Finally succumbed to the need for warmer hands and purchased a set of Bike-it brand heated grips off Ebay, naturally. Paid the princely sum of $114 with free postage last Sunday night with the vague hope that they might arrive in time to be fitted in time for the Laverda Concours.
The company selling them was Slipstream Performance, based at the Gold Coast, so maybe I was in with a chance of getting them in time.
I got a surprise in the mail Tuesday when the parcel arrived, so I quickly went in to the garage to plan the installation.
There was 2 different kits on offer, one with a digital push button thingie to control the heat settings, and the one I chose with a large rotary dial, which I thought would be easier to adjust with thick gloves on. Might look a bit old school, but I think it suits my 11.
The kit comes with all that's needed to fit it. Controller has either Adhesive pad mount or a natty bar clamp. I couldn't find anywhere left on my bars for it so I fabbed up a little ally bracket to fit it under the temp gauge.
After getting the fuel tank off, installation took about 3/4 of an hour, including shaving the ribs off the twistgrip tube, as the grip wouldn't fit otherwise. Wiring was straightforward following the included wiring diagram.
Ok, how well did they work, I hear you ask?
Bloody great! I headed off for the Laverda Gig at 3.00am and flicked on the controller once out on the highway. Got to Gympie where I was told it was 2 degrees but it didn't feel it. The grips are slightly larger than the standard grips and initially I thought they might be a bit hard too, but they turned out to be quite comfy. I found I had some nuances to contend with as I found out, I like to rest two fingers on the clutch lever while riding along and I had to deliberately keep putting them back around the grip, as that's where the warmth is.
Setting wise, I only had them up to the mid range which was enough to keep the fingers comfortably warm, and as the sun came up and it started to warm up, I just thumbed the controller dial back to cool things off a bit.
I'd been holding off getting a set of these as I'd always been concerned about the power consumption of this type of device, but I read that these only use 50 watts at startup then only 10 watts to maintain the temperature, so it was no biggie after all. I'd did however have a precautionary check on my battery water before the trip just in case, as I had boiled one dry in the past using a megawattage headlight and not checking regularly enough.
Overall, great product at a reasonable price. Easy to fit and wire up. Bloody fantastic service by the guys at Slipstream Performance, and as an added bonus, I found enclosed in the package a discount voucher for 10 percent off my next purchase from them. Might be time to buy a Wiseco big bore kit for the old girl as they stock them there.
