Heated Hand Grips

[Bo67]

Was wondering if anyone has fitted their FZ6 with heated hand grips.
The nights are starting to get cold here and the days will be too pretty soon.
We don't get a lot of snow here in the winter so I'd like to run the bike year round. I already have a heated vest but a decent set of grip warmers would be nice. Any comments/reviews on hand grip heaters and their installation is appreciated.

Thanks!

-Bo

 

[strike_force]

Didn't know there were heated grips for the fz6. Found this site on the net HOT GRIPS-heated grips,hand warmers,grip warmers.

Also found this for installation .: Canyon Chasers Motorcycle Sport Touring | Travel | Reviews | More :. It doesn't show an fz6 but I supose the method is similar.

Hope it helps


If you do the mod tell us how it went.

 

[Botch]

Hi Bo, what part of Idaho do you live in? My band used to play up at Lava Hot Springs on occasion. Admirable that you ride year-round, it gets cold!

 

[Scorphonic]

Yamaha make heated grips but they are WAY WAY overpriced. Oxford heated grips would be best at half the price of the yamaha ones. I fitted my own to my little bike and it is just so simple to do. You just have to wire it to your transmission instead of the battery so when you turn off your bike the heated grips are turned off also so you dont have to worry about returning to a dead battery!!

The hardest part is gluing the right hand grip without gluing the throttle sleeve to the handlebar!! But applying only a small amount of glue in this case is the key.

 

[Bo67]

Thanks to all for your replies. The "Hot Grips" seem the way to go. I'll do some more checking this week and let you know when I buy/install a set.
It was 40 degrees F here this morning on my ride; about them same temperature it was when I bought the bike in April '07. The heated vest is awesome. I had my heavyweight gloves on but my hands were still pretty cold at 75-80 MPH. Hopefully the grips will do the trick. A buddy of mine has them on his '05 H-D Wide Glide and just loves them.
Hey Botch! Glad to see I've got a brother in the Northwest!
I live in Mountain Home, ID. It's about 45 miles east of Boise; maybe about 220 miles west of Lava Hot Springs. Haven't been down to the SLC/Ogden area in a couple of years; really nice area though. I used to go to Hill AFB once in a while during my old Air Force days . Are you planning on running year round or do you get too much snow there? I basically live in an 80 mile wide desert valley with mountains on the north and south side (Owyhees to the south, Trinities to the north). They get all the snow, we just get the cold.
Thanks again all for your advice!!!

-Bo

 

[deljs]

Anybody tried this type? Can be used with any grip and much more affordable. I'm just wondering how well they work.
Cycle Gear - ENDURO ENGINEERING: Grip Heater

 

[Botch]

Hey Botch! Glad to see I've got a brother in the Northwest!
I live in Mountain Home, ID. It's about 45 miles east of Boise; maybe about 220 miles west of Lava Hot Springs. Haven't been down to the SLC/Ogden area in a couple of years; really nice area though. I used to go to Hill AFB once in a while during my old Air Force days . Are you planning on running year round or do you get too much snow there? I basically live in an 80 mile wide desert valley with mountains on the north and south side (Owyhees to the south, Trinities to the north). They get all the snow, we just get the cold.
-Bo

I work at Hill as a civilian, left active duty in '95, and am in the Reserves down at the Tooele Depot south of here.
I probably won't run year-round, we do get the snow, but I may be able to run it at least once a month when the roads are clear, so I won't have to winterize the battery, etc. I've snowmobiled in Minnesota thru the winter, so motorcyclin' in Utah can't be any worse! :rockon:

 

[mikebike]

I've snowmobiled in Minnesota thru the winter, so motorcyclin' in Utah can't be any worse!

yeah it can be .... cuz you can not wear a pair of felt boots and still shift

you have a cowl and windshield on a sled and not near the wind protectection on the FZ6

and before you say FL boy telling me about cold weather... I grew up in the Adirondaks in NY and have skiied at -20 F and snomobiled at -36 and by the way both of the temps are not including windchill

I used to ride my 250 Montesa in on the snowmobile trails in NY a good part of the winter...

I have also rode my old Honda 650 from NJ to north of Albany it was 31 when I started and 23 when I go there. THAT WAS COLD

 

[Botch]

Good points. And being I rode last night in the low 50's, I know that even that got a bit cold and I didn't ride too long (realized I was wearing my BMW Airflo boots, with open mesh, d'Oh!)

 

[Bo67]

Re: Cold

Good points by all. I used to ride my sled from Marquette MI (upper penninsula) to Duluth MN in -I don't know; really cold. I do remember trying to barbeque the Christmas turkey back in '92. It was -52F with the wind chill....12 hours and many beers later we had Christmas Tombstone pizza instead that night, but the beer stayed cold in the snow drifts!!!
Grew up in N. Illinois, not as cold as upstate NY but cold none the less. Got pulled over by a local cop in Feb '84; he thought I was on drugs riding on my '84 Honda Ascot in that weather!
The forecast is for 38F tonight so I don't know if I'll be thawed out enough to type tomorrow. It's 50.4 miles from home to work on the tripmeter. The high is supposed to be 68F. The heated vest works great but until I get some grips I'll just have to gut it out or park the bike 'til I get some.
Not that my Hyundai Sonata can't hold a cup of coffee with the best of them, I just prefer my bike.

Take care all,

-Bo

 

[Botch]

Wow, you've seen -36 in the Adirondacks?!?! I was stationed in Grand Forks, ND for three years, the coldest I'd ever seen there was -28 (although we did have one morning with a -89 windchill, we actually made the missile crews stay put for two 24-hour shifts, don't think that had happened before). We did go, one year, for seven full weeks without the temp getting above -20 F.

I actually spent more time outside in the winter in ND, because the mosquitoes were so bad during the summer. I don't miss that place too much!

 

[Bo67]

Re Heated Grips

Thanks Deljs for the info. I did look at these on CycleGear.com and they seem like a pretty good deal. My only concern is getting the original grips off in one piece so I can re-use them. With the Hot Grips I can just trash the originals and replace them with what they have. It is a lot cheaper with the ones you mentioned though. I also checked on RadioShack.com for a 3 position 3-way weatherproof LED rocker switch instead of the toggle switch. I personally think it would look cleaner and the switch is around $5 there. I'll let you know what I get and try to figure out how to use my digital camera so I can take some pics for everyone!

Thanks again for the help.

-Bo

 

[Bo67]

ND

Hey Botch,
My brother was an F-106 weapons troop up there when I was a teen....that's why I volunteered for Korea 3 times!

I feel your pain man..........

-Bo

 

[gr8eyes]

One other thing you can do to help when it gets cold is hand guards. They aren't aesthetically too pleasing but they definitely help block the cold air effectively making the wind chill a moot point.

 

[Bo67]

Re: Hand Grip Warmers

Good call Gr8eyes. I see those guards on some Ducatis and the new Suzuki standard that's based off of the 600 Ninja (can't remember the model number). It makes sense to me but I don't know if anyone makes a universal hand guard. I'll have to check.

Thanks again,

-Bo

 

[gr8eyes]

The Suzuki Hand guard has been used in the FJR community. You might try a set of those from the Suzuki dealer if he'll let you bring them back if they don't fit.

 

[SteveL]

You just have to wire it to your transmission instead of the battery so when you turn off your bike the heated grips are turned off also so you dont have to worry about returning to a dead battery!!

Scorphonic,

I picked up a set of these yesterday and I was wondering about where to hook them up. The instructions say to wire them directly to the battery but I was worried about forgetting them and getting a flat battery like you say.

The instructions also say that there's a cutoff switch which should turn them off before the battery is flattened. But if there's a way to hook them up to the ignition that would be preferable.

So - can you give more details about wiring them to the transmission? Which wires did you use?

I thought about using the headlight circuit or another switched circuit but was worried about overloading it. The grips apparently draw 4 Amps.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[CMHrider]

I have a stock 2006. Does anyone have any idea how much extra wattage is available for accessories?

 

[CMHrider]

So I posted too quickly and found my answer in another thread. However can someone explain how to test to load on the electrical system? I don't know much about electrical systems so please dumb it down. Thanks!

 

[Avalon786]

I installed universal heated grips i bought at a local accessories shop nearby. I had to cut (slice in half and rip off...) the old grips off the handle bars though as they were like cemented on there, lol. Then i had issues getting the new heated grips to stick, the glue they came with did aboslutely nothing. I tried epoxy which worked for a little while, then one day when riding one of the grips came loose...Got some KrazyGlue at a gas station and that appears to have done the trick... But yeah they work pretty good, came with a switch (mounted on center of handle bar) to turn them on (i can put them on 'off-low-med-high') Hooked them up directly to the battery.