After Mr Weatherman got it wrong again, my heated grips got their first real test this evening and I have to say, I'm impressed!
Heavy rain, four degrees celcius and the pitch black is not exactly my first choice of weather to ride in. However, apart from my finger tips which still got a little chilly, my hands remained toasty warm on the way home. Indeed, the high setting (two settings) was too warm, almost hot, if used for too long.
In fact, thanks to the wonders of gore-tex clothing, high vis vests and of course heated grips, I was surprised how enjoyable the ride home from work was this evening.
Certainly I got home warm and dry, which is something I could have only dreamt about riding in the same conditions twenty years ago.
Daytona TC. However, I do believe that there are a few that are rebranded versions from the same factory. Three settings; Off, Start (high setting) and On (Low setting).
My Pan came fitted with the Honda heated grips that had 4 thermostatically controlled settings. I have had the pleasure of the BMW grips on my last bike and i fitted the oxford hot grips, (the adjustable ones ) on my ER5. I would recommend anyone who rides in the winter to get a set. i used to rice over the top of the pennies every day to work in Halifax during the winter and they were a life saver.
My advice to anyone fitting heated grips is to install a relay that comes on with the ignition to power the grips. this provides two functions. 1) when you kill the ignition you kill the power to the grips saves flat batteries. 2) It allows you to isolate the grips without disabling the bike if you have to.
yessir me custom oxford grips is a workin fine!got the second set as spare[or may fit em on the arley],if they go wrong its generally the wire to the throttle grip which may work loose due to constant throttle movement least thats what appened on mine!!you can always cut the rubber an resolder the connection if out of warranty!an i fitted em to the ignition after flattenin the battery one day!!they also do heated pads that fit with velcro around your original grips so you can take em off in summer[cheaper to!]
Mine are factory-fitted ones on the BMW. I was a bit sniffy about them when I got the bike, but now I'm coming up to the bike's 3rd winter with em, yes, they're nice things to have. PP's right, you've got to wire them in so they're ignition-switched.
i used the rear tail light connection[someone said] as a switch but the feckin things wouldnt heat up much!!so connected em to a spare slot on the ignition block now there fine!
Mine were fitted by my dealer and as PP has said somewhere else, they fitted them via a relay.
This means that you can wire the ignition feed into somewhere low current, in my case the front brake light switch, but the actual grips can be wired direct to the battery or similar for full current.
It also means that if the fuse blows, it only cuts out the grips and doesn't affect the bike's wiring at all.
I had actually thought about the Oxford hot hands (wrap around thingies) for pillion use?? Surely these could as easily be wrapped around a pillion grab rail as they can bars??
will my 'ickle 125 be able to cope with heated grips? & are they easy to fit, or should I get a garage (or someone in the know) to fit em?
& what sort of price are we looking at?
.....this of course follows on from my other thread & in the vain hope that I can actually get her off the drive!