Oxford Heated Grips

Has these fitted a couple of weeks ago - a fabbo item and recommended. u can see them if you look closely - and if u look even closer at the names on the places over the street u will see that this particular bike was the highest bandit in australia
[img][/img]

which version did you get?
i picked up a set of the sports grips, but have heard that they can be rough on gloves. not sure when i'll get them fitted yet, but it'll certainly be before the FarRide at the end of May.

i dont know - they have smooth grips - will take a close up. they were about 130 bucks. the slightly added diameter is a bit odd at first though

I took the Barkbusters option. When on they should take the bite out of the cold wind and I can take them off easily for summer.
At least that's what I'm hoping for, its not cold enough yet to fit them.
Will make a new thread to report on their performance.

I know the handguards on the KLE500 worked wonders in winter. Even on the coldest mornings, I only started to feel the cold when I was moments away from work. Canberra winters can be pretty uncomfortable. I've actually used my heated grips a few times over the last week, 7am finishes and 5ºc mornings with summer gloves with really big vents.

I use the Oxford Sport grips, which have a textured pattern. I haven't noticed any glove wear, if anything the textured pattern has worn down after almost 2 years. The grips have worked perfectly through nasty Wellington winters (I ride every day to work), and they are well worth it. I used to have a V Strom with the hand guards and quite liked them. I have been thinking about the Acerbis ones with LED running lights. Has anyone fitted those?

I've had the Oxford sports on since last winter and wouldn't have the bike without them now. The larger diameter and textured pattern give the bike more "feel". The Barkbusters guards make a great difference, and up north might do by themselves for winter. Around Canberra I find without the guards on, my palms will be burning and my knuckles will still be freezing.

LED blinkers

heated grips

Well, at 57 years and with the arthritis in the hands worse than ever I have finally given in and fitted a set of Oxford touring grips.
Instructions were pretty straightforward and the only difference is that I channeled the connections through the relay I wired up recently with a loom to handle multiple devices. I have two lighter sockets wired up to cater for mobile phone and GPS unit, and the relay will also happily service the super-loud Stebel air horn I am trying to find a place for.......
I posted a separate thread here on how to wire up a relay for such situations.

After getting the bar-ends off and undoing one of them too much and leaving the nut in the bars (and having to super-glue a bolt to a screwdriver to probe far enough to get the bar end nut out) it was pretty easy.
A bit of scraping off of the old glue and then some citrus oil to remove the final smears of gunk, and then some gentle filing of the ribs on the throttle side, it all went together well.
The most time was spend in testing various positioning of the grips to work out which setup interfered least with clutch or brake.
I will post some pix soon of the setup that worked best for me.

They keeps the hands quite warm even with lightweight gloves.
Wouldn't want to run them on full setting for too long though unless you are looking to use the gloves for welding...
Fark, do they get hot.

Lowest setting is fine for Adelaide mornings - often 6 or so degrees at 6.30am when I am on my way into the city and praying that the motorcycle rank in front of my building is not chockers with the curse of the roads (scooters).
BTW got my first scratch recently, on the LHS of the tank when some scooter bozo tried shoe-horning his POS in and then a mate (R1 rider) told him to piss off. That means so far I need new paint for the both the Bandit and the Guzzi courtesy of these fuckwits.
Does anyone hate 'em as much as I do?????

Rabid_Canine wrote:I have two lighter sockets wired up to cater for mobile phone and GPS unit, and the relay will also happily service the super-loud Stebel air horn I am trying to find a place for.......

The Stebel fits well under the left hand fairing. I have pics on my blog at: http://kewwibike.blogspot.com/2010/09/fitting-stebel-nautilus.html

Baz wrote:I took the Barkbusters option. When on they should take the bite out of the cold wind and I can take them off easily for summer.
At least that's what I'm hoping for, its not cold enough yet to fit them.
Will make a new thread to report on their performance.

hey Baz - how did those barkbusters go for you over the weekend?
I'm guessing that you'd have still been bloody cold, since I had my warmers on & still froze my fingers off!!

Why be Cold.Fit grips as well .

Am loving my heated grips right now. Picked them up whilst in the Uk the other week for $75

I am now looking at getting the bark busters too for the rain extra.

Gus - I burnt my finger tips when the heated grips were at 100%, & my fingers were still numb!!

I ve got the ones that have a pad that sticks to the bars .I got a real surprise how
hot they got .The bandit grips are so thin .I ended up wraping electrical tape
over the pads and the grips on top of that .And thats just for LOW
With handguards low is all i ever need.

The only problem with the Oxford grips is the silly voltage sensitive controller unit that comes with it. However that is easily sorted with an alternative unit from Symtec...

http://lockitt.com/Lockitt/product/EHST21.html

On the plus side it's a far more compact, and in my opinion, nicer looking controller unit than the **** ugly Oxford job.

Excepting it costs more than my High -Off-Low heated grips .Does look techno though if you like that type of thing .

Had these Oxford Heated Grips on my Bandit for 2 years (the standard smooth grip type) and worked pretty well until the last few months when the temp. 'up' and 'down' buttons stopped working. When it was turned 'on' (wired into my ignition) the power light and the 'blue' light (lowest temp) would alight but couldn't move it up.
I've mentioned problems I had elsewhere on this site when I decided to take it apart... but I'll mention it briefly again... I thought I'd take the controller apart as I thought the buttons may have just needed a bit of cleaning from the inside.. when I put it back together and on the first 'switch on' all the buttons worked fine - temps going up and down. Turned the whole thing off and then on again and the power + blue light would come on initially, then the blue light would start to flash and go off completely. Nothing else would work. Go away and leave it for an hour or so and everything was back to normal, but turn it off and on again and the same problem.. Very frustrating..
So a few days later I went for a long ride.. it was cold - frost all over the place & had the grips turned up to Maximum for around an hour and a half. After that they've been working fine again.. no problems, turn off & back on everything fine AND the temp up and down buttons work now too! So am thinking that perhaps they just had moisture inside them (cleaned the internals with metho) and needed the warmth of the system operating to dry out thoroughly..

i rode mashers bike a few months back. i like the heated grips. i like the thickness. but i dont think id have them on my bike...i cant after ive teased people about them for so long

Wait untill you're really old (21+), when it gets down to 12 degrees and your knuckles are aching.......


Maybe you could just put a set on and hide the wires really well and don't tell anyone?

Or wait till your hands are so cold you carnt feel the brake lever .Actually dont wait that long .I was like you Cam, till i got them . Now its the
first thing i'd fit if i was touring .

Cameron wrote:i rode mashers bike a few months back. i like the heated grips. i like the thickness. but i dont think id have them on my bike...i cant after ive teased people about them for so long

Just man up admit you where wrong and fit them. I am sure no one will take the piss...........Honest I will never have another bike with out them. My mate in the Uk took the piss out of me something rotten until I explained about temperature variation and acclimatisation oH and that it gets done to - degrees in the hills and mountain area? he soon shut up

It would certainly take some of the fun out of riding in colder weather without them..!

During a ride on Tuesday my oxford control box decided to get a mind of its own and it open circuited. Heat control panel still operational and changing settings but the grips receiveing full voltage from the battery. Made for very hot hands by the time i got home. Emailed the company i bought them off and have to send old contol box to them and they will send a new one up. Posted today so we will wait and see. The grips are only 2 months old

So warranty was all good. they have actually updated the controller so they sent everything except the grips . Very Happy

holdenman wrote:So warranty was all good. they have actually updated the controller so they sent everything except the grips . Very Happy

Great result