Are heated grips any good?

[Nikki]

I know its the wrong time of year (or should be) but if you have them, or had them, on a bike do you think heated grips are any good?

I had a free set of Oxford heated grips having subscribed to Ride magazine and am in two minds about fitting them.

I do suffer with really cold hands but only ride the bike for fun tending only to go out when it's reasonable warm.

I'm also a bit worried they may make the grips a bit to chunky. I only have small hands!

[Dabz]

I used to find that they heated my palms but I still had cold fingers! Having said that a lot of WBers use them so maybe the ones I had weren't very good.

Heated gloves are a good alternative

[Loops]

If you've got them already, I'd say fit them! I've not got them myself yet but I do have a set which will be going on the CBR. Anything that will get a bit of heat into my hands!

[Ducatista]

Don't worry about the grips feeling chuncky.
They will to begin with but you'll adjust and then anything else will feel weird.

I find them a real help, but I still have a problem with my fingers as the grips heat the palm great but you can still have cold fingers.

If you have them it's certianly worth fitting them and the next tip if you can is to get them wired into the ignition and not direct to the battery. The former means you can't leave them on and flatten your battery !! - which I have done twice. It's embarrassing when you repeatedly have to ask the cleaners to give you a bump start and that's not for the faint hearted either.

I personally have found heated inner gloves have solved my issues (I hava Reynaulds syndrome and my fingers went completely white in the cold).
The heated material goes all the way round each finger tip, so they do really keep me warm.
I have a seperate battery pack as I like to be seperate to the bike, but you can also have a cable to the battery as well. You just need to remember to unhook it.

[wasted_ace]

Paid £20 for my set..work a treat..once you have them you will never want to be without them..especailly with the weather like it is at the moment :'(

[Nelly]

As above. Having ridden through the winter to work and back, they do help. They are never going to keep the digits warm, but it does ease the pain a bit

[redken1]

30 plus years of motorcycling and I never had heated grips until now – don’t know why I never tried them before. My son bought me Oxford heated grips for Xmas and I had them fitted recently on my Fazer.

As others have said they do tend to warm the palms as opposed to the fingers, but on a long tedious journey it helps to wrap your fingers around the grips if you know what I mean.

A real bonus is that the oxford grips have a much better grip and feel than the Yamaha ones they replaced (shame on you Yamaha.)

I would suggest that you consider fitting them to the ignition and not directly to the battery. So easy to forget to switch them off and drain your battery and even if off they do tend to sap the battery.

[Snowy]

One of the greatest add ons for bikes - heated grips. I use them a lot but in really cold weather use heated gloves as well.

Wire them direct to the battery but via a relay that takes switched power from the ignition or other circuit which is energised by the ignition i.e parking bulb. The relay takes miniscule amounts of power to trigger so pretty much anything will do.

As usual with adding electrical items you need to make sure your electrical system/alternator is up to the job and can provide enough power for the normal bikes electronics to function as well as the add on's. I would expect a set of heated grips to be 40-50 watts (it will say on the packaging) so thats about a 4amp current draw. Make sure there is an in-line fuse of slightly greater value than the actual amperage and that that is fitted as close to the positive terminal of the battery as you can get it.

[Nikki]

Thank you very much all.

Well looks like the OH has a job sorted now for the weekend ;D It's not looking like the weathers going to be much fun for a ride out so that will keep him busy ;D

[Jon_W]

I find mine ok as long as they are on from the beginning. If your hands get cold I find the grips cannot re-warm them.