Heated bike grips. Do they really work?

[Neon]

Yep, I've got 'em too and I wouldn't have a bike without them (unless it was a race bike. Mmmm race bike...) . Anyway, last winter even in Aucks we had a few early mornings that were sub 7C, and I recall riding to work in 0C one day (wind chill @100km/h= -11C). So yeah, it does get nippy. That particular morning was before I got heated grips, and was the reason I bought them. Worth every cent. They'll be the first mod to my new bike.

[zealchick]

Ok so i am getting them!!! might even be brave and take the bike across the bridge to cycletreads ( as aposed to the car)
I am assuming they are easy to intall??

[vifferman]

I am assuming they are easy to intall??

Hmmm.....
Depends how handy you are, and how you install them. The ones I've got (the Oxfords with the solid-state controller), the instructions say to just bolt the terminals to the bike's battery, as they have this safety feature that turns them off when the battery's voltage drops to 11.5V or somesuch. That's easy enough, and kinda dumb. While a battery will recover from dropping to that voltage, it does (after a wjile) reduce the starting capacity. A more betterer option is to hook them up via a relay, with a trigger from something that's only 'live' when the key's on (like a tail light). To do that is a piece of wees if you're electrically savvy, otherwise some head-scratching's required.
As for the grips themselves, they're not hard to install on the bars, but there's a few tricks. Like you may have to cut off the end of the one for the throttle (well... I did; your bike may be different). And they're held on by superglue, so before you glue them you have to test-fit them, remove any rubber dags under the grips, make sure they'll fit well, decide the orientation so the wires going into them are out of the way (especially the throttle one). Then you dribble some glue on, whackem on quick, and get them in the right place.
Then the other thing is getting the cables nicely tucked away.
All quite do-able, but care and thought are required.

[Coldrider]

My hot grips are 12watt, wiring about 1.5 mtres from the battery, so I don't understand the need for a relay. I connected to the horn circuit, hardly used if ever. The most difficult part of installing mine was cutting the ends out of the grips to refitthe bar end weights, without cutting the heating elements.

[zealchick]

Jeezus Tania its not even cold yet

[vifferman]

My hot grips are 12watt, wiring about 1.5 mtres from the battery, so I don't understand the need for a relay. I connected to the horn circuit, hardly used if ever. The most difficult part of installing mine was cutting the ends out of the grips to refitthe bar end weights, without cutting the heating elements.

I didn't use a relay either - I've got a Blue Sea 5025 fuse box, to which all my accessories are connected. The old grips were previously connected to the front brake light switch - looked like a standard install, as all the plugs were made for it.
Your suggestion is fine - anything that's switched by the ignition would be OK.
As for cutting the grips - I first checked whether Cycletreads would honour the warranty if the grips were modified, and they said they would. Next, I felt underneath the rubber to see where the elements ended - it happened to be 0.5 cm or so from where I needed to cut, so it wasn't an issue.

[dipshit]

My hot grips are 12watt, wiring about 1.5 mtres from the battery, so I don't understand the need for a relay.

The downside of not using a relay, is that if you have a short with your added on accessory it could drawn large current through the bike's wiring loom causing lots of damage. What is the build quality of your added on accessory... is it exposed to the driving rain... how many years is likely to be on the bike...? If it ever fails and develops a short, it could cause damage to the bike's electronics and wiring that you have tapped into. You would be relying on bike's fuses to stop the damage in time.

The safe way is to wire the accessory directly to the battery with its own fuse. But then of course it will be live all the time, so if you forget to turn it off it will run your battery down. So then you put a relay between the accessory and the battery and trigger it via an ignition on source.

[sinned]

As covered in many other threads (that is what search is for) heated grips are the beesnees and best lowest cost mod that can be done on a bike. The oxfords work well for me but be warned - connect via a switched feed to prevent battery run down if left on. Yes I know that Oxford have a low voltage turn off feature that prevents the battery being flattened, however, if the grips are left on overnight there will only be enough juice left to light the lights up but not crank the motor. Trust me - I know and now have a relay switched feed.

[Flip]

Yep, I've got 'em too and I wouldn't have a bike without them (unless it was a race bike. Mmmm race bike...) . Anyway, last winter even in Aucks we had a few early mornings that were sub 7C, and I recall riding to work in 0C one day (wind chill @100km/h= -11C). So yeah, it does get nippy. That particular morning was before I got heated grips, and was the reason I bought them. Worth every cent. They'll be the first mod to my new bike.

You Aucklanders make me laugh. Sub 7 deg C.

A few years ago it dropped to -14 C at the brass monkey. We got up and it warmed to -7 by the time we got to Alexender.

[dipshit]

The only thing I didn't like about the heated grips that I fitted to my last bike - was that they were thicker in diameter and made it uncomfortable for me and my hands. It ruined the feel through the handlebars for me.

Next time the winter gets the better of me, I may look at heated gloves instead.

[CookMySock]

The only thing I didn't like about the heated grips that I fitted to my last bike - was that they were thicker in diameter and made it uncomfortable for me and my hands. It ruined the feel through the handlebars for me.

This bothered me for while, but after using the fatter grips I found they put a lot less pressure on my hands. Going back to the thin (non hotgrip) grips was quite painful. Mind you, I leaned on the bars quite heavily in those days. ops:

Next time the winter gets the better of me, I may look at heated gloves instead.

Get some daytona hothands and shove them up your sleeves or gloves.

Steve

[Flip]

Thats because you have girls hands DB.

You should try riding something with real mans 1" bars not 7/8".

[p.dath]

The downside of not using a relay, is that if you have a short with your added on accessory it could drawn large current through the bike's wiring loom causing lots of damage. What is the build quality of your added on accessory... is it exposed to the driving rain... how many years is likely to be on the bike...? If it ever fails and develops a short, it could cause damage to the bike's electronics and wiring that you have tapped into. You would be relying on bike's fuses to stop the damage in time.

The safe way is to wire the accessory directly to the battery with its own fuse. But then of course it will be live all the time, so if you forget to turn it off it will run your battery down. So then you put a relay between the accessory and the battery and trigger it via an ignition on source.

I'm just fitting some heated grips, and have just had to make that decision. I actually bought a relay with the intention of using one, but have come to the conclusion it wont be necessary.

All of the systems coming off the ignition system on my bike have 10A fuses (which themselves are protected by a 30A fuse). One of those fuses powers the horn, tail light, and indicators. I've caluclated the peak load on the fuse at the moment will be 3.9A. The peak load the heated grips can apply is 4A, making the total peak load 7.9A, or less than 80% of the fuses rated capacity. But the nominal load is likely to be much lower.

The heated grips themselves have a 4A inline fuse, so even if they malfunction, that 4A fuse should blow before the bikes 10A fuse trips.

So after considering everything, there was no point to fitting an additional relay to move the load onto a seperate system when an existing one has plenty of capacity.

[Coldrider]

The downside of not using a relay, is that if you have a short with your added on accessory it could drawn large current through the bike's wiring loom causing lots of damage. What is the build quality of your added on accessory... is it exposed to the driving rain... how many years is likely to be on the bike...? If it ever fails and develops a short, it could cause damage to the bike's electronics and wiring that you have tapped into. You would be relying on bike's fuses to stop the damage in time.

The safe way is to wire the accessory directly to the battery with its own fuse. But then of course it will be live all the time, so if you forget to turn it off it will run your battery down. So then you put a relay between the accessory and the battery and trigger it via an ignition on source.

Mine is fitted with an inline fuse.
How does a rely inhibit an overcurrent being drawn by the grips if a deadshort happens?

[dipshit]

Mine is fitted with an inline fuse.
How does a rely inhibit an overcurrent being drawn by the grips if a deadshort happens?

The difference being an accessory connected directly to the battery via a relay will not draw current through the bike's own wiring harness or electrics. It's just a bit safer and a way to avoid future problems down the track.

Imaging someone that ran an accessory that was tapped into the headlight power. A short of the accessory could blow the headlight fuse and kill your lights right in the middle of a ride on a dark stormy night. You may as well try to avoid any problems like that.