Oxford HotGrips - bad fittiing or bad advice in the Comic

[Tunahunter]

Can anyone advise me if I have been badly advised by 1) the Oxford handbook or 2) the workshop which installed my grips


The story
My lady purchased the grips as a present and I had them fitted by a local w/shop. Being aware of the problem where the grips can be left on after the ignition key is turned off - I specified that it be wired appropriately so that when the key was turned off - the hotgrips were off as well.

When I picked the bike up, the shop advised that this was not possible and that I would have to careful to turn the grips off after stopping etc etc.

Months later, and two episodes of leaving the grips turned on; I have reverted to a time-honoured kiwi tradition - I read the comic that came with the grips. It clearly states p6 ".....to prevent the HotGrips being turned on by accident, you will have to wire the Heat Controller to a circut which is turned off by the ignition key." Elsewhere it advises not to connect to the lighting or horn circuits....

[duckonin]

Mine are wired into my ignition, no chance of leaving them on..last bike I did I was told the same as you gezzz my battery was always going flat...Bad advice..

[breakaway]

How are these incompetent people able to get jobs as mechanics?

[slofox]

Can anyone advise me if I have been badly advised by 1) the Oxford handbook or 2) the workshop which installed my grips


The story
My lady purchased the grips as a present and I had them fitted by a local w/shop. Being aware of the problem where the grips can be left on after the ignition key is turned off - I specified that it be wired appropriately so that when the key was turned off - the hotgrips were off as well.

When I picked the bike up, the shop advised that this was not possible and that I would have to careful to turn the grips off after stopping etc etc.

Months later, and two episodes of leaving the grips turned on; I have reverted to a time-honoured kiwi tradition - I read the comic that came with the grips. It clearly states p6 ".....to prevent the HotGrips being turned on by accident, you will have to wire the Heat Controller to a circut which is turned off by the ignition key." Elsewhere it advises not to connect to the lighting or horn circuits....

Do THIS. I did. Easy as hell and well worth the effort. I run several accessories off it - heated grips, radar detector, air compressor socket, etc etc etc.

[Gibbo89]

has to be bad fitting mate. take the wee booklet in and show them what it says... if they were good people, they would fix the issue. wouldn't they?!

[Blew]

I would ring your local shop and ask them to rewire through a fused circuit and I am sure if they see the simple error they will fix. Oxford have 2 types of controllers, but as below dependent on type grip Oxfro advise:

6. We recommend that the wiring loom is positioned away from existing wiring looms on the
motorcycle to avoid any possible electrical interference issues.
7. When the wiring is in position on the motorcycle, we strongly recommend that all connectors are
protected with either electrical insulation tape, waterproof sealing tape or heat shrink tubing
(be careful not to damage the cable when fi tting heat shrink).
8. Both the negative and the positive battery connections are fi tted with a ring terminal. This will allow
them to be bolted to the battery terminals. It is both preferable and the easiest option to connect the
positive (+ Red wire) straight to the positive (+) battery terminal so that the switch receives suffi cient
voltage from the vehicles charging system.
9. The negative or earth (Black wire) should be connected to the negative (-) battery terminal.
10. The control box (see drawing below) can be positioned under the motorcycle seat or near to the
battery. But we recommend that it is kept at least 1” or 25mm away from the battery at all times.
11. If the switch must be connected to a switched ignition supply feed, please ensure that the wiring
harness is connected to main ignition cabling which can take the extra load of up to 4 amps.
Problems are commonly found to be caused when connections are made to horn or any lighting
circuits.
Typical problems experienced could be:
- The switch may not come on
- Fuses failing in the fuse box
- Overheating of wires on the bike
- Indicators or lighting malfunctioning
If unsure, please contact your local dealer for advice before fi tting these Hotgrips.
Control box
Heat
controller
5 amp
fuse
–
+
Battery
connections
Refer to the wiring diagram below.
5

[JMemonic]

I just fitted a set of hand warmers to the wife's bike and wanted to do the same thing, it took a little time as I dont have the wiring diagram and google was not my friend but the process went like find a circuit that is turned on when the bike is running, in my case the headlights start when the ignition module senses the bike start so there must be a relay, so I went hunting for that, it was not that hard, just a little time and a multimeter.

Once I had this wire I added a relay that is switched by this signal and run a wire direct to the battery, this gives a positive power source that will not interfere with the wiring already on the bike or cause excessive load, I would be a little surprised if the is not a circuit for grips already on the bike, if you can find a wiring diagram you should have no trouble finding a power source that only becomes active when the bike is running.

If no one comes up with any suggestions over the next few days PM me and I will try find the diagram and give you a suggestion for setting it up.

Hell as I was typing slofox was posting a very handy link that will be a great solution.

[Tunahunter]

Thanks for that SloFox

[Crasherfromwayback]

When I picked the bike up, the shop advised that this was not possible and that I would have to careful to turn the grips off after stopping etc etc.

Hi there Clyde,

I doubt we would've told you it's not possible, as there is always a way, albeit often expensive. But I've asked Bruce to contact you regarding this.

Cheers,

Pete

[Tunahunter]

Hi there Clyde,

I doubt we would've told you it's not possible, as there is always a way, albeit often expensive. But I've asked Bruce to contact you regarding this.

Cheers,

Pete

Thanks Pete - talked to Bruce and it will be all sorted out out soon - thanks to everyone else for the helpful comments

[Crasherfromwayback]

No worries...see you soon!

[Elderado]

Mate I have just fitted the same unit to my bike but when I purchased mine the salesman told me it could be wired to the ignition however my ignition is a sealed unit so that proved to be a no goer.

And as you have stated you cant hook into any other live line from the ignition due to the power draw so yeah I to will have to make sure I turn it off every time I get off the bike. Wish me luck.

Ed

[Crasherfromwayback]

As I said in my post Ed...there's always a way to wire it into the ignition system...it's just often very time consuming and expensive to do so.

[duckonin]

Great stuff all sorted...

[=cJ=]

Yep, I'd have to add to the relay comment, I trip mine off my numberplate lights and it runs my radar detector. When I get them, it'll run the hotgrips too... :-)