OK, back in early June I published my first impressions of the Venture Heat, heated jacket liner on my other website,( which sadly no longer exists) – see ‘First Impressions’ evaluation below.

So two months later and quite a few cold day rides later, the honeymoon isn’t over – I really love this thing! Only time will tell how long it lasts, however, it appears to be damn near perfect at present!

Today I took a 300km ride and again the jacket liner proved its worth. The forecast was for 16C and sunshine, so I wore my leather jacket rather than my textile / gortex lined jacket. Although the first part of the trip was sunny, it was still only 10C between Geelong and Gellibrand. It then became cloudy and around 9C for the next leg of the journey through the Otways. With a thin merino T-shirt and a long sleeved cotton top under the leather jacket I would have been cold in these temps in the past, but add in the Venture jacket liner and I was able to adjust my temp up and down throughout the day, depending on the conditions. Most of the day it ran on ‘low’. Along with my heated grips, the Venture jacket liner ensured that I was toasty all day. And I don’t mean just the absence of cold as I get with my conventional kit – I mean toasty and warm on every leg of the journey. The moral of the story – I wasn’t caught out and cold by the weather being quite different from the forecast.

Venture Heated Jacket: First Impressions

There’s nothing quite as miserable as riding home from a ride, particularly with many kilometres to go, and being cold. Cold equals miserable in my experience of motorcycling! Don’t get me wrong, there have been massive improvements in motorcycle gear over the last 30 years, with merino wool garments, Gortex lined synthetic textile jackets and heated hand grips being right up there with the best things ever for winter riding comfort.

My winter riding kit has just taken a massive leap forward with the addition of a Venture Heat, heated jacket liner from Zarkie Australia (www.zarkie.com.au).

The power supply is super easy to fit with a connector to each side of the battery and with an inline fuse and then a plug to connect to the jacket.

First Impressions in 2C

I deliberately dressed light for the first ride with the heated jacket and removed the inner liner from my winter jacket. The ambient temp was 2C so obviously I was going to be able to genuinely test how good the heated jacket would be. The Venture jacket is much thinner than the liner in my jacket. Rolling the ZX14R out of the garage, I started the motor, plugged in the connector on the Venture and held the soft switch for three seconds. By the time I’d put my helmet and gloves there was a really impressive amount of warmth radiating under my jacket. After 5 minutes on high (red glowing switch) the jacket automatically steps down to the medium setting (indicated by a yellow glow).

I spent the next hour riding in 3C – 7C temps with my torso wonderfully warm (augmented by warm hands from my heated grips). I believe that Venture also make heated gloves that plug straight into the jacket, however, I have no experience with them.

Once it got above 10C later in the ride I turned it down to the low setting (green glow from switch). Other than the obvious thing of being beautifully warm, the jacket had two other advantages over my traditional multiple layers. The first being that with light clothing and the Venture under my jacket, I wasn’t all trussed up and had much more freedom of movement than I am with my multiple merino layers. The second unexpected bonus was that the warmth felt really great for my chronic back pain!

The verdict on the Venture heated jacket? Based on my first shortish ride of around 200 kms I was very, very impressed.

I will write further updates in the upcoming months as I use the Venture heated jacket in a diverse range of weather conditions.

Now there is one caveat to all this review and that is that I was given the jacket by Zarkie to try out and review free of charge. All that was asked was that I write a review and link to their website. I was told that I can keep it, but let me say there was not even a subtle hint that I had to be positive about the product – just try it and write a review. So keep in mind before you spend your hard earned, that I did not!

We headed to Riddells Creek for morning tea where after a long, long time the Melb Branch guys arrived. We took some interesting back roads , including the Bourke & Wills Track to Kyneton. It was pretty cold all morning, but dry. After a 45 min lunch break we headed for home via Trentham, Blackwood and Greendale – from where the Melb Branch fellas parted company with us. It was a cold day, however, the rain held off until around Ballan, though nothing too bad. Jules P was ride leader and Richard S was TEC. A few pics below.

Photocredit: Ron Howell

Around twenty people gathered at Waurn Ponds Maccas for a 6.00pm departure on our first Twilight Ride. This turned out to be an excellent short ride around the Bellarine Peninsula, finishing up at the Queenscliff Bowling Club “Rip View” restaurant.

The weather forecast for Sunday at the start of the weekend was for rain on Sunday. However, Mal Stapleton (the event organiser) confidently told everyone at Saturday morning’s tyre kick that  it was going to be a lovely evening for a ride on Sunday—and he was absolutely right! Although there were a few menacing black clouds in the distance, it remained dry and a balmy 21C for most of the ride.

Patt Cristina volunteered to be TEC and after a briefing from Mal we departed on a really enjoyable ride that headed out Ghazepoore Road, Lower Duneed Rd and took in 13th Beach before heading over to Drysdale then down to past the vineyards to Portarlington and then along the Esplanade to Indented Heads. The camping grounds were bursting at the seams, the smell of BBQ’s wafted through the air and children and people fishing enjoyed the evening on the various beaches. It was great  to see people out and enjoying their long weekend and the balmy evening. I couldn’t help but think how great it is to be living near the coast and what a great quality of life we Aussies have.

The beer garden of the St Leonards Hotel was stacked out as we cruised by. From here we headed up Bluff Road and then turned on to the Queenscliff Road. Just as dusk fell we pulled up at the Queenscliff Bowling Club, which far from offering “pensioners’ food” put on very good meals. We laughed as some friendly locals who were leaving highly recommended the meatballs special, unbeknown to them they were advising Jimbo and Fiona, both of whom are vegetarians!

We occupied three large tables and had enjoyed tasty meals in great company. Those who had previously purchased the Club’s fundraising ‘Entertainment Discount Book’ enjoyed it all the more, with 25% off their bill.

A big thanks to Mal Stapleton for organising the event, which was a huge success.

From Brightside Media, via Youtube

Twenty-one motorcycles rendezvoused at Waurn Ponds Maccas for a ride to Meredith for lunch. The birthday boy, John G, led us on a convoluted route for morning tea at Foxy’s in Meredith, then on a 120km loop around the district followed by a very pleasant lunch at the Meredith Hotel.

Birthday greetings for John 

Branch Quartermaster and Welfare Officer. Digital technology has managed to alter them somehow in this pic!

Don (and Jan) rolled in for lunch

Everyone enjoying the lunch and get-together.(Pic courtesy of Gentle)

We were invited to a four day ride last weekend, staying in Mirboo North for three nights. The weather forecast was for excellent riding conditions for Friday and Saturday, a wet change with significant rain for Sunday and possible showers on Monday.

Well we made the best of the first two days completing 385kms (from our home) on Friday and about 370 kms on Saturday. Mrs T did really well riding pillion over these distances on a bike that is not very well suited for a pillion. Sunday dawned with drizzle that turned to showers and set in for the day. So Sunday was spent with some walking in the morning, including a visit to the famous ‘Inline-Four Café’, and an afternoon and evening by the open fire at the Mirboo North Golf Club – which they kindly opened for our use. Monday we headed for home on greasy roads and the threat of rain. When we pulled up for morning tea and consulted the rain radar the decision was made to cancel the ride home via the hills and take the highway home. As we hit the Monash it started to rain a little and just prior to the tunnel we were pummelled by a cold change, with pelting rain, gusty winds and generally treacherous conditions out over the Westgate Bridge and on the freeway back to Geelong.

All up it was a brilliant long weekend of just on a neat 1000kms door to door for us. Thanks to Ron (AKA Gentle) for all his work in planning the ride routes, organising the accommodation and generally ‘herding cats’ with good humour.

The girls were ready at BP servo in Geelong prior to the start

A diverse range of motorcycles

A great bunch of people, pictured here at Port Albert

Attack of the seagulls – aided by a handful of chips lofted into the air!

Coal Creek at Korumburra

Ride leader ‘Gentle’

Do you remember when there were railway gates on suburban streets?

Mural at Mirboo North servo

Inside the Inline 4 Cafe

Chilling at the Golf Club while it’s raining outside