GEAR
South East Australia, it’s cold at this time of the year.
Keeping your core warm while riding is not only a com-
fort thing, it’s vital. Cold is dangerous often causing
fatigue and lapses in concentration.
A way to combat the cold is layering, often bringing its
own problems. Another way to combat the cold is a heat-
ed garment and one that
we’ve been impressed with
is those by Ororo.
Ororo make a variety
of clothing from gloves to
hoodies to jackets, all heat-
ed. Our sample is the men’s
heated jacket, perhaps the
flagship of the Ororo range
and well, what a range it is.
The jacket comes complete
with everything needed to
keep you warm.
A softshell exterior not
only looks great it keeps
the wind out, it really does
keep the wind out. A bonus
is the removable hood. The
construction of the jacket is
beautiful and well made, it’s
stylish and functional. But
it’s what’s inside the jacket
that makes it more special.
Three heating elements,
all carbon fibre, provide
warmth like we’ve never felt in other jackets. Hit the Oro-
ro logo on the left breast and the elements, located across
the back and each chest panel, heat almost immediately,
within seconds you’re toasty.
Power is created by a 7.4-volt UL/CE certified battery
located within an internal pocket on the jackets lower
R
left. Small and compact the battery is barely noticeable.
Ororo say the battery lasts up to ten hours (3 hours on
high, 6 on medium, 10 on low) we dispute this … all our
tests have shown that on medium the battery will last as
long as eight hours and almost five on high.
The battery also has a USB port for charging mobile
devices and while we found
it would charge an iPhone,
perhaps an Apple legacy, it
did charge a Samsung and
even a compact camera.
The 5200 mAh Lithium-Ion
battery recharges in around
five hours, comparable to
most other batteries of this
kind and size.
Does it work as a motor-
cycle jacket? There’s no
simple answer to this. The
heating design certainly
works. The softshell jacket,
as we mentioned earlier,
does keep the wind out and
in fact could be used as a
liner for any dedicated mo-
torcycle jacket (obviously if
your jacket is snug fitting it
will be quite tight) without
the need for heating. When
the heater is on, wow! It
works and it works well.
This jacket would be perfect for very low temperatures.
The issue we had was that the sizing is perhaps a little
too large, we’d suggest that when ordering you consider a
size smaller than your usual, or even smaller. This would
allow you to fit the jacket under your regular biking jack-
et. A better option could be an Ororo vest or hoodie, both
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