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I seem to have been "considering" fitting heated grips on my bikes for 10 years or so now and never got round to doing it.
When I bought the ZX9R recently I negotiated to get them at a good price and fitted for free as part of the deal.
Why the hell did I leave it so bloody long?
They fitted the new Oxford Sports grips and used them for the first time last Sunday afternoon. I was wearing thick winter gloves and wasn't sure what they would feel like with these gloves on.
Started at the lowest setting of 5 and it was warm at that, later moved up to setting 2 and was comfortably toasting.
Why the hell did I not do this ten years ago, when I ride all year round.
I would recommend them to anybody!
Must get a set on the Falco as well.

I gave up trying to fit Falco ones, got bought some for Christmas a few years back but they were the wrong size (standard is 7/8", but Falco ones are a tad larger), and after taking the r/h grip off I couldn't be bothered trimming off all of the little "lumps" on the throttle barrell (the standard Falco grip has indents to allow these to sit, but need cut off to allow heated grips to be fitted). Did think about some of the wrap-over ones, but wasn't sure about the increase in grip diameter, it has been noted by some to increase the load on your wrists due to increasing the diameter of what you're gripping

So, I go cold (or would if I still had opportunity to ride all year)

Every bike I have ever had, new or second hand, the first thing I have always done is fit heated grips.

Best thing is that I can/could continue to ride through winter with just summer gloves allowing more feel, and warm damp is a darned sight better than wet and cold

Prefer heated gloves (got Klan). They heat the backs of your hands, which catch the wind chill, whereas grips just heat the insides, which are more protected.

MartDude wrote:Prefer heated gloves (got Klan). They heat the backs of your hands, which catch the wind chill, whereas grips just heat the insides, which are more protected.

As you say, it comes down to individual preference as some people feel the cold more than others. Never had a problem with windchill on the back of my hands, always my fingers that cop it, so to that end grips are brilliant for me.

I know that technology has moved on, but I also had and saw some nasty experiences with heated gloves back in the day, and it is probably something that has just stuck and put me off

I've always realy suffered with cold hands and I had heated grips on the BMW for many years but do not rate them. As MartDude says they heat up the inside and I suffered just as badly from 'chill pains', possibly even worse.

A couple of years ago my brother brought over some realy good gloves from Canada. I'm still not comfortable doing more than a 100 miles or so at near zero temperatures, but they are much better.

I agree that the best solution would be a good quality heated gloves.

If you want to go down the winter gloves route, I've found Alpinestars Jet Road Goretex pretty effective, if it's not quite cold enough for the heated gloves. Very warm, not too bulky, and even warmer with silk or EDZ thermal liners added.



My Dainese d-dry titanium gloves are nearly as warm, and are less bulky, with rather better protection (and the titanium knuckle armour looks cool!); I think this model is now discontinued, but they're similar to the current M25 :



I'd also recommend the Richa Baltic; cheaper and less sophisticated than the Alpinestars and Dainese, but still reasonably warm (more so with silk inners) and waterproof; I'd still be using them if I hadn't trashed them in a crash 18 months ago - but they kept my hands safe :



As I have Reynaud's Syndrome, keeping my hands warm is a bit of a preoccupation at this time of year - I'm not really a glove fetishist

Mods - feel free to move this to a new thread if you feel it's more appropriate

T.C. wrote:
As you say, it comes down to individual preference as some people feel the cold more than others. Never had a problem with windchill on the back of my hands, always my fingers that cop it, so to that end grips are brilliant for me.

Highlights one of the reasons why my experience of the grips is so different. I always ride with my fingers on the levers........ not round the grips. I can roll the throttle on and off and still keep in contact with the brake. In desperation I've tried wrapping around the grip to try and keep warm but I'm not comfortable with the delay incurred un wrapping the fingers and getting smoothly on the brake. The clutch is not so important these days but it’s an old racing two stroke hang over.

With me it’s also the fingers that get it worst. I once couldn't put my hands in a bowl of cold water, it felt so scalding hot. Very very pain full couple of hours waiting for them to thaw out.

HisNibbs wrote:Highlights one of the reasons why my experience of the grips is so different. I always ride with my fingers on the levers........ not round the grips. I can roll the throttle on and off and still keep in contact with the brake. In desperation I've tried wrapping around the grip to try and keep warm but I'm not comfortable with the delay incurred un wrapping the fingers and getting smoothly on the brake. The clutch is not so important these days but it’s an old racing two stroke hang over.

With me it’s also the fingers that get it worst. I once couldn't put my hands in a bowl of cold water, it felt so scalding hot. Very very pain full couple of hours waiting for them to thaw out.

Absolutely my way of looking at it. In the late 80s/early 90s I was commuting 90 miles a day round trip in all weathers and I used a combination of heated grips and handlebar muffs on my VFR and I still wasn't entirely happy with the setup. The heated grips sometimes overheated my palms, while the bar muffs made my preferred method of riding with fingers on the controls not very practical. At times the bloody things applied the brake for me, but that may have been down to wind pressure at high speeds (ahem).

However these days I don't have that problem. If it's cold and unpleasant I simply don't ride the bike. It's a fun thing and I'm happy to keep it that way.

I have been using the wrap around heated grips on the Falco for a couple of winters and was rather underwhelmed. As noted earlier they kept my palms warm ( almost too hot with no temperature control) and left my fingers feeling even colder by comparison. I also ride with fingers covering the brake so no use there.
However I have now transferred the heaters to my DRz which is the bike I ride through the winter anyway and they seem to be far more effective simply because the hands are also protected from windblast by the bark busters( handguards).
If they keep me comfy this winter I will invest in a better set of actual heated grips as I'm not entirely happy with the increased diameter.