Cheap Heat

Looking on eBay for generic heated grips for the swing. Seems they vary from $5-$200! The cheap $20 Chinese ones look impressive, even the $5 ones look good with all the wiring and switch included (how can they make these and ship em to me on the other side of the world for $5???). Anyone ever try these cheap versions? I know you get what you pay for but if it works it works!

You can get cheap heated grips from Shark audio systems from the US.

hotwings,

You should look at these too. At least then you can wear them anywhere to keep your hands warm:

http://www.sharkmotorcycleaudio.com/products/shark-motorcycle-atv-heated-battery-powered-comfort-gloves-high-quality-final-price-reduction-x-large-only.html

The cheap grip heaters use a big fat 10 ohm ceramic resistor to drop the volts for Lo Heat. There seems to be no way to support that resistor so all too soon the wires snap off right at the resistor and you're stuck with only Hi heat range and no way to reattach that broken wire.

One work around for that problem is to find out how to wire up the system so that the Lo heat circuit goes thru a 12V relay (like a turn signal) so that the full 12V pulses On/Off when on Lo and therefore delivers half as much heat -while  constant 12V delivers full heat on Hi.

After breaking two of those unobtanium ceramic resistors I eventually figured out how to do that relay thing. But I can't explain just how to do it.

The other option would be to spend more money and buy either heated grips or good quality grip heaters with Hi and Lo circuits already wired in the individual heaters. Some of the more expensive grip heater kits have different heaters for the throttle side vs the "clutch" side. The bars suck up much more of the heat than the throttle side because the throttle tube insulates the heater from the handlebar.

If you are going with any grip heater kit you should first shrink on a piece of heat-shrink tube to the left side bar then add the heat element on that. The heat shrink will insulate the grip heater from the handlebar. HTH

Tim

Note: IMHO grip heaters are better than heated gloves because they are always there when you need them. No hassles locating the heated gloves and then hooking them up to your jacket --assuming you are wearing your wired jacket then. Just my 2¢

Tinman I can't find any heated grips on the Shark Audio website! JeffR the gloves seem to be sold out! I didn't check the website for shipping to Canada. The shipping rates from the U.S. are usually a deal breaker for me especially on eBay. A "widget" from the other side of the world: $5 with free shipping, the same "widget" from the US: $5 but $38 shipping!!!! I live 45 minutes from the border..... Anyways enough of my ranting, thanks for the info guys. Cosmic jumper good info to know. The hotgrips on my snowmobile must be good quality because they get hot quickly and I usually have to turn them off or down even on the coldest days, I can feel the heat radiating through thick insulated winter mitts! Wish I could find a set like that for a motorcycle!

go to amazon ,there is a pair for $20. I have a pair of Oxford heatzer but not cheap.

Look in Aerostich catalog-----they have several set available at reasonable price

I received heated socks and gloves from Sanata! They are from Mark's Work Warehouse and are rechargeable. I can use them for other occasions not just limited to the Swing. So far they work real good, I have had 4 hours of use and they still have battery life.

Chilliwing wrote:

I received heated socks and gloves from Sanata!

Frank Sanata?

Nancy!

AH---so that's what was in her boots!

Sam:)

Hi Hotwings,
I treated my self to a pair of heated grips from flea bay for chrimbo £12.00 including P&P from china.
They have a small high/off/low switch attached to the Lh grip also a led indicator. Took me about an hour to fit them using a piggy back inline fuse (£1.99 from local dealer) through the ignition switch.
So far they are quite good and I have no complaints. Although in the UK we don't have the cold extremes that you do in the States.
I thought I'd try a cheap pair first to try them out and fitted them to my old Yamaha YP250 Majesty, at least that way its not cost much if I can't get on with them and not caused any problems on the Swing.
Denzil

I really love the heated grips on my 650GT. They have three settings, High, Low, and automatic. I hadn't been using the automatic setting until recently and found it's great. Now I just leave the seat and grip setting on auto. With this setting they don't heat until the outside temperature drops to a certain point and only come onto full heat is in quite cold temperatures and higher speeds. Both temperature and speed controls the amount of heat. It works great for me, not to hot in town and warm enough on the freeway.