Heated Grips: Any naysayers?

[samgab]

I've never owned a bike with heated grips, but every single rider I've ever spoken to who has a bike with heated grips has nothing but glowing positive things to say about them (for winter riding at least). I hear a lot of hyperbole:
"I'd never go back to not having heated grips..."
"It changed riding in winter for me..."
"Best thing I added to my bike..."
and so on.

So, anyone out there, with experience of owning bikes with heated grips, who DOESN'T like them, or who thinks they're a waste of money?
After watching a few youtube videos, I've decided to bite the bullet and try a set of heated grips on my commuter bike, finally. Haven't got them yet, but I'll soon see if they're the best thing since sliced bread after all, or if the hype was ...just that after all. :cold:

[Daffyd]

I had both heated grips and hand guards on my BMW. What I found was that heated grips heat only the palm and part of the fingers. Without hand guards the backs of the fingers still get the cold blast. What I'm saying is that hand guards double the effectiveness of heated grips.

[Dodgy]

Heated vest. Like a heated grip x1000

[tigertim20]

What daffyd said is correct.

Ive had them, havent had them for a long time now. I dint care either way.

My gripe with them is that heated grips tend to be a greater diameter than normal grips, and tend to be of a firmer material, making them less comfortable on longer rides when you don't require the warmth.

[WALRUS]

From my experience, they are second in dividing people to the fearsome Ventura rack!!

We get some bitterly cold winters here and I ride all year 'round, all weather, day and night. After riding for 10 years I've only ever ridden one bike with heated grips; my old man's 2016 VFR800, which I borrowed to commute on for a couple of weeks. They were great but too hot for me on anything but the first setting.

Honestly, I'm happy with my Dainese winter gloves but I can see why people like to get the grips.

(DISCLAIMER :: I might have just built up a resistance to the cold after spending years commuting in -1 to 1 degree winter mornings wearing Kevlar jeans, perforated leather "summer" jackets and vented track gloves)

[pete376403]

Oxford grips on the KLR, no larger in diameter than the standard grips. Work well with a couple of provisos. 1/ is that the buttons on the controller are hard to operate with gloves, I got around that by glueing on a couple of small plastic knobs. 2/ is that the heat goes to the palm of my hand but its the back and tips of my fingers that really feels the cold. Solution was a pair of battery powered gloves from Zarkie.co.au
https://www.zarkie.com.au/product/12v-heated-motorcycle-touring-gloves/ they are excellent

[russd7]

zzr has pussy grips and they were a waste of time riding in snow until i bought a set of elephant gloves in desperation, as daffy has said, they warm the palm of your hands only which leaves the rest to freeze,
the wing does not have heated grips but i did put the elephant gloves on to go to the brass and although they were a little awkward, they did stop my fingers getting to cold.

ya might just find a set of bark busters may solve ya cold problem.

[240]

I dont have them on my current bike but they are awesome!! I am a bit of a freak though as I use summer gloves all year round.:weird:

[OddDuck]

They're good but as Daffyd says, your fingers won't benefit as much as your palms. Bark Busters or similar completes the solution. Depends on how well you handle the cold really.

[nzspokes]

I have them on all my bikes. They come in different sizes now so you can get a thickness you like.

Im getting some arthritis in my hands and that bit of heat is a great thing.

As said above I have handguards on my commuter/touring bike for the full effect.

[Oakie]

I love my heated handgrips. My work bike does not have them but it does have the handguards so my hands are out of the breeze, so no windchill. This also makes a surprising difference and i can even ride with fingerless gloves from mid-morning. Having both grips and guards would be perfect but either is good. As others have said though, the grips don't warm the back of your hand and if you commute with fingers on the levers full time you won't get the full effect. Still ... wouldn't be without them.

[GazzaH]

It depends on the length of your journey in the cold. For a half hour commute or the odd hour cool trip, I wouldn't bother, at least not up here in sunny Hawkes Bay.

I had heated grips on a 4x4 farm bike: near zero benefit with the longest trip being about half an hour to fetch the post, at about 30 kph, stopping to open & close gates or fish out a lost lamb from the cattle grid. Maybe a proper farmer working 25 hours a day in a blizzard would need them. Not me.

I have heated grips now on the TransAlp, with factory-fit wind deflectors: nice for the odd long cold ride. They were on it when I bought the bike 2nd hand. I drive past the lambs and avoid blizzards.

Poking around in the cupboard I discovered the padded inner lining for my jacket a month ago: now that makes a surprising difference for such a thin layer.

[pritch]

Heated grips are great but the cheap ones (Oxford) can be frustratingly unreliable. The switches are crap and that comment is not based on one or two, I went through whole series of them. Failing to switch on is one thing. Coming on involuntarily, or failing to switch off will cause the battery to go flat and can leave you parked; warm grips, no battery.

[BMWST?]

Heated grips are great but the cheap ones (Oxford) can be frustratingly unreliable. The switches are crap and that comment is not based on one or two, I went through whole series of them. Failing to switch on is one thing. Coming on involuntarily, or failing to switch off will cause the battery to go flat and can leave you parked; warm grips, no battery.
whats a good one then?..my experience has been on factory fit ones.

[jellywrestler]

don't waste your money on them there are so many advantages with heated jackets
they can go from bike to bike, sell your bike your heted grips go with it,
have more than one bike, more sets of grips...
nice light jacket instead of bulking up on clothes just turn it on and off
when you get cold your body saves it's heat for the core to survive, limiting blood going to extremities, toes and fingers. heat your core with a jacket and it keeps sending warm blood to fingers and toes so negates the need for heated grips.
you can now get usb chargeable jackets so you don't have to plug into your bike

[pritch]

whats a good one then?..my experience has been on factory fit ones.

I was recommended BMW but they aren't cheap.

[Frodo]

Heated grips can make a huge difference in winter commuting (if you're riding more than about 30 minutes) and winter touring.
I've done several long rides in winter and through the South Island in wintry conditions. I've never had trouble keeping my core warm, but without heated grips I had hands so cold they were painful after a couple of hours.
Hand guards also help, as is noted.
Fitted some R&G heated grips - under $100 from TSS. Easy to fit and wired them into my sidelights so they switch off with the ignition.

[samgab]

Some interesting feedback, cheers! Well, either way, I'm looking forward to trying them out.
I did in fact order some Oxford "Premium Touring" type... I like that they turn themselves off when the bike turns off.
I should look into getting some wind guards or bark busters too.

When I toured the South Island on an R1200GS it had every possible option in the option list ticked with the one EXCEPTION being factory heated grips. It did have hand guards though, and I found them fairly good on the one cold rainy day of my tour. But at the end of that day I was still soaked to the bone, freezing cold, and miserable, despite my waterproof gear and winter gloves. I felt like if the Beemer had had heated grips it would have mitigated this somewhat, by keeping my hands at least a bit warmer and drier than they were. But that particular day, riding from Queenstown through Haast pass, Fox Glacier etc for about 6 or 7 hours through rain so heavy that it felt like I was riding through a swimming pool at some times, no amount of waterproof or warm gear would've helped, I think.

[pete376403]

don't waste your money on them there are so many advantages with heated jackets
they can go from bike to bike, sell your bike your heted grips go with it,
have more than one bike, more sets of grips...
nice light jacket instead of bulking up on clothes just turn it on and off
when you get cold your body saves it's heat for the core to survive, limiting blood going to extremities, toes and fingers. heat your core with a jacket and it keeps sending warm blood to fingers and toes so negates the need for heated grips.
you can now get usb chargeable jackets so you don't have to plug into your bike

Well I dunno about that theory of heat migration. I have had a heated vest for a number of years, can get pretty damn hot around my torso but fingers and toes remain bitterly cold and painful (using good, but maybe not great boots and gloves) when riding to and from Brass Monkeys. The KLR does have hand guards, which are ok yo reduce the cold air flow. Heated grips are good-ish, although the heat is in the wrong place. Heated gloves are the best. Heated boot liners next (Zarkie.com.au)

[R650R]

Heated gloves anyone....?

I bought these couple years ago and have been awesome

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/tour-master-synergy-20-heated-leather-gloves

For starters they are a good heavy winter leather glove to start with and have great gaiters that keep water out and along with good snow sealing have been 100% waterproof.
I only need to plug them in when say 4 deg or colder. Expected them to be toaster hot but instead just provide an effective level of heat alround.

Bought them for the finger numbing cold on the winter MMMMM rides and trips over Taupo or taihape roads in winter. Highly recommended and not bulky, the dexterity and feel of brake lever etc is very close to summer gloves.

One thing to think of though is how much spare amps your charging system has... the poor lil DR650 standard alternator doesn't have much. Think if I had vest as well it would start running dead loss system.....

[Blackbird]

Heated gloves anyone....?

+1 . I only use my Gerbing heated gloves when it's really cold but they really do the job. Like yours, they run off the bike supply. For shorter runs like commuting, gloves with their own battery packs seem pretty good, where you can get 2 or 3 hours off a single charge.

[veldthui]

Do the double. Heated grips and heated seat on my BMW R1200RT. If it gets really cold I will put the heated jacket, heated pants and heated socks on but usually the hand grips and bum heater are enough.

[caspernz]

Heated grips on their own are of limited value. When I used to commute by bike, in Wellington, the heated grips were nice. On longer trips at speed, even in summer, I'll admit to using heated grips on a low heat.

The other aspect is that I prefer a sporty (as in thin) leather glove. So heated grips, along with an under glove (I use Rev'it! brand helium gloves at present as an under glove) allows me to go almost year round with a sporty glove.

As has been mentioned, a set of heated grips will warm the inside of he hand. At speed in lower temps, the outside of the hand still gets cold. The under glove or thermal type inner will partly solve that. Beyond that, you're into a heavier glove, which I'm not a fan of.

There you go, take your pick out of the responses and see what suits you best.

[BMWST?]

I was recommended BMW but they aren't cheap.
oh ...thats what i had.

[BMWST?]

Some interesting feedback, cheers! Well, either way, I'm looking forward to trying them out.
I did in fact order some Oxford "Premium Touring" type... I like that they turn themselves off when the bike turns off.
I should look into getting some wind guards or bark busters too.

When I toured the South Island on an R1200GS it had every possible option in the option list ticked with the one EXCEPTION being factory heated grips. It did have hand guards though, and I found them fairly good on the one cold rainy day of my tour. But at the end of that day I was still soaked to the bone, freezing cold, and miserable, despite my waterproof gear and winter gloves. I felt like if the Beemer had had heated grips it would have mitigated this somewhat, by keeping my hands at least a bit warmer and drier than they were. But that particular day, riding from Queenstown through Haast pass, Fox Glacier etc for about 6 or 7 hours through rain so heavy that it felt like I was riding through a swimming pool at some times, no amount of waterproof or warm gear would've helped, I think.
thats odd ,that would be the first option i would tick

[Taxythingy]

I run a pair of Oxford touring grips for commuting outside of Christchurch and have done for a few years. Wouldn't commute without them, but want to buy a pair of heated gloves. They are a better solution, just at 2-5 times the price.

I like the grips. They make some rides safe, where my hands would otherwise be freezy cold. Wet weather makes them shine. But I'm still going to get sore fingers when the temps get close to or below zero.

I'll give the grips :banana::banana::banana: out of 5 for effectiveness, but 5/5 when talking value for money.

[R650R]

Just to add, one thing I found.... my jacket that I thought was awesome... suddenly felt cold once heated gloves bought.
Soon as you heat one part of body better the next weak spot is exposed.....

[Banditbandit]

I have them on my 1250 - but not on my commute bike (commute is about 20 minutes and is mostly open road, 100 klicks plus).

On my 1250 I love them. They are not the be all of keeping your hands warm, but they are pretty damn good. I use the 1250 long distance, have Oxford grips. I have never run them over 75% as they feel too hot on 100%, and only had them at 75% once, in freezing weather. The warm the palms, and the warm the blood, which then circulates the warmth up the arms.

My suggestion is try them.

[rastuscat]

Do the double. Heated grips and heated seat on my BMW R1200RT. If it gets really cold I will put the heated jacket, heated pants and heated socks on but usually the hand grips and bum heater are enough.

It makes it hard to go away from an RT once you've had all the bells and whistles.

I've had mine for a few years, and every time I look at a different bike I get disappointed when they don't have cruise, heated seat and grips, stereo, ESC etc.

[Blackbird]

It makes it hard to go away from an RT once you've had all the bells and whistles.

I've had mine for a few years, and every time I look at a different bike I get disappointed when they don't have cruise, heated seat and grips, stereo, ESC etc.

Geez Pete, you might as well have a car :laugh:

[breakaway]

Heated grips alone? I found mine to be absolutely useless. The wind is carrying away heat from your fingers and body significantly faster than the heated grips can. I found I had to grip the heated grips tighter than my monkey when I'm beating it to even feel any warmth at highway speeds. I'd say you'd need hand-guards to reduce air flow or else they're totally useless.

A heated vest under your jacket may be a far better option.

[rastuscat]

Geez Pete, you might as well have a car :laugh:

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[samgab]

Well, my Oxford "Premium" Touring heated grips arrived, a couple of days ago, and I installed them. Pretty simple and painless process, and they feel pretty good as just standard grips, without the heating part. Not too thick.
I did some riding today, nothing overly cold or long, but I did try out the heated grips.
And yeah, my initial thoughts, pretty unexceptional. Yes, my palms were cosy and warm the whole time, even a bit too hot until I turned the level down a couple of clicks; but the tips of all of my fingers were still a bit cold. Mind you, I'm sort of in the habit of riding with my hands open and my fingers covering the brake and clutch levers most of the time, so that would be the case. But even when I deliberately closed my hands around the grips, I still found, as others have said, that my fingertips were still a bit cold. And that was in pretty mild winter weather, and a couple of fairly short trips. I suppose on longer trips in colder weather, at motorway speeds it will be nice to have them though.

Certainly better than nothing, but the one thing that makes the most difference to me for cold weather riding is a one piece head/neck warmer tube thing. Keeps wind noise down, ears/chin/cheeks warmer, stops cold wind shooting up into my helmet or down my neck, chest, or back, and just makes me way more comfortable riding in cold weather.

[SaferRides]

I rode in some Waikato fog today. That must be the coldest non-frozen substance known to man - 10 minutes and my finger tips were cold. My hands have always felt warm before in the Revit Alaska gloves.

I don't know that heated grips would have helped, as the rest of my hands were OK.

Time for heated gloves perhaps.

[AllanB]

Well, my Oxford "Premium" Touring heated grips arrived, a couple of days ago, and I installed them. Pretty simple and painless process


The new ones just hook straight to the = - on the battery right? Some fancy electronics turn them off on their own?

[pete376403]

The Oxford controller is "supposed " to turn itself off when battery voltage drops below a certain point. Some people have found the certain point is 0 volts.

I've never trusted the feature, preferring to remember it for myself

[samgab]

The new ones just hook straight to the = - on the battery right? Some fancy electronics turn them off on their own?

Yeah, you just hook it up directly to the battery terminals. Couldn't be easier. No mucking around with tapping into a wire from the tail light and using a relay etc.
And I've found this auto detect and turn-off feature is great, it works perfectly. Basically it is a 2-level failsafe. Number one is when the voltage source becomes electrically quiet, eg, it stops receiving the pulsing that comes through when the motor is running, it detects the "quiet" voltage and goes to standby mode after 2 minutes, which turns the heaters off, then after 5 minutes they shut off altogether. The second level of failsafe, is if the voltage drops below 11.5V at any time, they will immediately go into standby mode, and again off completely after 5 minutes.
The smart switch parasitic current draw is only 71 microamps (0.071mA), so it's way too low to discharge the battery even over a long time period. It's much less than the batteries' own rate of self-discharge.

Oh, and having now ridden with these heated grips in some pretty cold weather lately, I'm a complete convert. I've joined the "never going back to not having heated grips" fraternity. For the entry price of about $140 (discounted price), it's a no brainer, IMO.

[samgab]

The Oxford controller is "supposed " to turn itself off when battery voltage drops below a certain point. Some people have found the certain point is 0 volts.

I've never trusted the feature, preferring to remember it for myself

I've heard, anecdotally, that the previous version (V7) of their controller had a few glitches like this in some cases, but their current version (V8), has apparently ironed out all of those bugs and is great. I've tested mine out pretty thoroughly, and it always detects when I turn the engine off, and it turns the grips off 2 minutes later every time. My repeated tests have given me the confidence to just let it do its thing now.

[MarkH]

The new ones just hook straight to the = - on the battery right? Some fancy electronics turn them off on their own?

I'd trust them - yeah right!

I've connected my Premium Touring Grips to my Eastern Beaver PC8, when I turn the ignition off it cuts power to the grips (as well as a few other accessories that are also wired to the PC8). A simple relay is enough so that the grips are definitely off when you turn the key off, I wouldn't do it any other way - who wants/needs their grips on when the bike is turned off?

[rastuscat]

I've heard, anecdotally, that the previous version (V7) of their controller had a few glitches like this in some cases, but their current version (V8), has apparently ironed out all of those bugs and is great..

On a slight tangent, isn't it frustrating to have paid full retail for a V7 and bought a few glitches?

If the manufacturer knows he's sold a dodgy product (as demonstrated by upgrading it to V8) he should surely do an upgrade to previous customers.

[caspernz]

I rode in some Waikato fog today. That must be the coldest non-frozen substance known to man - 10 minutes and my finger tips were cold. My hands have always felt warm before in the Revit Alaska gloves.

I don't know that heated grips would have helped, as the rest of my hands were OK.

Time for heated gloves perhaps.

Yep, out on a training ride yesterday with a couple of the lads. All sweet at Bombay, drop down the hill to Waikato and end up in pea soup. Across the river at Mercer and could barely see 100 metres ahead. I run heated grips, but also popped on the thermal under gloves, glad I did too for it was a touch chilly. The most exciting bit was the number of car drivers who had no lights on at all in those conditions :rolleyes::devil2::laugh::no::confused::Oi::brick: :facepalm:

[SaferRides]

Yep, out on a training ride yesterday with a couple of the lads. All sweet at Bombay, drop down the hill to Waikato and end up in pea soup. Across the river at Mercer and could barely see 100 metres ahead. I run heated grips, but also popped on the thermal under gloves, glad I did too for it was a touch chilly. The most exciting bit was the number of car drivers who had no lights on at all in those conditions :rolleyes::devil2::laugh::no::confused::Oi::brick: :facepalm:
I was going to Coromandel, so turned on to SH2. It was sunny and cool at first, but thick, cold fog after Waitakaruru, which was still there when I rode back to Auckland at 4 PM.

Coro was great though after the climb from Kopu.

[Blackbird]

I was going to Coromandel, so turned on to SH2. It was sunny and cool at first, but thick, cold fog after Waitakaruru, which was still there when I rode back to Auckland at 4 PM.

Coro was great though after the climb from Kopu.

My patch........ except that I almost never ride the Loop - just the coast road to leave the Peninsula. It would have been a great day for riding or fishing. Pity about all the domestic jobs for my Chief Financial Officer :facepalm:

[rastuscat]

Yep, out on a training ride yesterday with a couple of the lads. All sweet at Bombay, drop down the hill to Waikato and end up in pea soup........................................The most exciting bit was the number of car drivers who had no lights on at all in those conditions :rolleyes::devil2::laugh::no::confused::Oi::brick: :facepalm:

It's happening more often.

Modern cars have auto headlights, which people have learned to trust and just rely on.

In fog, there's enough ambient light to trick the lights into thinking it's daylight. So the headlights stay off.

Cars act on programming. They don't think.

[caspernz]

It's happening more often.

Modern cars have auto headlights, which people have learned to trust and just rely on.

In fog, there's enough ambient light to trick the lights into thinking it's daylight. So the headlights stay off.

Cars act on programming. They don't think.

Auto headlights, and lots of cars have an illuminated dash regardless of whether lights are on or off. But yeah, smarter cars tends to lead to dumber drivers it seems.

As an aside, the amount of light was such that it was making my glasses think they needed to start going dark as well. Yet forward visibility in the 100m range made that unwelcome :shit::shutup:

[rok-the-boat]

I have never had heated grips but love hand guards. I have never had cold hands with hand guards. With a decent jacket and trousers and boots I am never cold on my body either. Not on North Island anyway. Been riding all my life.