Heated grips & Weatherizing

[6Seca]

Right now, this is the type of weather that makes most of us put our bikes away or go on cold painful rides. Since class started on January 6th, I've been freezing going to and from the university on the hour ride. Even in the full leathers and gear I can take about 20 - 30 minutes of bone chilling wind then the last half our on the bike in unbearable. Frozen finger tips and to to make it worse, air creeps up into the helmet :cold: (good for summer, bad for winter). I ordered a balaclava to put under the helmet to help with the helmet breeze. Also picked up some vinyl chaps to keep my legs dry on rainy days.

The other mod I did is installing a heated grip from ebay.


This is the finished left handle.


Here is the heating element and the heat shrink.


Curl the heating element around the handle and wrap the heat shrink around


Then shrink the wrapper and it holds the heater in place.


I installed the switch to the handlebar clamp to keep it readily reachable and somewhat elegant. Gotta cut & spread the loop to make it fit between the Allen bolt and the handle bar.


Wiring it up is very straight forward. Ground the blue wire and run the red wire to a power source. I could have tapped it directly to the battery but there's the threat of killing the battery if i forget to turn off the switch. Or some kit could come by and flick it. So I ran it off the lighting, blue and red wire in the tail light harness. Gonna move that blue ground wire to sit under the switch next chance I get.


The kit is $10 and it works well. Its not as elegant as more expensive kits but its a quick install and it works. Haven't taken it out on the road yet. But just my luck, after a month of freezing rides I installed the kit and we are scheduled for a warm week in the 80s. I think a cold front is coming later in the week so I'll report then how warm the kit kept my hands during a ride.