Winter time - keeping the battery safe

[DirtSurfer]

There are threads on installing a batter warmer for folks who live in really cold places...

(FWIW: the folks at Chicken Hawk Racing sell a really nice option, Custom Built Flexible Insulated Heating Jackets:

Cost: $685. Each Prices are FOB our facility in Red Hook, NY, David Podolsky, 845-758-0700 www.customheatersandresearch.com www.chickenhawkracing.com)

That said, I live in a temperate climate (PNW) so it feels like overkill...


I'm thinking I just put a small electric heater (maybe even a simple heat lamp) under the bike, and cover it with a blanket. Yea, it's a bit ghetto, but the amount of time my (unheated/uninsulated) garage actually gets below 30F is rare. Heck, I could even use a layer of insulation in-between the bike and blanket, just to ensure it's warm enough...

Has anyone else tried this, thoughts?????

Thanks!

 

[Theo]

Has anyone else tried this,

Not tried anything like that, since in my garage the temperature is always warm enough.

thoughts?????

Whatever you choose to do, if I were in your shoes, in the first hours and then in the first days after having done it, I would check that the temperature doesn't become too hot, especially if the heating can affect more one spot of the battery case than the surrounding surface, like when using a heating lamp.
An unheated blanket, with or without insulation, can make sense when riding the bike since in that case the battery generates some heat and the blanket reduces its dissipation. In your case, though, a standby or shut down battery probably doesn't produce significant amount of heat, so an unheated blanket wouldn't make a difference. If the battery is covered by a blanket while being warmed up with a heater, the blanket will actually IMO hinder the heating.