Oxford Hotgrips-advice please

[djkus]

Hi, thinking about fitting a pair of oxford hotgrips to my moster 600 (2001 model)
wondered if anyone has any experience of using these on a monster.
are they ok? easy to fit?
its getting cold, and my 30 mile trip to work is leaving a few of my fingers a little cold by the time i get there these days.. lol
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8003256326&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3AIT&rd=1

was looking at these..
please advise if you can.
thanks, paul

[Scotty]

ive an incredably simmilar product by motrax (without fancy temperature control)
the thing with the permanant grips is you end up trashing the twist grip plastic (in my experiance) so you cant go back to normal grips without a new twist grip plastic bit
uh the inside surface of the 'grip' is a hard plastic on mine and doesnt stick to the metal bar very well even with superglue

cunningly ive only just taken my heated grips off to discover its winter again doh

[djkus]

never thought of that, doesnt sound like an ideal solotion to the problem, i thought ud be able to go back to normal grips if u needed to.
think ill stick to cold fingers as opposed to fooked grips. lol

[psychlist]

Got the Oxford Hot hands velcro on over-grips and they're fantastic. Tried mates bikes with the permanent heated grips and they dont get anywhere near as much heat as mine. And they're easy to take off/on as your mood dictates :p

[Julie]

The velcro ones are better (we have both)
Ruth has the velro wrap around ones on her M600
I have the noraml Oxford Heated grips on my M620


I find that on my bike the heat is better on the right had as its on the plastic throttle tube. But on the left the heat is taken off the grip by the metal bar.
But on the wrap around ones the heat is distributed evenly.

As a matter of interest i have just taken mine back to the shop as the temp control wasnt working. I'm waiting for a new part.

[djkus]

thanks for the feedback on this, its hard to know what to get without talking to people who have tried the different brands out.
have u got a web link to the ones u prefer?
they easy to wire up?
does it ever cause problems with the turning of the throttle?

[Julie]

http://www.jtsbikerclothing.com/Oxford%20images/Accessories/OF694.jpg


These are better for heat - they are fine and dont affect the handling of the bike.

[psychlist]

So easy to wire in to the bike that even I can do it!!
Earth direct to the battery and live from one of the mass of brown wires off the back of the fuse block (they're the ones from the ignition key loop so they only come on when the ignition's turned on) ;)

[spacemonkey]

I would thoroughly recommend the hot grips. I have them, and they are much better than the previous generation ones. I have to have them on a low setting, otherwise they get too hot! Once you have had them fitted, I really can't see why you would possibly want to go back to normal grips? Just doesn't make sense...
Dead easy to fit. Don't bother with the superglue. Use hairspray liberally on the grip and bar. Leave to set overnight et voila!.

[Julie]

I've just had my temp control changed after seeing yours spacemonkey. I have just come in from swapping it over to the new one as the other one didnt click. Anyway i'm not sure my grips have changed much to be honist. I will be needing them on high rather than low - You must be very lucky with yours. Mine don't get that hot..

[djkus]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OXFORD-HOTHANDS-Heated-O-Grips-HOT-HANDS-Free-Comfy_W0QQitemZ8003692770QQcategoryZ25643QQssPageN ameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

thanks for advice, decided on these ones.. seems a reasonable price.

[MotoNik]

I've got a set of Hot hands too (oo-er Mrs) and they're great. Fitting is easy (and I'm electrically incompetent) and the only thing you'll want to do is take a bit of time routing the cables neatly, and cable-tying any excess out of the way.

I cable tied the on-off switch to the break reservoir, and cable-tied the connectors in an accesible place, so that I can leave all the wiring in place when I'm not using them. You may be beginning to sense I like cable ties...

If it gets a bit pearl harbour you can whip'em out and fit them in seconds. In fact, during our rather delightful summer (you may remeber it, it was that wet tepid spell we had before it went crap again) I used them going home from the MonsoonGP at Donington. As those of you present may have recalled it was a tad chilly that day, and the ability to feel my fingers was a definite bonus on the M1, and allowed me to concentrate the rest of my powers on picking my way through the rain...

At £25 buy-it-now they're a bargain - I'd recommend them to everyone. Got to love ebay for those fabulous bargains. I just bought this season's must-have Italian flag reflector off there the other day for £2 :D

cheers,

Nik

[djkus]

yes, looking forwards to getting them £25 buy it now and £4 postage.
rang hein gerich to see if they had them in stock (and how much they were going to rob me for the pleasure), he mentioned around £50, so.. goes to show, ebay is best place for most stuff these days!

Ill let you know how i get on,if i have any problems wiring them up i shouldnt be an electronics engineer. lol
thanks for all help re: this.

[A Yerbury]

As much as it pains me to hurl spanners amongst pigeons "winter gloves" are quite good these days? each to their own but heated grips is a bit goldwing/beemer territory, plus you get "big hands" ...a must this season.

[NC35]

Had my hot grips in the packet for a few winters,

Fear of fitting them and a bigger fear of leaving them on an flattening the battery.

So easy to wire in to the bike that even I can do it!!
Earth direct to the battery and live from one of the mass of brown wires off the back of the fuse block (they're the ones from the ignition key loop so they only come on when the ignition's turned on) ;)

How does this work?

Thanking you all in anticipation (of warm hands)...

[A Yerbury]

Had my hot grips in the packet for a few winters,

Fear of fitting them and a bigger fear of leaving them on an flattening the battery.



How does this work?

Thanking you all in anticipation (of warm hands)...


I wouldnt bother, the potential hell of blowing ones body up (hands first!) is just all too much worry for a Friday....Warm hands wise I recall Bob Dixon saying something about small Morrocan boys, I may be mistaken though...

[spacemonkey]

Whilst driving to Africa last year I didn't need the service of any small boy, though it was offered. Fit the grip's wire to a switched positive and you can never leave them on to flatten the battery. Simple really...

Winter gloves are fine if you're only nipping to the dealer for some scrag, but for long rides over an hour or so it gets a bit fackin' cold like. You can only stop a few times to place hands on the engine block. Heated grips does this simple service as you ride. Gives you hands as warm as James Herriot's, but drier.

[MotoNik]

As much as it pains me to hurl spanners amongst pigeons "winter gloves" are quite good these days? each to their own but heated grips is a bit goldwing/beemer territory, plus you get "big hands" ...a must this season.

I'm hearing you there Alex, it kind of painerd me to frit heated grips to a Ducati, although I quite like the ironiy of it really. Put it this way, it beats chill-blanes and frost bite....
:lol:

And the beauty of the Hothands kit is you can remove them when you don't need them.
cheers,

Nik

[djkus]

ok, just wodnered where u connected the 12v supply to? kind of awkward even working out what wire goes to where..
my heat grips dont have temperature control, just on/off.. oh well, 25 quid cant be bad...
where did u mount ur switch?

[Scotty]

as someone said erila i think on the end of the fuse box so its switched with the igntion , switch i have cunningly position so that at high speed the fareing wobbels enough to switch it off doh

[djkus]

Ok well i got it fitted ok.
Whilst its true to say you COULD have it fitted in 5 minutes, if you want it to look neat you really have to cut the cables to size, and resolder them , then tape them up ect...
I cut all my wiring to size and fitted it to the fuse box through a length of flexible tubing which i fitted beside the other wiring harnesses.
Check the pics out and tell me what you think.

It works brilliantly, had to actually turn it off in town earlier.. got a bit too hot. lol great when the wind hits your hands though, very nice indeed, almost looking forward to going to work tomorrow to warm my hands up :)

[scrumpster]

My mate had them fitted to her GS500 and has had nothing but trouble with them, so I guess it's a case of buy it and try it - me I just stick to thermal liners in my gloves!

[djkus]

sorry to hear that. what sort of problems was she having?
yeah, ive got winter gloves, just a bit of wind gets through on motorway.

[Scotty]

looks like a smart installation as in cant realy tell its there apart from the grips

[scrumpster]

sorry to hear that. what sort of problems was she having?
yeah, ive got winter gloves, just a bit of wind gets through on motorway.


Something to do with the electrics on it, I'm wracking my brain thinking what she has to do with it, I have a feeling the switch went or it wouldn't turn off so she has to disconnect it each time. She does a lot of motorway miles to, me I'm lucky, 6 miles there in queues and 6 miles home again :rolleyes:

[scrumpster]

looks like a smart installation as in cant realy tell its there apart from the grips


Ditto good job!

[djkus]

My work is 25 miles from my house, most of it being on dual carriage way/motorway so should feel the benifit of these babys :)
looked in hein gerich catalogue and they are listed at £49.99, cant see how they can justify that price when £25 on ebay.

Thanks for feedback, only thing im not happy about is the wire having to be a little loose on the throttle warmer.. have it any tighter may look better, but means you cant throttle as normal .lol
Nothing can do there I guess.

[NC35]

Don't know if this is 100% gospel, but before anyone starts chopping cables down to size... STOP

I am sure that the cable length is critical for the resistance and temperature of grips. Too short and the cables are too hot and they may melt. :mad:

Hopefully someone with a little more knowledge will correct or confirm my thoughts. This is the same problem you have with 3M Connectors - the really useful blue things that connect wires together when you use a pair of pliers to crush them.

Does anyone know which is the correct or best fuse to use and which wire to solder to? :confused:

[djkus]

I honestly cant see the length of the wire making any difference, after all the heat pads are still getting 12v no matter what the length (ok.. if its very very very long cables, it may reduce. talking BIG distance though).

By cutting 30 cms off or whatever it shouldnt make any difference in my opinion.

I guess not everyone would want to go to the bother of cutting the cables to length as it means rejoining and waterproofing them as best you can.

Oh! As for the fuse issue, i should have taken a picture of what I done, but here is a simple diagram of what I did.
(sorry its so lame)