Heated handgrips and the year-round quest

[richard]

As the next stage of my Quest to Ride All Year (or QRAY for short), I am investigating the fine art of heated handgrips.  searching the archives, I stumbled across a few links, such as this one:

http://store.azmusa.com/kigrhekit.html

Does anyone know if this can be used to add heating to my stock grips, and how well it works?  Suggestions for implimentations?  Better ideas?  Get-rich quick schemes that actually work?  Wait, got carried away.  sorry.

I ride about 40 minutes to work each morning, and home in the evening.  approx weather is about 25-30 degrees F, and each day I have learned something new.  One of those things is that no matter what kind of gloves you have, it'll never be quite warm enough...  so I'm thinking heated grips might be just the thing.  I don't, however, like making hasty decisions, so suggestions are welcome.  Thank you.

[KevinC]

I put a set of those on my BMW under the grips, but I got them from a snowmobile shop for about $20 Canadian.

They work quite well, and I think you can put them under any grips with a bit of contact cleaner spray to slide the grips on.

Heated gloves would be far better though. The wind chill keeps the outside of your hand cold, even with the heated grips. Far better than nothing though!

I didn't think they worked when I first put them on. Flipped the switch and didn't feel anything after a minute or two sitting in the garage. We left for the Yukon the next day, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they worked fine. It takes a few minutes to heat up though.

[mjm]

As the next stage of my Quest to Ride All Year (or QRAY for short), I am investigating the fine art of heated handgrips.  searching the archives, I stumbled across a few links, such as this one:

http://store.azmusa.com/kigrhekit.html

Does anyone know if this can be used to add heating to my stock grips, and how well it works?  Suggestions for implimentations?  Better ideas?  ....suggestions are welcome.  Thank you.

I put on a similar set last fall and they work great! - Couple of hints -

DO NOT connect directly to the battery - hook them up so they are only on when the bike is running.  That way you still have a battery when you try and start the bike.

PUT IN A SEPARATE FUSE FOR THE CIRCUIT - I find this is a good idea on any electrically accessory - that way the rest of the bike still works if there is a short because I routed the wire where it can rub etc.


There is an unused pair of wires inside the headlight shell that are controlled by the ignition switch.  I thought that the wiring looked a little light for the 35 watts or so of the high position so I used these as a control circuit and used a standard driving light relay to control the current to the grips - although I might use a high/low headlight relay if I were to do it again.  THat way I could eliminate the big toggle switch and put a neat little button micro-switch on the bars.  

I put the toggle into the bracket that originally held the right side of the airbox (before I put on pod filters) and find it pretty easy to reach while riding - even with heavy gloves.

You might also consider an ugly solution or two - go buy those "hippo hands" things that snap around the handlebars and controls to break the wind - they sell them cheap in local farm supply stores around here for use on the atv's.  You could also consider some of the dirt bike brush guards with the plastic cups to break the wind on the outside uour gloves.

[miket]

I think bbanjo had a write-up on his web site, but it looks like it's down right now.
You may want to check also this link for making your own heated clothing

[oldsport]

=I ride about 40 minutes to work each morning, and home in the evening.  approx weather is about 25-30 degrees F .

I would worry about ice on the road at those temps.  

I work in the Cascades east of Seattle. It's not unusual to come across ice on overpasses and bridges in the morning even when it's 35F or so.  

I learned a long time ago that motorcycles and ice don't mix. I was on my butt so fast I couldn't believe it. Luckily, I was only going about 15.  I guess I needed studded tires.

You're right about gloves never being good enough.

OS

[WAP]

Heated grips are on my xmas list for sure! As far as i can tell, you can't really beat the Kimpex kit for price/quality. There are some reviews of the kit at:
http://www.motorcyclegearreview.com/reviews.php?prodID=661

[richard]

Sweet.  the grip warmers are ordered... I'll try to post pictures, etc when I get them installed for anyone else who is curious.

I'll have to look at that heated clothing stuff... it might be kinda fun to play around with.  I admit I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of having to plug into my bike each time I put it on, but with a little work, it might just be possible to make it relatively painless.

hmm...  you could probably make a fairly decent set of heated clothing for around $20 and sell it for $100. =]

Thanks all for the input,

[richard]

I've been doing a little more research on the idea of making my own heated clothing (what can I say... I'm a ham radio operator. the idea of easy and useful do-it-yourself electronics projects intrigues me).  you can get the nichrome resistance wire off of ebay pretty easily, and more information on it On this page

[miket]

There is one guy in the group I ride with that did it. He's very happy with it. But then, he's a Ph.D. in Physics, I think.