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.

[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/12...ouring-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.

[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