Heated grips or not?

[Grendel]

I had the heated grips ripped off the bike in the accident. They were Griptronic Heated Grips. Not sure i want to put heated grips back on the bike yet since they seemed odd in that the Right side always got hotter than the Left (fitted to renthal Dakar bars) and i hardly used them. So i'm wandering if this is how all heated grips work and should i just stick with my thermal liner gloves and put standard grips on?

[goldiefish]

Maybe I just live in a warmer climate, but I find that if it's cold enough for heated grips, its also cold enough for ice. Thus, not good weather for motorcycling.

However the only advantage I have found with mine is the rare occasion when I'm out with my summer gloves and the evening turns wet, or cold.

But on the @ the handguards usually take most of the sting out of the cold. The big disadvantage is though, when its really cold, you'll still feel it on the levers.

[Austin]

IMHO heated grips are one of the better upgrades to a bike. You can't beat toasty warm hands on those icy cold winter days, and in the summer warm wet gloves beats cold wet gloves, err well hands down Oxfor grips are hotter than Honda ones. No experience of anyone elses.

On the left side being cooler, mine is as well but I put that down to it being the clutch side, so you release the grip from time to time to operate the clutch, lift/wipe visor, pick nose or whatever and that lets the grip cool down. Just my opinion though, it could be a fault or design feature.

[R0vers]

IMHO heated grips are one of the better upgrades to a bike. You can't beat toasty warm hands on those icy cold winter days, and in the summer warm wet gloves beats cold wet gloves, err well hands down Oxfor grips are hotter than Honda ones. No experience of anyone elses.

On the left side being cooler, mine is as well but I put that down to it being the clutch side, so you release the grip from time to time to operate the clutch, lift/wipe visor, pick nose or whatever and that lets the grip cool down. Just my opinion though, it could be a fault or design feature.

couldnt agree more with you Austin - accelorator side gets hotter as your hand is in constant contact with the grip... clutch side gets cooler as your hand isnt always gripped as tight...


oxford heated grips seem to have finally sorted themselves out with their latest design - led push button system - its a goodun....

[davsato]

i had heated grips on my last bike (sports bike) but the varadero had big hand shields so i thought id give it a go first, even though the dealer offered to throw in the extra wiring loom gratis. he put a centre stand on instead so im happy with the deal but i sure do miss them heated grips!
im off to the mountains of northern spain in october so its definately on the list to be done.

right hotter than left? this is because the throttle tube insulates the heat, on the left a lot of heat is wasted sinking straight into the metal bar. if you look at some grips, or those film type heaters you can get to put under normal grips, the left and right filaments are different for two reasons, 1 hopefully you feel the same heat on both hands and 2 less heat on the throttle tube because its only a bit of plastic that distorts quite easily.

these are my front runners at the moment;
http://www.windingroads.co.uk/catalo...roducts_id=138
because i dont like most heated grips 'fatness' and these go under normal grips

[Grendel]

Dam this notification thing. Didnt realise i had replies. Just orderd these:

http://shop.1stmx.co.uk/new-renthal-...rips-711-p.asp

Mind you nothing stopping me fitting heated grips at a later date.
Just find it odd having warm palm while rideing when good pair of gloves with thinsulate liner works just as well to keep the whole hand warm?

[davsato]

Just find it odd having warm palm while rideing when good pair of gloves with thinsulate liner works just as well to keep the whole hand warm?

i thought that at first, but the blood circulation(i guess?) really does keep your whole hand warm and it means you can use summer gloves all year round.
i have ordered the symtec heaters now, when i fit them i will put a tech file in wiki with a few photos, assuming its been a success!

[Kjell Lindberg]

I have heated grips on mine, and they are just great.
The weather here in Sweden really promote the use of heated grips.

One note though, if you riding in the rain and use gloves with Goretex or simillary membrane, the heat from the grips can make your hands wet, since the heat makes the water travel the wrong way, or at least stop it from travelling out.

Concerning differences of generated heat for the right and left side, I thought that they all were like that, with a hotter right side, caused by the heating element beeing different between the sides.

But then again, I have been known to be wrong before,,,

[digitalcaptive]

Dam this notification thing. Didnt realise i had replies. Just orderd these:

http://shop.1stmx.co.uk/new-renthal-...rips-711-p.asp

Mind you nothing stopping me fitting heated grips at a later date.
Just find it odd having warm palm while rideing when good pair of gloves with thinsulate liner works just as well to keep the whole hand warm?

Just put a set of these on my sons XR125 nice soft grips but the grey do get grubby very quickly. We bought them from 1stMX as well, they are only a couple of miles up the road

[steveR]

I had the heated grips ripped off the bike in the accident. They were Griptronic Heated Grips. Not sure i want to put heated grips back on the bike yet since they seemed odd in that the Right side always got hotter than the Left (fitted to renthal Dakar bars) and i hardly used them. So i'm wandering if this is how all heated grips work and should i just stick with my thermal liner gloves and put standard grips on?

I first fitted heated grips to a trail bike a generation ago and have always thought that they are brill on any bike or quad used outside Summer use only.

The strangest ones I ever had were some NZ ones that were elements that actually fitted inside the bars! You had to drill a hole in the bar inside the brace, and feed the cable up. Typical farm bodger, I just fed the cable out of the bar end! They used very little juice but were very slow to heat up all the metal, but with such a low draw, they were good on dirt bikes with low output alternators!

These days I keep a pair of nasty Oxford wraprounds for colder weather, plugged into a loose wire... Must get round to fitting that 12v socket!