Grip heaters, opinions?
 

I have a question about grip heaters, did a search on the forums here but came up pretty much empty. For anyone that has ran them, what's the best kind? There seem to be two different main models, a simpler (and cheaper) one that is just an element that you stick to the bars and then hook to the battery, and a more elaborate one that comes with it's own grips and a control box for temperature. The simple ones come with only an on/off hi/low switch. I like the looks of the dedicated grip models, they look very well put together, but what if I want to use a different grip style? Thoughts and opinions greatly appreciated as the morning commutes are cold!

Mine have five fingers in them, and they're removeable for when I want to eat a sandwich. They require no electricity. :wink:

My Gold Wing has them and I appreciate them very much. :D

As far as he element type that go under the grip I have never had experiance with them. I'd splurge and get dedicated units with a controller. You will enjoy them for as long as you have the bike.

Given the KLR's mission and competition I think Kawasaki should have ncluded them, or at lest made them an option.

Thanks Doc, I think the dedicated units look better as well. I went ahead and ordered these:
http://www.aviciouscycle.ca/klroxfordheathand.html

I bought a set of waterproof winter gloves with some bday money I had last fall, but they're still not warm enough on the cool mornings. Hoping the heaters will do the trick :D. Our season has been put on hold for another week though due to a 6 inch dump of snow... Blech!

Lol! I have a couple of sets of those too, but they're not doing a good enough job for me when the temps are around 0 Celsius (or below!) :D

Those look great and the price seems great too good choice!

The nice thing about the electric grips is they are there 100% of the time. Even in the summer some cool evening when you don't have cold weather gloves you will appreciate them.

I have the stick-on element ones, I think they are symtec, on my SV. I have aluminum clip ons, which like to wick the heat away. I have them wired through a relay to the battery. When I first installed them, I wired them to the headlight circuit so they would turn off with the bike, but they never really got hot enough for me. After re-wiring, they work pretty well. I also wear mittens when it is below 30 deg F.

My hillbilly approach is to wear a pair of nitrile gloves underneath regular gloves. They act like a wetsuit after they warm up, which usually takes about 15 minutes on a cold day.

They work great on my snowmobile, they came from the factory though and are are fitted inside the bars, i only use them on really cold days though as they get very warm and my hands get too hot.

If you have time, please take some photographs of the installation, Stew. I would enjoy seeing you post a thread on this subject. :)

Spud :)

Okey dokey, the heated grips showed up today and they look great! I'm going to wait till the weekend to put them on though as I have to tear half the bike apart to install em... I'll try to get some half decent pics of the install to maybe help others contemplating installing a set. Props to A Vicious Cycle for a very pleasurable ordering experience again... Eric and the rest of the crew rock, I would definitely recommend them, though I think they pretty much only carry parts for Japanese bikes. Sure could have used the grips this morning... Half hour commute to work in +1 Celsius temps, factoring in a 110 to 120 kmh wind chill... Brrrr! Awesome ride though, and it was beautiful coming home. I took the "scenic" route back with a bunch of twisty's in the sand hills. Life is good!

Cheers,
Stew

Well, I got the Oxford Heaterz installed. It was a simple job but time consuming as I had to remove the sidecovers, seat, and the lower cowlings and tank. Heavy tank on the KLR's when it's half full of fuel! I didn't get any pics though... I'm kind of bad for falling into a single track mode, I start something and forget all else. It really was a simple install though, the only pain in the butt part was figuring out where to run the wiring so that it wouldn't chafe or bind while riding. I haven't had a chance to get it out yet but the initial tests are promising, they get toasty! I might install a relay at a later date so that I don't forget them on and kill the battery (probably install one right after I kill the battery the first time) :D

I'm glad you got your grip heaters installed, Stew. :) I might be installing a pair of grip heaters on my two bikes, also. ;) We understand about the lack of photos...I guess. :roll:

Spud :lol:

They seem to work well, I'm just hoping that I can feel the heat through my gloves... I have a set of deerskin (street) gloves that I have had forever, they're quite thin (and very comfy!) so I know I'll be able to feel the heat through them, but I also have a pair of waterproof touring gloves with armor/padding on the fingers. They're quite thick so it'll be interesting to see if I can feel the heat through them. It was a busy day in the garage, I started out putting on a lowering kit (lol, my second one!) and ended up doing the grip heaters right after. Only pic I managed to get was one of my pride and joy stripped down. Kinda fuzzy too, phone pic :)

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...lrstripped.jpg

I'm going to do a little post install thread in the reviews section, I took a few pics of the bike after the install :D