Hotter Hands

7291 Views 34 Replies 14 Participants Last post by spooph, Oct 23, 2009

spooph

Discussion Starter · Oct 20, 2008

Installing hand warmers (part1): I ran out of time, so they're not hooked up yet

1.)The kit I got is designed for a snow mobile and cost $25... I'm hoping they'll be hot enough ;D

2.)Remove grips... Maybe remove bar-ends to make this easier????

Let's try the drill:

Nope, those puppies are TIGHT... lets try good ol brute force?

That screw driver is too small, knurling the screws.. Let's try a bigger one:

That's a no go, these suckers are really on there!!! I'd need an impact wrench or impact screw driver... Screw it! Let's just slide them off...

OK, that no worky either... Wait a minute, I have some nice pressurized lithium chain lube? That's slides nicely, doesn't it? Stick in the screw driver to give the tube somewhere to spray into:

3.)Got 'em off, stuck the heating elements on. Got kinda wrapped up in "progress", forgot to take pictures.
4.) clean lithium coated (slippery) grips with Simple Green (degreaser), and alcohol (de-Simple Greener)

5.) Measure grips to make hole for wires (don't want the wires wearing where they contact the heating elements. My thinking: the grips don't move, why should the wires?):

6.) Make hole with dental scratchy tool thingy that's nice and pointy, and enlarge with drill bit:

7.) Used soapy water to slide the grips back on while fanagling the wires through the hole and making sure not to rip them out of the heating elements... The soapy water dries and makes grips SUPER sticky... No slippedy slidy on those NO MO!

8.) Test fit switch:

Where else would you put it?

NOTE: Little Miss Cherry doesn't like undergoing opperations:

9.)To be able to drill a hole and get the switch to go where it's supposed to, gotta remove the left fairing:

CASUALTY:

10.) Can't get in there to drill the pilot hole with the big drill because of the windshield, so DREMEL!!!:

Step it up, step it up:

and the big drill can fit from the bottom:

I then ran out of time, forgot to take more pictures, nor was I able to wire them up, so that will be part II when I get a chance....

TEASER: HOW TO adjust rear tail light, and the Cherry goes off-road...

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Felix

· #2 · Oct 20, 2008

Nice work! Innovation. Top pics to.

I learnt to ride on a BMW with warmers, first time I accidently switched them on I had no idea what was going on... holy crap they got hot!

Felix

Delta107

· #3 · Oct 20, 2008

haha that's actually not a bad idea for colorado.

zartan

· #4 · Oct 20, 2008

Nice how to. Yes I had to swing the bike in to the dealer to get the bar ends removed. we tried it at home and broke a bit in the process. Red loctite. WTF were they thinking.

Kitten

· #5 · Oct 22, 2008

It's always red loctite. No matter who makes the bike. Guess there's some fear of them falling off.

R6S_2NR

· #6 · Oct 22, 2008

hand warmers? what? thats pretty cool but hahaha id rather have a seat warmer or tank warmer shit my hands dont get cold when i ride and they are mesh! my bike covers the wind on my hands, for 600 my tank and frame does not get that hot..at all so a seat warmer or even athy warmer would be best for me i hate it when i shiver and my knees knock againts my tank hahha

spooph

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 23, 2008

Ha, R6, I'm the opposite. I don't mind my knees shaking, but I do hate not being able to pull in the clutch, or being able to take my hands off the grips without ripping them off... It's what happens when you head to work in the morning and it's 28 degrees outside... Add the 60mph+ wind chill from riding at the speed limit, and your hands get plenty cold... Plus, having frozen my hands 3 winters in a row now, I think I'm destroying my circulation, so I have to do something if I want to keep riding/using my hands...

camicwrath

· #8 · Oct 24, 2008

Hand warmers thats awasome, great write up. Where did you get thoes?

spooph

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 24, 2008

from my local shop, and I can't find them from an online store, but here's a link to ebay:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UNIV...NOWMOBILE_W0QQitemZ250307116414QQcmdZViewItem

zartan

· #10 · Oct 24, 2008

oh my gawd that is so cold outside. I would just die.
Nice write up on the warmers. Thank you for taking the time to share.

camicwrath

· #11 · Oct 25, 2008

thanks for the info an the write up im sure it will help me install mine once I order mine that is.

Live Free Ride Hard

Delta107

· #12 · Oct 25, 2008

Zartan your funny you have a polar bear as your avatar, but you hate cold weather. haha lol

dknollRX7

· #13 · Oct 25, 2008

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/984/50320677.JPG
Have you tried using an impact driver on the phillips that holds the bar ends in place? This tool is used for loosening frozen fasteners by striking it with a hammer. There's an internal cam in the driver and as the shaft is stricken, it loosens/tightens the fastener depending on the setup.

Kitten

· #14 · Oct 26, 2008

http://www.hotgrips.com/

Seems to be the best solution, as you don't have the grip being an insulator between you and the heating element. They're on my list.

zartan

· #15 · Oct 26, 2008

Delta107 said:
Zartan your funny you have a polar bear as your avatar, but you hate cold weather. haha lol

that isn't a polar bear that is my Dog cora. she is a samoyed.
she is snow dog for sure. I bet she would like heated grips too.

Thanks Kitten for the link.

Delta107

· #16 · Oct 26, 2008

Are you serious? Well I'm sorry I fill like the biggest jerk right now. Sorry. Well your dog is cute.

zartan

· #17 · Oct 26, 2008

she is alot like a polar bear . you didn't do anything wrong

she probably likes polar bears

spooph

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 27, 2008

Hotter Hands Part II: So friend, Captain Morgan and I got to working on these grips... Got them in just fine, and they work awesome! Unfortunately Mr. Morgan did a lot of talking and so friend and I forgot to take step-by-step pictures... Some of the pictures friend took were also horribly underexposed (I guess I should've set my camera to "auto"), so I tried to fanagle them into something that is usefull... So you're gonna have to make a few mental leaps, and use your imagination in a few places....

First, in order, take of the black side covers, seat, side fairings and gas tank....

Next, locate proper ground... I use the bolts that hold the front fairing main stay to the frame:

Connect one wire from each grip to an eyelette. It doesn't matter which one, it's just a massive resistor.. I'm a little overkill, so I crimped the eye-lette onto the wires, and then soldered (happy Felix? ;D) them...

Heat shrink, don't want any water in here:

Ground in place:

Another shot, much later with the fairings back on:

Next, locate a "hot wire"... I wanted to hook these grips into a circuit that goes through the ignition switch, and NOT directly to the battery, so that when I forget to turn them off, or some a$$ comes along and flicks the switch, I don't have to push due to a dead battery... So I traced the wire bundle coming from the ignition switch (the one you put the key into), and found this little plug right here:

Unplugged:

I try and do things neat... So why cut the wire and splice in the other wire if I can just remove the pin and solder the heated grips "hot wire", directly to the pin in the plug and make it one "hot wire". To remove the pin, look at the plug as it is in the previous image, and take a REALLY SMALL flat screwdriver and push the little brass "clip" down to pull the pin out the back of the plug.

A wire extension, with a fuse spliced in between goes to the little tabby, gets soldered in place, and the plug gets reconnected...

He He, I love the smell of solder (Geek moment)!!!

Hook all the wires up to the switch I mounted last week, and circuit complete!!!!

So how do they perform? Freekin awesome!!!
Kitten: I saw those ones you posted the link for, the reason I went with these is because (1) they're cheaper. (2) they allow me to replace the grips to whatever else I might want. (3) If those other "hot grips" you posted the link for get any hotter than these, you might as well break out the skillet, oil, eggs and bacon!!! The rubber grips might insulate some heat, but oh baby, they're freekin hot!!!

While I had the fairings off, I installed my frame sliders (and dropped a hydraulic jack on my big toe), and eliminated the kick-stand switch. If somebody hasn't already posted one of those, I will try and throw it up on the site....

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Felix

· #19 · Oct 27, 2008

Slider pics would be great, and TOP pics and description on part 2!

Wonder how the rubber will go with the heat after a longer run.

Why did you eliminate the kickstand switch?

Felix

spooph

Discussion Starter · #20 · Oct 27, 2008

Felix: I'll let you know on the rubber life, and I posted another separate thread about the kickstand switch.

UPDATE 10/27/2008 - Rode to work this morning and it was 22F out when I left the house... Grips worked great, my hands were nice and toasty for a full 30 minutes (then I had to stop riding because I got to work....).

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