TOPIC:

After trying several types of gloves, I've found everything to be inadequate to keep my hands from freezing solid in the winter at highway speeds after about 15 min. Since I'm going to be replacing my bars soon anyway, I was thinking about a set of heated grips. Anyone have any thoughts about a decent brand, source, and any potential problems, or if they work well?

I'm *trying* to track down some bars with a 4" rise and 5" pullback and about the same length as my LTD bars, so thats what they'd be going on. The control wires are external.

I'm assuming the charging system on an '82 550 would handle a set of heated grips.

I have thought the same thing, but didn't get any further than the thought. Snowmobiles all have heated grips and throttles. I know there are aftermarket add on units out there. As far as electrical requirements, where to put the switches, etc, you're on your own.

The folks on the Concours Owners Group seem to like these:
www.murphskits.com/heat.htm

I've had the same thoughts as my 45m-1hr commute is kinda hard on my hands, and it seems to be one of the best is Hot Grips . I'm currently using a pair of Hippo Hands , before that I had a pair of modified ATV handlebar gauntlets and they help quite a bit, but electric heated grips or gloves sure would be nice.
Tony

Aerostich sells these heated grip wraps, & you may be able to find them slightly cheaper on eBay. I thought about them all Winter, but I've been out of work since January so I haven't had the cash to try 'em out. I like the fact that they go outside the grips & can be removed.

Cheers,
-Kit

have you tried rubber/nitrile gloves under your regular gloves?

and re: the bars, check out virago bars. my buddy's 85 XV900's look like the LTD antlers, but lower.

Rubber gloves... reminds me of the old "Turn your head and Cough" drill:blink:

Does anyone have experience with any of these products? The velcro wrap around set sounds quick and easy but seems like it might make for a loose grip on the bars. The ones that go between the bar and grip- how the heck would you get that in there?

Thanks for all the input- I'll check out those Virago bars.
I'm leaning towards the hot grips, the velcro ones make me a tad bit nervous as they arn't cheap enough to buy just to try out, and could possibly slide around the grips. The ones you put under the grips should be fairly easy, you'd wrap them around your bars (possibly use some adhesive or tape to hold them in place), and slide your grips over them. Those, however, would seem to me like they would take a long time to heat up, and maybe not even get very warm as the bars would act as a heatsink.

I've not tried rubber gloves under my gloves, but I might give that a try the next cold morning I decide to ride.

Have you tried the hot pocket insert thingies. You know the ones little packets you shake and they get real warm. I wear them inside gloves and waders steelhead and salmon fishing and have always had toasty hands and feet. I wear snowmobile gloves in late fall and have had good luck with them. They even have a squeegie built into thumb.

Post edited by: RomSpaceKnight, at: 2006/03/29 18:37

I actually use Snowmobile gloves, which I have never had an issue being cold during the winter. They have a thin liner first and then they are gortek outside liner, never got cold in Canada snowmobiling, so would assume they would work for Motorcycles also.

I put a set of dirt bike hand guards on a Yam SecaII I used to commute on. My hands felt great once they were out of the wind.I have also used the aftermarket generic heated grips and found them to be to large around, made it hard to get a full grip. One thing you may want to think about, if you wear thick insulated gloves with heated grips your hands won't feel that warm because they are insulated. I had to go to a thinner glove to feel the full benefit of the heated grips.

I was riding every single snowless day this winter, so I don't think hot hands would be very cost effective. Although when I was going to be riding for an hour+, I used a home made hand warmer made from a sleeve of an old sweat shirt and a leg from an old pair of jeans with a hot hands pack inside it to thaw my left hand once in awhile, which seemed to work ok for just keeping the one hand from getting too stiff to clutch, but was pretty useless for my right hand.

Heated grips can't be any bigger than the grips I have now (the huge foam grips that are about 2" thick) which I dearly love until it rains, then they're miserable cause they squish (hence the looking for somthing different)

I've not tried snowmobile gloves, mostly cause nothing snowmobile related is sold locally, but I'll see if the arctic cat dealer can order some, that way if they don't fit, they don't cost me anything.

I might also try making a hand guard to see if that helps.