Heated seats are something of a luxury item on motorcycles (though more and more common in passenger vehicles), and not all of us can afford or want to add an aftermarket heated seat to our bike(s) if not originally equipped. Enter the Cyber Hot Seat from Warm & Safe, a heated seat pad designed to fit just about any motorcycle or scooter. Installation on our KTM 790 Adventure test bike was fairly straightforward, and accessing the battery terminals on the KTM to attach the pigtail was the toughest part — certainly not the fault of Warm & Safe. The pad itself attaches with hook-and-loop straps that run under the seat; the power cable that plugs into the pigtail runs off the right front strap. Once strapped on, I was concerned that the pad would slip around, especially when mounting/dismounting, but the grippy print on the underside kept it firmly in place.

There are three heat levels (plus off), controlled with a big button built into the front center of the pad; it lights up red (high), white (medium) and blue (low) in that order to indicate heat level. The first time I tried the pad I was wearing regular nylon riding pants and the medium setting was plenty hot. But when it’s really cold out I bundle up, so one particularly brisk morning I suited up in denim jeans and the thickest, heaviest-duty piece of riding apparel I own: an Aerostich Roadcrafter 3 suit. Even with those two layers between my skin and the pad, it only took about a minute before I felt the heat of the high setting, and turned it down to medium after a while because it was so warm.

Whether turned on or off, the Cyber Hot Seat is useful as an extra cushioning layer and I didn’t find the inner heating elements to be uncomfortable; in fact I couldn’t really feel them. One important note, however, is that unless you are installing the pad onto a switched circuit in a fuse block, it’s important to remember to turn the pad off when you park, lest you come back to a dead battery. (The Cyber Hot Seat draws 1.3A and 18W at 13.8V.) It comes with the 12V battery pigtail; a 12V cigarette adaptor, 12V Euro plug adaptor, 7.4V battery, 7.4V adaptor cable and other accessories are also available. Suggested retail is $149.95, but as of print time for this review it’s been on-sale online for $99.95. 

For more information, call (702) 357-8664 or visit warmnsafe.com.

Source: RiderMagazine.com