Heated grips.

I come back from sea and winter is here.
Cold hands, so fit heated grips. Can any one tell me if Oxfords finest will fit a K3. I'm having some problems with the throttle side as the slider under the grip appears to be a purpose made piece of kit and will not come off to allow Oxfords one piece grip to go on as a replacement. It looks like they may have to go back.
Incidentally if anyone else is thinking of fitting warm grips Hein Gerricke sell a set but give no instructions, only a dit on the back of the box, in German!
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

I have got Oxford Hot Hands fitted to my K3. No problems, just a bit of mullering to the plastic throttle thingumyjig to make the grip slide over it.

Originally Posted by safedepth

I come back from sea and winter is here.
Cold hands, so fit heated grips. Can any one tell me if Oxfords finest will fit a K3.

Yep - but you do need to make sure they are the newer type that work with alloy bars (they say they are 2ideal for use on today's modern alloy bars" or some such tripe!!). The right ones come with a free Oxford hat in the pack!

Originally Posted by safedepth

I'm having some problems with the throttle side as the slider under the grip appears to be a purpose made piece of kit and will not come off to allow Oxfords one piece grip to go on as a replacement.

I fitted mine and Ian's (chutz) within a week of each other and both the naked and faired versions of the K3 have different throttle sliders!
It is (slightly) easier to fit them to the naked version as the slider is a simpler design!

You DO NOT remove the slider! The heated grip slides (glues) over it!
We also found, btw, that it is not necessary (or even possible!) to glue the left hand grip on!!

To fit the grip on the naked, you must take a pair of sharp side cutters Electrical wire cutting pliers!) and clip off the raised piece on the slider nearest the centre of the bars... Then take a file to it to smooth it down.
You will then need to file down all of the raised grooves on the main piece of the slider so that it is smooth, round & flat!
Check that the grip fits properly & work out where you can route the cable... This is harder than it looks and you have to be conscious of the travel of the brake lever, the movement of the steering lock & where the wire moves to when the throttle is turned/closed!
Once this has been decided, clean it all up (preferably with some white spirit/meths) and glue it in place! Carefully make sure you do not move it while the glue is setting!!

For the left hand side, simply push/bang it into place after having cleaned off all the gluey gunk left under the old grips! I can guarantee that it'll be bloody hard work & we decided it wasn't necessary to glue it as it took two of us with a lump of wood & a hammer to fit it in the first place!!

You will need to use a sharp Stanley knife to remove the small bead type bit that sticks out over the edge of the bars otherwise you will not be able to either fit a bar end to each side or open/close the throttle properly!!

With the naked, the wires are more difficult to get hidden safely than on the 'S' version... You have to make sue that they go not foul the forks or the steering rack and that they are not being chaffed at all by anything!


For the 'SK3' we found the same thing with the left hand grip as with the naked!
With the throttle slider, you eill need to snip off the first raised piece and then use something like a remel Multi tool with the grinding wheel fitted to file down the large, wide raised groove thing nearest the centre of thr yoke... It will need to be taken down to about 2mm wide (from about 6 from memory) otherwise the grip will stick out over the end of the bar & you will not be able to fit a bar end!

As with the naked, once you have worked out the cable routing, etc. glue the grip in place.

Fit the left hand bar as per the naked.

Cut off the 'bead' type bit from the end of the grips and fit your bar ends! et voila!


I very nearly took photos to do a step-by step guide but we were very tight for time on both occations and we didn't realise it was going to be so complex in the first instance!!

As a little tip - the cable is long enough to attach to pretty much any electrical source on the bike so we decided it would be best to put it on a switched feed rather than directly to the battery like the fitting guide suggested(which would mean you could leave them on & drain the battery)!

We found the easiest to get at switched feed was under the pillion seat and was for the rear light!

Trace which cable comes out of the rear light unit (easy to find!!), get a multi-meter and carefully place the -ve probe on the -ve terminal of the battery and the +ve probe on one of the outside pins of the connector from the rear light (the side that comes from the battery obviously!... The middle pin I seem to remember was -ve and the grey cable I think was the rear light). The rear light should have a 12v-ish current running through it if the ignition is on and the other one will only have a 12v current if the brake lever is pulled!
**Be warned - you are probably best having a mate help with this because if you short out aomething you will blow the bike's main fuse & possibly the lighting one too!!)**

Conect the -ve cable for the hot hands to the battery terminal (with the ignition off!!) and then tap onto the +ve side of the rear light feed after the connector, using some kind of electrical sonnector - a 3-way splice jobbie from Halfords, etc. is prbably safest & neatest! (You will need to remove the spade-type connector that comes on the hot hands.)

I hope this helps and if I can be of any more help, drop me a message!!

[northwind]

I took my switched power supply from the horn, which shouldn't work as there's another switch in there, but does. If you don't want to trim the ends of the grips, you can just pop a washer in between the bar end and bars, probably easier... The only question is where you put the switch, since it's a big ugly thing. Mine lives in a gap in the frame down the left hand side, nice and easy to operate and fairly out of the way.

Does anyone know what's actually in the switch? Is it just a big variable resistor? In other words, could I bin it and replace it with an on/off switch? I never use the adjustability, it's either on or off.

[Sid Squid]

Northwind

The horn is 'hot' when the ignition is on, (fnarr fnarr), it's earthed when you push the button, so it should be'on' at all times.

Originally Posted by northwind

I took my switched power supply from the horn, which shouldn't work as there's another switch in there, but does.

I found that there were far too many wires there for it to be a simple operation! Whereas under the pillion seat on the K3 there are only about 5 wires tucked round the side, held in place with a removeable zip-tie!

Originally Posted by northwind

If you don't want to trim the ends of the grips, you can just pop a washer in between the bar end and bars, probably easier...

This is true, although you would have to go in search of the correct number of the right size washers!! Which is why I just cut off the end pieces - it's exactly the right size and is nice and easy to do - I also reckon it looks smarter with them off!!

Originally Posted by northwind

The only question is where you put the switch, since it's a big ugly thing. Mine lives in a gap in the frame down the left hand side, nice and easy to operate and fairly out of the way.

I put mine in a space in the frame too. I just left it hanging there as a temporary fix & was gonna fix it there a couple of days later... It was written off the next day!

Originally Posted by northwind

Does anyone know what's actually in the switch? Is it just a big variable resistor? In other words, could I bin it and replace it with an on/off switch? I never use the adjustability, it's either on or off.

No, I'm afraid I don't - I can't imagine it'd be too complex but you never know! I can't understand how you can have it on full all the time though, as mine was waay too hot (for the short time I had it on!) so had to have it at about half way!

I will try to remember to butcher my control box if & when I get to keep my bike after the insurance claim!!

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

The horn is 'hot' when the ignition is on, (fnarr fnarr), it's earthed when you push the button, so it should be'on' at all times.

Oh aye, I'd figured that's how it works, just that that seems a pretty odd way to actually do it

Originally Posted by coombest

No, I'm afraid I don't - I can't imagine it'd be too complex but you never know! I can't understand how you can have it on full all the time though, as mine was waay too hot (for the short time I had it on!) so had to have it at about half way!

It's cold up here you know! I'd make them hotter if I could, the HG Pathans and the Hotgrips on full welly are just enough.

Originally Posted by northwind

It's cold up here you know! I'd make them hotter if I could, the HG Pathans and the Hotgrips on full welly are just enough.

One more reason to live daarn saarf!!!!

[northwind]

But that's where all the southerners live!

Originally Posted by northwind

But that's where all the southerners live!

(exactly!!)