and stiff as the humidity progressively works its way into your bones and joints.

Though a warm upper body helps ensure that you remain safe from creeping hypothermia, your hips, thighs, and knees can eventually feel some discomfort.

This is where the Gerbing Heated Pant Liner shines.

Description:

• Teflon® coated, wind and water resistant, soft nylon shell.
• Compressible, Thinsulate® insulation.
• Heat Panels/pads on the hips, side of thighs, knees, and shins.
• Form-fitting patterns and sizing allowing for snug and comfortable fit under outer riding pants.
• Full length zipper from upper thigh to bottom of pant on each leg for easy entry/exit.
• Lifetime warranty on the heating elements.
• 44 watts $199

Overview:

The Heated Pant Liners are constructed of a windproof and water resistant nylon along with Thinsulate insulation. They are designed to be worn under your regular riding pants. As always, Gerbing strategically inserts Hi-Density Heat Panels to provide even warmth.

What I found:

The Gerbing heated pant liners are light and very comfortable to wear. The full length leg zippers allow easy entry and exit even while wearing boots.

As with the Gerbing heated jacket liner, the windproof shell and Thinsulate® combine to provide an effective thermal environment. This maintains body warmth as well as protects from the cold and humidity, even when not plugged in. Just wearing them under normal riding pants significantly adds to my comfort level in cold weather riding.

The windblocking and water resistant properties of the pant liners also make them effective when worn under summer or mesh gear. Worn this way, they can considerably increase the versatility of warm weather gear.

Turning on the heat quickly results in soothing warmth in all the right places. Making good use of Gerbing Hi-Density Heat Panels, the pant liner provides comfortable and soothing heat to hips, side of thighs, knees, and shins. As we age, I find that warm joints tend to be happy joints. In addition, the effective windblocking and thermal insulation help ensure that heat is not leached out to the cold.

Why they're useful:

It's easy to think that heated pant liners must only be useful in situations involving extremely cold riding conditions. This is the way that I thought for a long time. After all, I did a fair amount of cold weather riding and seemed to do ok.

While it's true that heated pant liners will be a definite asset in more extreme conditions, they also offer real benefit in more moderate temperatures.

Increasing riding comfort
The pant liners noticeably increase my riding comfort by allowing me to use a lower overall heat setting when worn with the Gerbing Heated Jacket Liner. Providing heat over a larger body area in turn results in warmth being absorbed over a greater surface area. Not only is this more comfortable, but it also lowers alternator load.

So instead of using a full 77 watts to warm the jacket liner, I can use approximately 65% output on the temperature controller for both jacket and pant liners. This works out to a comparable total load (ie 80 watts or so) and provides more comfort than if I had used the jacket liner alone at full output. Of course, when riding in more extreme temperatures, the full output is available at my beck and call.

The Gerbing Heated Pant Liners are also very welcome when touring in the rain where cold and damp conspire to assault your joints. In addition, the pant liners are very effective on motorcycles that provide minimal lower body protection.

Hook-up options:

Overall:

The Gerbing Heated Pant liner makes cold weather riding a much more comfortable affair. The soothing heat not only helps protect against the cold, but will go a ways in decreasing ride related aches and pains.

And soothing is the word that comes to mind. Anyone who has endured freezing knees and painful, stiff joints is in for a treat. In my experience, once you get a taste of enveloping lower body heat, you won't want to go back.