Indian's high-tech cooled seat is its new answer to flaming saddles

Indian's high-tech cooled seat is its new answer to flaming saddles

Indian's high-tech cooled seat is its new answer to flaming saddles

Manufacturers tried all sorts of methods to cool passengers in the early days of motoring, including “liquid nitrogen, a ‘steam blast’ system using a mixture of water and alcohol, an ‘air cycle’ system using a turbine compressor, and a ‘gasoline vaporizer’ system that required 26 gallons of gas per hour.”

In 1939, Packard debuted optional air conditioning for the 1940 model year. It would be decades before most new cars offered air conditioning, and cooled seats didn't arrive as a factory option until the 2000 Lincoln Navigator.

Lincoln was one of the few automakers to equip standard air conditioning for many years, along with Cadillac. The Navigator above used induction heating and cooling for the seats . Other manufacturers have tried simple, refrigerant-free fans to move the air. Whether you're in a car or on a motorcycle, simple seats block your body's natural cooling system, as heat has nowhere to go, even though the rest of your body receives plenty of airflow. Motorcyclists have never had much help keeping cool in the saddle , and Indian wants to change that. Leave it to a V-twin manufacturer to address seat heat!

Indian's new Clima Command Classic seat skips all the HVAC and uses a thermoelectric module to heat or cool a one-atom-thick layer of graphite, called graphene. You've seen graphene in the headlines in recent years as its unique properties have been exploited in many products and industries. 

In this case, Indian uses graphene's remarkable thermal conductivity to add or remove heat by charging it electrically, which is quite logical since electronics such as computers and phones already use graphene to keep temperatures low. In cooling mode, Indian's Clima Command system uses its graphene layer and a thermoelectric module to cool the top of the seat, while ducts under the seat move air away from the warm side of the graphene. Indian says the seat feels really cool to the touch while the system is running. Reverse the charge with the controller and the opposite happens, providing the rider with a warm upper seat for cold rides. French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier was experimenting with the same principle in 1834, now called the Peltier effect. He simply didn't have graphene at hand,

The controller offers multiple levels of heating and cooling so the rider (and passenger) can set their ideal temperatures. No drilling is required for the seat to function.

“Despite advances in seat heating and cooling, we have yet to see cooling technology that truly eliminates the discomfort of the heat and with Clima Command, our engineering team has finally solved this problem,” said Ross Clifford, vice president of Parts, Clothing and Accessories at Indian Motorcycle. “Our thermoelectric technology combined with graphene material is truly a game changer and another example of Indian Motorcycle bringing an innovation to the market that makes a difference.”

The Clima Command heated/cooled seat is cutting edge stuff… and priced accordingly at around €1.200 for some Thunder Stroke models. So is this new technology of interest to you or do you agree with the idea?

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