Heated hand grips - what not to do

[smokiesam]

Its cold and I wanted to try some heated hand grips yes I'm a wimp.
Bought some off tradeMe, oxfords good price.

They were sitting on the door step when I got home so i thought I read the instructions and maybe just wire in the controls.
I have a hornet so the battery under the tank so out with the manual and work out how I get the tank up and battery and wiring loom exposed.
Glass of wine and smoke in hand read instructions and looks like a piece of cake. Off with the fairing, tank up no its does not come off so a block of wood under the front lip to hold it up. Out with the battery and thoughts of I'm never going to be able to jumper this bike if ever needed cross my mind.

Connected the wires to the battery and replaced it back in to its tiny box. Wires under tank and up under the head light wow that went well.
Time to clean up and put everything back together.

Back into the warm house another wine or 2 and a couple of smokes later the wife gets on the phone to her daughter, hay I think I go finish it off.

Its now 9 but hay it won't take long. Off with the end weights now how to get the old grips off. Pulled and pulled, heated them up with hot water nope they aren’t going anywhere. Plan B small screw driver up under the grip and rotated it to I broke all the glue and off they came.

Time for break and drink. Right read the instructions again and yep this will be easy. Scrapped all the on glue up Stanley knife and fitted the on dry. Throttle base has a bloody lip on it and there is no way the heated grip going to fit over it. Plan B out with the Stanley knife and off with the lip yes that will work.

They supply elephant glue with the kit hmmm is that wise. Anyway put left hand grip on first straight on the chrome of the handle bar no problems glue on shiny chrome worked well and I could get it and still position it without to much fuss. Now the throttle side which is some sort of plastic.

Glue on first as per instructions and push it on. F**k it goes half way and stops glued forever. Now what pull the shit out of it and almost have the bike on top of me. Panic time shit what do I do. Out with the small screw driver and run it round the inside of the grip and pull using the screw driver as a lever and shit its slipped off and puts a scratch on my tank f**k. now I'm real pissed calm down another drink glue all over my hands now. Let my hands dry, added a second dry hard skin I can do without.
Out with Stanley knife and give my fingers a shave and a good wash with petrol and I’ll live. Another drink required plus a smoke. Nerves a little better but shit that scratch pisses me off. Right run the screw driver around again and test grip after it comes off to see if I have rooted it. Nope still works.

Plan c off with all the old glue this Stanley knife is handy. Grip pushed on with no glue yep that will work. Back off it comes now put glue on the very end of the throttle body only and push it back on yep that worked. Now out with the screw driver and lift the end of the grip and add glue under the end section yes success. Another wine and smoke and put everything back together. Done its now 11:30 did I miss tea in there somewhere I'm hungry.

[PirateJafa]

Paragraphs are for pussies, evidently.

[Mom]

Apart from this sentence which has me totally confused

"Scrapped all the on glue up stanley knife and fitted the on dry. "

I think what he is trying to get across is, you should not attempt to fit heated handgrips while drinking wine on an empty stomach?

[Highlander]

Might have to get you to give me a demo when put them on Mrs Highlanders GSX.
I can hold your wine glass for you so you have both hands available. :clap:

[paulmac]

Costs around $70 for a shop to fit them and they wire them through the ignition so you can't accidently leave them on !!

[Virago]

youdoneagoodjobwelldone

[Grumpy]

Hmmm ..... after reading all that I think that I'll just buy some warmer gloves.
:msn-wink:

[smokiesam]

You pour the wine correct my english and write my replies feed me and we have a deal.

PS You provide the stanley knife.

[shafty]

Bloody funny Sam, condolences on the scratch! :niceone:

[MD]

Costs around $70 for a shop to fit them and they wire them through the ignition so you can't accidently leave them on !!

Exactly. Reading that makes me feel so much better for paying for mine to be installed. Drop bike in to shop. Go next door for a coffee, read a magazine, collect bike and ride home with warm hands. Worked for me.

Another risk to do-it-yourself-home-mechanics is what if you ruin a part, it's your cost.

[smokiesam]

Did I meantion I'm a dutchmen with a scratch on his tank. $150 for a respray

[vifferman]

Glass of wire
There's your problem right there. A stomach file of wire - no wonder you messed up!


Grip pushed on with no glue yeap that will work. back off it comes now put glue on the very end of the throttle body only and push it back on yep that worked.
Oh, man! If only you'd read my install, or asked me I would've told you what to do! I test fitted both grips, removed the excess rubber that squeezed out under each one when they made them, then test-fitted again. Both were snug, so I only added glue on the inside 2cm of the throttle one, just to make sure it didn't come adrift. The glue there actually helped get it on the last little bit.
Never mind; you've got them fitted now, and will have toasty warm hands for the rest of winter.:niceone:
Shame about the scratched tank, but 'shit happens'. Perhaps that glass of wire did it.

[Subike]

hell
fitting the hand grips to my ride was one of the easiest mods I have ever done.
Just looked at it, worked out in my head what to do, 10 min done!
Complete with relay and cut out via the ignition switch instead of the direct wireing to the battery as per the instructions.
Better that thicker gloves? hell yes

[MD]

I can sympathise with you though.

I started a similar thread years ago when I decided to pop down to the garage and clean my brand new CBR1000RR when pissed. Bloody bike toppled over and shattered the side fairing. Lesson: Never drink and polish.

[PrincessBandit]

Oh dear, probably an excellent reason why having a drink or two (depends on what I guess) while working on mechanical equipment can lead to unexpected problems.

My sympathies for the scratched tank - my husband (from Dutch parents) was totally pissed when he did my grips and dripped glue down my faring. It took much calming down from me to reassure him that it was ok, and even then he spent hours working away at it to remove it.

As for wiring into the ignition, I'm sure lots of people do it although the instructions say it's preferable to wire into the battery. Besides, once the voltage (or whatever it is) drops below a certain level when the bike is turned off I think the control turns off anyway......????? Um, I'm sure someone else can clarify that.

[breakaway]

I'm usually not one to bitch about this sort of thing, but the amount of grammur and speeling errors in this thread make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty knife.

[Virago]

Stop picking on his Grammar. She's an old lady now.

[vifferman]

As for wiring into the ignition, I'm sure lots of people do it although the instructions say it's preferable to wire into the battery. Besides, once the voltage (or whatever it is) drops below a certain level when the bike is turned off I think the control turns off anyway......?????
Yes, the Oxford ones are supposed to monitor the voltage and switch off if it drops below 11.5V. But wiring into an ignition-switched power supply is more betterer. I used my switched BlueSea 5025 fusebox. Couldn't be bothered removing the fuse and fitting another end, so now it has two fuses. Mebbe I'll go out to the garge and cut it off now. Be a nice change from housework...

[Highlander]

Hard to believe this thread has gone to this many posts with no one asking what kind of wine it was.

The rest of this is trivia.

[Owl]

Stop picking on his Grammar. She's an old lady now.

Hell, my eyes spent so much time darting back and forth while reading that, I thought my head was going to fall off!:blink:

[hayd3n]

what kinda wire were you drinking?

[Maha]

Hard to believe this thread has gone to this many posts with no one asking what kind of wine it was.

The rest of this is trivia.

Probably a 4Ltr box of Rich Ruby....:niceone:

[pritch]

I'm usually not one to bitch about this sort of thing,

Neither am I so I won't. *

Condolences to the OP on the scratched tank, the Hornet battery hiding in its plastic cave is a bitch to get at. I found that out one day when I'd inadvertently left the ignition on...

The sad tale made me bloody glad I let the shop fit my Oxford grips. I decided many years ago, after a series of stripped threads, that drinking and spanners don't mix. (So I gave up spanners.:beer:)

Bling sent.

* An occasional exception for the serial misspelling of the interrogative "eh".
It's only two letters ffs but many (most?) people here don't seem to be able to manage even that! [/RANT]

[cowpatz]

As for wiring into the ignition, I'm sure lots of people do it although the instructions say it's preferable to wire into the battery. Besides, once the voltage (or whatever it is) drops below a certain level when the bike is turned off I think the control turns off anyway......????? Um, I'm sure someone else can clarify that.

My God! A chick that rides AND reads instructions......impressive.



Smokiesam
Was it cask wine? If so therein lies the problem. Life is just too short for cheap wine.

[CookMySock]

Hrm, working on bikes is like working on planes. Take a careful structured approach or PAY. I wouldn't go anywhere near my bike pissed.

Steve

[AllanB]

I'm confused.

You on the Hornet 900?

You don't need to touch the tank to get the battery out - remove the seat, then the right side cover (one bolt), undo the battery strap, pull the battery out a couple of cm, undo the negative terminal, remove battery and undo the positive terminal. I takes a total of 5 minutes. Six minutes to put it back again.

Suppose the tank went up to run a wire.

[smokiesam]

My God! A chick that rides AND reads instructions......impressive.



Smokiesam
Was it cask wine? If so therein lies the problem. Life is just too short for cheap wine.
Nothing but the best mid week country dry

[smokiesam]

I wanted to run the wire in the loom under the tank. Anyone left the grips on too the battery got down 11.5 volts and still managed to start there bike. It would be a bitch to push start it.

[Cloggy]

Did I meantion I'm a dutchmen with a scratch on his tank. $150 for a respray
I can fully sympathise with how you feel.

[pritch]

Anyone left the grips on too the battery got down 11.5 volts and still managed to start there bike. It would be a bitch to push start it.

My grips require some revs to keep going. Fine on the open road but stop at the lights too long and the grips turn off...

[v8s&2wheels]

My grips require some revs to keep going. Fine on the open road but stop at the lights too long and the grips turn off...

Cant say ive had that problem. Is your bike carb or injected? Perhaps you might need to adjust your idle speed up a little bit to help with the draw coming from the grips?

[pritch]

Perhaps you might need to adjust your idle speed up a little bit to help with the draw coming from the grips?

Injected - manual enrichment control. Revving the bike while sitting at the lights doesn't appeal much though.

[mctshirt]

I sympathise with the scratched tank but it can go horribly wrong in other ways.

Saturday morning I thought putting some heated grips on was a marvellous idea to reduce the bite of a neverending winter.

Fitting the new grip to the left side was a breeze so with optimism overflowing I moved to the right side. Got the old grip off pretty well intact and gave the new one a bit of a shove on to see if it could be fitted without modification of the plastic throttle body. With a bit of brute force and ignorance the grip was pushed up to the odd shaped bit of plastic the original Suzuki grip fitted over. Hmmm - the new grip won't go over that - she'll be right - not aesthetically pleasing but I can live with it and off i went intending to wire it up the following day.

Back into the garage on Sunday morning, took one look at the big ugly bit of plastic and couldn't live with it. Hmmmmm - not enough room for a file in there - some frustrating minutes getting the grip back about 5mm to fit a hole saw in there which hacks the offending plastic off at a pleasing pace with needle nose pliers speeding up the process even more and everything covered in plastic snow.

Now using a coarse saw on delicate plastic is not without risk as an over zealous hack can go a little deep here and there but she'll be right. Saves time with the fiddly filing I crowed to myself. Now I'm finished near enough to rough enough and give the grip a good heave to close the newly acquired gap. SNAP goes the throttle body at the previously weakened points - oh bother. Oh dear. Gosh darnit.

Long story short after desperate texts and phone calls the VX now has some Mud Bug DNA and the owner very thoroughly learned (again) about rushing a delicate jobby and leaping before looking. Loving the warm hands but they came at a price :laugh:

[kit]

Me and my friend fitted mine, but had to alter the bracket that holds the switch, but no probs fitting them, but crikey there was a damn lot of wiring to try and hide!!!

[Forest]

I use hairspray to put my grips on.

Just borrow a can of hairspray from the missus, put a few squirts inside the grip, and slide it over the bars.

The hairspray acts as a lubricant. So it's bloody easy to get the grip into place. Then the solvent evaporates and the grip is locked into place.