This is something I've been spending time pondering since last winter myself. My commute is about 30 miles; one way; mostly highway (45-65 mph) with some winding roads near the end of my commute and one small town in between with some traffic lights. The whole commute is very rural and about 40 minutes each way. It's only the a.m commute that I'm concerned about and the area where I'd like to improve my experience.
I too had a maxi scooter last winter, and it was my first winter commuting on powered-two wheels. I bought a First Gear winter/rain suit (not armored) for about $180. That plus good quality leather work boots/winter socks, plus a little bit of layering underneath, and a good pair of winter riding gloves keeps me warm and dry down to about 34 degrees. The CTX is my first MC, and I'm finding so far, that even though the scooter provided a little more lower and upper body wind protection, it did not protect against the main problem with the cold any better as far as what I call the "limiting factor". The limiting factor has been, at least for me so far, my finger tips. At or about 34 degrees, I start feeling pain in my finger tips, and the problem gets worse the colder it is, and the rest of my body is fine; not uncomfortable at all. So if I want to ride in temps colder than about freezing, I've got to improve protection for my finger tips. I'm guessing, if I can solve this one problem, I should be good down to around the lower 20s for the morning commutes with no snow/sleet in the forecast. This could keep me riding at least a few times per month, even in the coldest months in TN, and then I'll not worry a bit about winterizing my bike or protecting it during storage. Maybe a battery tender in January and February, but that's about it. I sort of over did it last year with the battery tender. I did not realize, until I started riding, that even in the coldest months in TN, there will be some temperature breaks, and I think that's enough to keep the bike in good shape throughout the winter without taking storing precautions.
I've tried all different kind of layering and quality gloves; liners, no liners; muffs; shopping bags over my gloves, but none of these attempts at improving the comfort level have worked for me for my finger tips. The coldest I've ever ridden is about 25 degrees on a couple of occasions with different glove/muff combinations, and in each case, I had to stop a couple of times in my 40 minute commute to let my finger tips warm up.
I think I should stress that I'm an outdoor worker, so dealing with the cold and wearing layers throughout the day is something I must deal with anyway, so this makes my situation a little different than some, and also, since I'm already bundled up at work with thermals, etc., this lowers the aggravation somewhat with respect to bundling and unbundling. If I had an office job, I'd have to bundle up, then pretty much strip down and then partially bundle back up for the afternoon ride home. But this is not the case for me, since I'll wear those thermals and extra t-shirts all day anyway and won't burn up wearing them. I keep my outer coats and work gloves at work, so I can just trade my suit for a coat and my riding gloves for work gloves that are already there and I'm set up for working outside.
So for me, since I want to ride even down to the 20s, I need to solve the finger tip problem, and that leads me to only about three other choices to improve this situation, since I've tried about everything else, and all three of them are electric heating choices. I don't like having to go down this road, because: one--these heated options are expensive, and two--they're adding to the hassle of riding. The three choices I'm faced with are either, heated grips, heated gloves that wire in to one's bike charging system, or battery-powered heated gloves. I've decided to dive in to the third option only because it is the least hassle and because I need heat only for about one hour and twenty minutes per day (I don't need heat for touring).
The problem with battery-powered heated gloves is that these products have not yet been fully accepted by the riding public due to the fact that only recent advances in battery technology allow for acceptable levels of heat for acceptable periods of time without extreme bulkiness or packing batteries under one's chest (which is an added hassle), and there are very few well-respected products, and even with them: Venture, Mobile Warming, and Gerbing, and some British company that I can't remember, there are very few reviews. I'm leaning towards Mobile Warming, but Venture offers a heated liner that I could use with my current gloves. Only problem with the liner, it is just about as expensive, and so I might as well get the full, heated gloves. So I'm looking @ $200, even more if I go with Gerbing.
Any feedback or comments are welcome. Keep in mind, I'm still a relative newbie, so please feel free and critque and criticize my assumptions that may be wrong.
