I purchased both the Tour Master Synergy jacket (liner) and the gloves at the local Honda dealer yesterday. With the Honda Rider's discount, it came out to be the exact same price as what you may see at online motorcycle accessory stores. I completely agree with BlueFizzy's comments (above).
Here are some comments of my own so far:
These products seem to be a "hot" item (sorry...) right now and are flying off the dealer shelves! I got the last jacket they had and I was fortunate it was the correct size. The Honda dealer did have multiple sizes in the gloves.
The folks at the Honda dealer were very helpful when I looked at the heated clothing. They went out of their way to hook the jacket up on one of the salesman's Goldwing. However, we did not see an "on" indicator light, so we then hooked it up to a cycle battery and all was well. I did not feel heat pouring out of the jacket or gloves but they felt "warm". I used to have a heated vest (back in the mid-90's) and the wire elements in that vest felt warm right away. The Synergy products use "carbon fiber" heating elements and the heating effects seem different than garments using wires. (A little more on that later.)
Each item comes with it's own power cord. You need just one (per person) on a bike. Since I got both the jacket and gloves, I have two cords - so one is either a backup or can be used on a second bike. If my wife gets a jacket, that jacket will also include a power cord too. I like having spares! The power cords have a fuse with a weather protect cap. One of the two power cords fuse appears defective in that it does not stay snapped on and protect the fuse. I can tape it but it gives me that nagging thought in the back of my mind of what else is defective or "cheap". There is a dust cap on the garment side connector. That cap seems like it's designed adequately but the manufactured dimensions seem off a little and it does not seem to attach firmly to the connector. Both cords seem to have the same caps. Minor annoyance, but there is seems to be a lack of attention to detail is places.
Each garment includes its own weatherproof temp controller - which is very nice. Both the glove and jacket controller electronic "package" seems identical - but the wires coming out of them are very different between the jacket and gloves. (I would guess the controller that comes with the pants has a different set of wires coming out?)
Note that like most (if not all) of Tour Master's products, these two items are made in China. My wife and I have Tour Master jackets (mine is a Transition) and pants and have put over 7,000 miles on them this year alone. I like them very much and they are also made in China. I feel they are fairly well made and an excellent value. Time will tell if the Synergy products are similar.
I would like to see a longer power cord. On my ST1100, about the only way to exit the power cord from the battery is either through the left side panel bodywork opening for the center stand hand lever (what I did), or between the top of the body work and the bottom of the seat. I suppose one could drill a hole or slot but I was not into that. If the cord was longer, I would entertain feeding up and into the left fairing pocket (would need a hole in there). In this way, it is "forward" accessible and can conveniently hidden when not in use. My current configuration allows me to just tuck the wire between the left side panel and left pannier when parked. If I want to ride without heating, I can pop off the seat and run the cord back towards the tail section.
I would also like the cords coming out of the sleeves (to connect up to the gloves) to be a little longer as well. I can just barely hold on to the glove connector with my hand as I slip my arm into my outer jacket while wearing the electric jacket liner. If I don't hold on to the connector, it is pushed up my forearm and is very difficult to fish out to then connect them to the gloves. On the positive, the ends of the liner sleeve have zippered openings so that you can tuck unused glove connectors into a zippered opening.
Hooking it all up seems very straight forward. All clothing connections are color-coded. (BTW - The connectors from a friend's Harley-Davidson's electric gloves are the same as the Synergy glove connectors so he is thinking of getting the Synergy jacket and using it with his HD gloves.) When attaching the gloves to the jacket, the controller in the (right) glove is not used and is completely removed. The controller on the jacket (rated at 150 watts total) then controls everything. Even though I had an electric vest years ago, it feels a little weird having to connect wires to me before a ride. I already have a wireless Bluetooth helmet system that allows me to talk to my passenger as well as hear voice commands on the GPS and do phone calls. I choose Bluetooth because it's wireless. Now I'm back to wearing a wire and I will need to get used to hooking myself up for cold weather rides.
The manufacturer states that the jacket should be "form fitting" over just a single layer of clothes for best heat transfer to your body. I like wearing at least a long sleeve T-shirt under my protective gear and I wear a size 40 sport's jacket and the medium (MD) size Synergy jacket - cut for a 40 relaxed abdomen - seems correct. I plan to wear a regular T-shirt and a long-sleeve dress shirt under the jacket when I commute to work and this arrangement seems to fit fine. The sides of the jacket have a wide elastic panel to make the jacket form fitted without bulk. The collar is heated and the jacket has two small hand pockets. If you don't mind having some wires and connectors dangling out from the lower left front of the jacket, you can wear the jacket by itself. The controller connector has a screw ring type safety connector. I am not sure how durable that connector is to repeated removal and attachments. For now, I'll just keep it always connected.
I just got the Synergy clothing yesterday and hooked it all up last night and went on a quick ride. The heat seems much more even than with wire-heated clothing and maybe that is why it does not seem "hot" - the heat is spread out and not localized over hot wires. I am not sure if carbon heaters are more energy efficient than wire. They both convert electrical energy into heat energy and I have not verified manufacture claims of current use and surface temperature. On the ride, my abdomen seemed "warm" when on the middle setting and it was in the low 30's (F). I had the visor of my full-face helmet cracked open a bit and could feel the cold air on my face. It was refreshing with the rest of me being warm and toasty. The right glove seemed to get warm quicker than the left glove. Maybe my hands are differently calibrated! Eventually, both hands seemed about equally warm.
The folks at Honda suggested I remove the zip-out liner in my Tour Master jacket when I wear the electric liner. I might, I might not. I have not decided which way I want to go on that and experimentation is in order. I think it would be nice if the jacket liner could zip (and snap) into the outer Tour Master jacket in place of the regular liner but this cannot be done as the zippers (and dimensions) between the standard non-electric liner and the Synergy liner are very different. Yet if it could be done, I would just have to hold on to the glove connecters once when inserting the heated liner into the outer jacket, zip and snap it all in place and then I could remove and put on the heated liner-protective outer jacket "system" without much fuss.
Jon