If you want an awesone pair of overpants you can wear year round, check out the FirstGear HT Overpants 2.0. I love mine.

http://www.firstgear-usa.com/fgweb.n...1?opendocument

 

I bought a champa from HD last year. It works well for the face and head. If you have a helmet with a shield it will cause some fogging tho.

 

I hate to think about cold, but it is coming.
Several posters have spoke of bundling up and not being cold. That indeed does work. You will not be cold. Buy the electric clothes, and you will be WARM. There is a big difference between not cold, and being warm! Also with the electric stuff you don't move around like the Pilsbury dough boy from all the layers of thick clothes. I will commute my 40 miles in the Winter down to 30 degrees. I could go colder, but I own a car!

 

First, keep the wind off you. Lowers are key, soft or hard. Next, layers, leather overpants, fleece pants under that then jeans, remove as neccessary. Leather Jacket/liner with fleece vest, thermal top, tshirt. Big guntlet gloves from HD. Thats all I ever used and I never used electric stuff, would have liked to but didn't have the budget. I road three years in Europe, it always seemed to be 35 degrees in drizzle. If it was raining, raingear on, one layer off, no problem. Oh, not popular, but full face helmet made the difference between staying warm at 65 mph or having to slow to 50 and still being cold in 30 minutes.

 

So I have a complete set of the Gerbing gear, jacket liner/pants, gloves and socks. I started with the jacket and gloves and thermostat controller and then added the pants and socks the next year. So I maybe have $500 into it all.

The way I look at it, I bought it in 2001. It adds at least 45 to 60 days of total comfort riding to the fron tand back of my riding season.. March to December, here in Massachusetts. So that's a solid 3 months (at least) across 6 years, so a total of 18 months of total comfort riding, divided by 18 and I get a cost of $28 a month, or about a buck a day. I'll take it!!

Speaking of which, who sells the best lowers for my EGC. I've seen them in canvas or leather, where can I get them? What is the "in the know thinking" of the best ones?

 

If you are looking for cheap go to the sportsmans guide and get one of their snomobile suits for way less than a hundred bucks.

 

do you have outer wearing pants or inner waring, im curious about the warmth on the outer wearing pants,seem easier to put on after i get off of work?

 

Friends of mine bought heated liners, and bragged that all they had to wear over them to keep warmwere their lightweight Gold Wing jackets.

Then we went to a rallye, temps were in the high 30's low 40's, and they froze walking around, because they didn't pack any other warm clothes. Those of us that dressed in layers were comfortable all weekend.

Buy ski items in the spring when they are on sale. The gloves are great, as they are waterproof and fingers are preformed into the positon to hold grips. The "miracle" underwear that wicks moisture that you see advertised in snowmobile stores also goes on sale in the spring, and really works, and is very lightweight. A lightweight turtleneck sweater is great--unroll the turtleneck and put your helmet on over the top. Lined jeans, with leather pants over the top (not chaps, which leave your crotch in the cold!) work great as well down into the high 30's.

My knees, however, get cold on the Ultra. The wind comes through between the batwing and the lowers. Any ideas on keeping knees warm?

 

Yup. And if it is gonna be a long ride (50 + miles) put your chaps over the flannel lined jeans to block even more wind.

On top....Under armor, a turtle neck shirt and a good lined leather jacket. A Balaclava is nearly a MUST, along with either heated gloves, or heated grips.

 

Wrangler makes some really nice Insulate lined, brown "duck" pants. Duck material is tightly woven and a little warmer than regular jeans. I bought a pair two sizes larger than my regular jeans. We often go out to eat in the evening, and in Minnesota, you can leave town at 6 pm and it's 60 degrees, and come home at 9 and it's down in the 40's. I slip on this pair of Wranglers over my regular jeans, and it works well. I've thought about adding a short zipper at the end of the leg, to make it a little easier getting them over my boots, but never get it done. I can even get my leather pants on over both pair if need be.

You can find these jeans in most hunting stores.

Best thing about the Ultra is being able to pack cold weather gear for when you need it!