Heated Grips?

It's this time of year again, where the weather is turning and what i can only assume to be a very chilly winter will soon be upon us! I'm interested to know what the best heated grips are for bikes, and how much they zap your battery. I know that most 'cheap' heated grips are huuuuuge and so can be a bit of a handful to ride with (Yes, the pun was intended ). So does anyone have any suggestions of good reviews/heated grips to recommend?!?

I have oxfords on my sv....no battery zapping issues and they arnt big and cumberson. Can take abit of getting use to though. No problems otherwise unless you forget to leave them on =/ but they are ment to have a built in safety feature and turn off when the batt gets low.

[Mark_h]

Oxfords with the new push button controller will turn off if you forget ton or your battery starts to struggle. But you have to take the power direct off the battery as they turn off if connected to the regulated 12v supply. When testing them out you'll have to start the bike to get the voltage up enough to convince the grips to turn on.

If you are not too much of a poser then oxford grips + a pair of DL650 hand guards keep you toasty warm. I go through the winter in summmer gloves with this set-up.

If you buy the guards they are about £25 from Suzuki but make sure you get the DL650 set not the DL1000 set. The 650 set comes with full fixing kit as it's an after-market accessory but the DL1000 is a replacement set and does not include all the fixings.

I have trierd the big courier style bar mits but I found it pulled in the clutch and front-brake at anything over 50 so never used those again.

heated grips for your palms, handlebar muffs for the tops of your hands. Never need to wear horrible cumbersome winter gloves ever again. I have oxford muffs...was once roped into doing 90 mph (it was my dad occifer, he made me keep up else i would get lost and then be cold and tired and hungry) and incurred no problems

Unless, of course, your bike cant keep up 12 V like mine, and the heated grips turn off

I second that, I have them on both bikes very good. If you have them on full i find my hands get to hot hard to beleve when its only 5 c out side. Very good

Oh yes one other thing found on my vfr that they used to turn off when ideling but this was due to the battery being on its last legs .

Ok guys thanks alot ill look into those suggestions!!!

Originally Posted by Big_G

Oh yes one other thing found on my vfr that they used to turn off when ideling but this was due to the battery being on its last legs .

must be my problem then.

remember; heated grips are only gonna warm the palms of your hands. Without something to deflect the wind off the tops fo your hands, you'll still get cold hands

[Paul the 6th]

my only thing with muffs is that:

my riding instructor gave us the whole safety speech about wearing the correct kit, one of the things he said was "what happens when you fall over?" so 2 of us said "you get hurt" and he said "what do your hands do if you trip over something?" so we all agreed that you put your hands out as a reflex action... His next point was "so what do you think'll happen if you come off the bike when you're not wearing any gloves?"

I've always thought that the muffs are incredibly convenient and much more effective than heated grips but if you ever had a spill, you'd probably end up taking weeks to recover due to the lack of skin on your palms?

Just a thought! Oh and yes, I only use my bike for leisure riding & on dry sunny days through winter (no commuting in horrible weather) so I'm probably no elligible to comment on this matter (or spell elligible correctly, either)

Wouldn't you wear gloves inside the muffs? - I would, and I'm sure most people do?

[Paul the 6th]

ah - problem solved then i think it's just because I've seen couriers tear-arsing round london with muffs & no gloves