Heated grips question

Jason: The factory ones some of us got from Japan are integral, all one thingy. - Paul

 

Dual Star grips- dualstar.com. Had them on every bike I have owned for the last few years. Work great and cheap!

 

I have grip heaters on my V-Strom and also have Gerbing heated gloves. Both have pros and cons. Grip heaters keep the palms of my hands toasty warm, gloves keep the tops of my hands toasty warm. Grip heaters let me wear thinner gloves, heated gloves are bulky to say the least. If I had to pick just one I'd probably go with heated gloves since the wind on top is what tends to get my hands the coldest.

The grip heaters I have are Symtecs and they cost about $30. They are just heating elements that wrap around the bars and any grips can be used over them. The switch that comes with them has a Hi and Lo setting and most of the time Lo is plenty hot (sometimes too hot). I'll probably add a set to my VFR sometime this winter. They are certainly worthwhile.

 

Hot Grips is the best mod that I've done for comfort. I don't plan to ever own a road bike without heated grips again. When they wear out, I will replace them, and not worry over the cost.

Mac

 

I had the Hot Grips on my '98 VFR and wondered the same thing. Unfortunately that bike was stolen and totaled before they wore out, so I never did find out. I was close though...
But yes, I would imagine you would need to replace the whole things. And at least on the ones on my '98, there was not a connection to the grips that "unplugged". Meaning you couldn't unplug the electrical connection from the grips, change the grips out, and plug in the wire to the new grips. Instead you would have to change out the wire going all the way back to the controller. Not a HUGE deal, considering how often you would need to change them, but still, always bugged me. In there eyes it was probly cheaper, and one less place for a connector to fail.

As far a gloves vs. grips, I would say go with the grips. The reason? they are always there. If you go on a ride that takes longer than you thought and as the sun goes down it starts getting a little chilly? Turn on the grips, where as you might not have brought the gloves. Works well too when you start a ride early in the morning, just a little chill in the air, but you know it is going to warm up later so you want to wear your summer or Spring/Fall gloves, go ahead, just turn on the grips in the begining of the ride, turn them down as it heats up. Plus winter gloves tend to be rather bulky, and you lose the feel of you controls a little bit. You can wear much thinner gloves and still have easy control of your, well controls.
If you are riding thru the mountains, even in summer or Spring/fall the grips are great too, because you can change the temperature up and down as the conditions change -- very easy. You don't have to pull over just to swap out your gloves.
If you are riding in the real real cold, like below 30's an argument might be made for the electric gloves over the grips; but for most of us, the grips would be my recomendation.

 

As far as I know, you can purchase replacement Hot Grips without buying a complete kit. There is not a whole lot to the kit (wire, connectors, inline fuse, and rheostat) so you may just want to purchase a new kit. The only reason I may seen a need to replace a hot grip, is when its heating element ceases to work. As for wearing them out, I can not see that happening unless you would be riding in a very abusive environment.

One good tip for those are considering purchasing a set of Hot Grips. Get the varible rheostat and purchase some insulated connectors.