Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Seems like winter came early this year so I decided to do something about my numb fingers. Off to the shop, ebay, and such and could not find anything cheap and good enough. Oxford handgrip looks to be the most common but it's $149 and looks like farken harley grips... big and chromy. Makes my muscular arm looks skinny

So a quick search on Google "DIY heated handgrips" found nice instruction to make a cheap one.

Bill of material (all from Dick Smith):

• 4 metre packet of “Cuprothal” resistance wire
  Part number. W 3200 about $2 (Note: the other option is“Nichrome” wire which is a bitch to solder)
  
  Three-way switch (off-on-off), about $3
  1 off Double pole double throw centre off switch from Dick Smith
  
  Weatherproof hood for the switch, $3
  
  1 roll of masking tape - the good quality one.

I already have a soldering iron, solder, wire, insulation tape, etc……

The design being used is quite genius. It doesn't utilise a nasty hot resistor but simply connect the heater in parallel (for high temp) and serial (for low).

The desired heat is 18watts per grip which is the commercial norm, this translates to 8ohm worth of Cuphrotal wire -- approximately 1 meter in length per grip.

... to be continued

I ran the wire through the grip, tape it, and then wound it back inside. Once completed I taped the whole thing.

EDIT: The tape did not hold up the heat. The wire burned through the tape and shorted . I then run a strip of bicycle tyre tube and it held.

Do the same for the throttle grip, allowing cable slack. I also tied the cable to secure the connections.

I simply connect the power to the front parking light. It is already fused and is not critical to the bike's operation. The brake oil reservoir provided nice mounting for the switch.

DONE !!! At least the hard part. I simply move the switch to left for low, center for off, and right for high.

When it is set to high I got instant heat . Love it!! Methinks set to high for the first few kays, then to low. But need to try tomorrow....

Still need to cover the grip with proper material. Not sure what it is at the moment but have been looking for cricket bat grip, etc. For now a bicycle tyre tube will do.


... to be continued for riding tomorrow!!

Looks good...

Next time it may be worth using some big heatshrink tubing and shrinking it over the wire and the handgrip.

Would it be possible to get it underneath the handgrip? Assuming it was insulated off the metal part anyway...

Ratmick wrote:Looks good...

Next time it may be worth using some big heatshrink tubing and shrinking it over the wire and the handgrip.

Would it be possible to get it underneath the handgrip? Assuming it was insulated off the metal part anyway...

What's a "heatshrink tubing". I was a bit concerned about the wire overlapping, hopefully unlikely Not too late to get things undone at this stage

I was also thinking to run it underneath the grip, however it's metal there and not too easy to take off the grip ?

If you want the grip off, peel it back just enough to drip some water + dishwashing liquid down it. Twist it around a bit and it'll come off easy as.

Dunno how hard it'd be to put back on over a layer of insulation (tape), another of wire, and a third of tape ...

javaman wrote:What's a "heatshrink tubing". I was a bit concerned about the wire overlapping, hopefully unlikely Not too late to get things undone at this stage

Heatshrink tubing is a type of plastic which shrinks to about a 1/3 of its original diameter when you hit it with heat (normally hot air). It's a lot more durable than electrical tape and won't come off nor stick to your gloves. It comes in different diameters, Dick Smith has a half-decent selection, but I'm not sure they have anything big enough to go over your grip. I had some, but I can't remember where I got it from, maybe Radio Parts in West Melbourne...

hth

javaman wrote:
I was also thinking to run it underneath the grip, however it's metal there and not too easy to take off the grip ?

I think heated grips have the wire inside the grip itself. To get the grips on and off is a piece of cake. Just use compressed air and it will slip on or off on a sleeve of air.

Heatshrink could work, although some types can be pretty hard when they shrink. Their are some that are pretty flexible thou. And many come is a variety of colours as well.

Project is looking good Andi

Cheers

... continued

Well the tape covering the inner wire did not hold . When I stress-tested it it shorted out. Generated enough heat to nearly burn my fingers and good amount of smoke . So I disassembled the grips, run a strip of bicycle tyre rubber and re-wound the unit.

It held fine since then .

For finishing touch I ran a bicycle tube on top of the grip. Quite difficult to do but it secured the elements from water.

Rode around the block and it felt awesome. Have to wait tomorrow for my commute. Hopefully it will be a bit cold tomorrow

Well it's raining and bit cold this morning. Perfect time to test the mint grips . Warmed the bike up and switched the heater to "high" while I put the helmet and gloves on. Got on the bike and WOW how farken awesome the feeling was !! Verrrrrry toasty .

Rode the usual chelsea - moorabbin commute which is about 20k and played around with low-high mode. I settled to low during cruising. Cannot stress enough how nice it is (as gay/wimpy as it may be ). They should be a factory standard for bikes sold in melbourne

Final product picture coming up ...

Now.. who's up for icicle ride ?

girls blouse

Your getting soft Andy

Rusty wrote:If you want the grip off, peel it back just enough to drip some water + dishwashing liquid down it. Twist it around a bit and it'll come off easy as.

Dunno how hard it'd be to put back on over a layer of insulation (tape), another of wire, and a third of tape ...

just make sure u get it all off b4 u re-fit the grips or they twist & move!!

i use the compressed air method too, much better..and they dont move...

nice bush 'caniching andi....u blouse..