OK--I may get flamed here, but the electrical engineer in me can't stand it anymore--I've gotta jump in!! There are several factors determining how "hot" your electric clothing is--there's more to it than just "ohms". The true concept of thermal rise (temperature rise above ambient temperature) is based on two factors. 1) Watts, and 2) Thermal Resistance. 1) Watts=Volts squared / ohms or Watts=VoltsXAmps. (10 ohm glove = 14.4 Watts, 3 ohm jacket = 48 Watts, etc.) This is the amount of energy that the article of clothing is dissipating. 2) Thermal Resistance: This is trickier to explain--things like clothing area, distance to measurement point (your skin), outside ambient temperature, insulation from the outside to the heating element, etc. All of these have an impact on how these watts are dissipated and can be lumped into the category of thermal resistance. Ultimately, as a rider, you're interested in the temperature rise (above surroundings) at your skin generated by the electric clothing. The gloves are dissipating fewer watts, but it's over a smaller area, the insulation to your skin is different, the layers of insulation to the outside air is different than the same factors for the vest or jacket liner. The temperature rise depends on the combination of the watts being dissipated and the overall thermal resistance of the source. So what does it all mean to us?? We have two choices--1) go through an exhaustive analysis of all of the above factors, or 2) experiment around and find out what works. The ideal world woud have separate controllers for all pieces of clothing, but that leads to cumbersome wiring, a royal pain to get dressed, and lots of things to fiddle with while riding. Otherwise, you just have to try different things to find out what works for you. Multiple controllers may be necessary, they may not, but expecting a glove to be the same temperature as a vest under all riding conditions is optimistic at best. For me, personally, I live in the desert and don't have to deal with this on a regular basis. I do own a pair of Gerbing's electric gloves and I rigged a toggle switch in line to turn it on and off. Very crude, but it has worked well for me. By the way, they're also less bulky than my non-electric cold weather gloves. Ultimately, my ramblings on the topic is that there is more to it than "just the ohms" of any one piece of clothing. Any way you go about it, though, electrics are great. Feel free to flame on!! I'll switch off my gloves if it gets too hot. ;-) Terry Baker
