Date: 28-03-24  Time: 21:53 pm

Author Topic: HOW TO: fit heated grips.  (Read 49291 times)

John Silva

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HOW TO: fit heated grips.
« on: 02 January 2011, 11:12:37 am »
Originally posted by pointer2null on 13/11/2006

 
First this is only a guide so if you break it, burn it, snap it or set fire you yourself, garage, bike or cat that's entirely your own fault.

There isn't much to this HOW TO; fitting grips is a straightforward process. The only tricky bits is the writing.

If you plan to route the cable under the fuel tank you will need to remove this first, or if its almost empty you can just undo the top bold and then hinge it up out of the way. Personally I prefer to get the tank out of the way.

CAUTION: petrol and air are explosive in the right conditions and petrol vapour is heavier than air so can collect. Don't smoke, no naked flames and work in a well ventilated area.

First take one bike:

 
 
You will need to remove the bar ends and then the old grips. Depending on how they were fitted (glued on or just pushed on) this can be a bit tricky.
 
One method is to wedge a small screwdriver etc between the bar and the grip (you don't have to go in too far, just enough to lift the grip a little)
 
Now spray a bit of brake/carb cleaner up there...
 
give it a wiggle and hey presto...glue is dissolved and the grip slides straight off.
 
 
On the three bikes I've done the left hand grip was easy to just pull of but the right hand grip had to be cut off.
 
You will need a sharp Stanley knife or similar. Carefully cut along the old grip so that it can be split and pulled on the throttle sleeve. Go careful as you only want to cut the grip and not the plastic sleeve.

 
But here's a top tip..

to save cutting your grips off....wedge a small screwdriver etc between the bar and the grip (you don't have to go in too far, just enough to lift the grip a little)

Now spray a bit of brake/carb cleaner up there...

give it a wiggle and hey presto...glue is dissolved and the grip slides straight off 


Now fit the new heated grips. You will notice that the internal diameter is different between the two grips. The smaller diameter is the left hand grip and the larger is the right hand.
 
When you come to fit them they may be quite tight if this is the case then rotate them as you push them on this will make things a bit easier.
 
The right hand throttle grip should be glued on. BEFORE you apply the glue fit the grip and work out what position it is going to go in. You have to get the grip on so that the wire that powers it does not foul the front break lever and the throttle action is not affected.
 
This is how we arranged the right hand grip:



And on my bike:

 
 
 
Some heated grips are of better design than others I personally think the oxford ones are a totally daft design. The cheap ones I had before were much better (the power wire came out the bottom of the grip. Sadly the build quality wasn't as good as the oxfords and they broke).
 
When you are happy with the positioning of the grip remove it. Clean the plastic throttle sleeve and the inside of the grip to remove and grease or muck. Using the super glue supplied refit the grip with glue.

READ THE MAKERS INSTRUCTIONS!
 
THE GRIPS MUST NOT INTERFERE WITH THE OPERATION OF THE FRONT BREAK OR CLUTCH.
 
The super glue sets very fast so you have to be quick hence fitting it first without glue so you can see where it has to go. On the last bike I did the grip was so tight fitting we didn't use the glue in the end as it would have set by the time we got the grip half on.
 
You have to make you own decision on this the last thing you want is for the grip to start sliding round on the throttle sleeve when you are driving!
 
When the two grips have been fitted refit the bar ends. You may need to trim a bit of rubber of the ends of the grips in order to do this. Be CAREFUL when you do this as if you cut through the heating wire in the grip is wont work anymore.
 
Using the cable ties supplied tie the power cables onto the throttle cables or clutch cable. Before you so this on the throttle side just hold the cable and make sure the throttle action is ok.
 
YOU MUST ALSO MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THE THROTTLE GRIP MOVES FREELY AND SNAPS SHUT WHEN YOU RELEASE IT.
Both the bar ends and how the power cables are tied can affect this.
 
Next mount the controller unit on the handle bars. Exactly how and where you do this is up to you. I personally think this is another area where Oxford is badly designed the cables are too short and the mounting bracket is useless. On my bike I made extension cables for the two grips and mounted the controller on the fairing. On Neos bike we cannibalized the control box mounting from my old grips.
 
 
When you have mounted the controller connect the two power leads from the grips.
 
The next stage is the interesting bit connecting the power cable to the bikes electrics.
 
Remove the seat. Remove or lift the tank to gain access to the wiring under the tank.
 
You need to connect the power lead supplied to a switched feed. The lead will need to be fused most come with an inline fuse fitted but if yours doesn't you will need to get one rated at 5amps (check with the manufacturers instructions).
 
There are two places you can easily connect to the switched 12V on the Fazer. One is in the junction box located under the tank.
 
 
 
If you wish to connect to the feed via the junction box you will need to locate the main 12V feed wire. On Neos bike this is a brown wire with a blue strip that fits into a red connector block. Check you manual or use a circuit tester. You will need to securely connect you 12V supply wire to this.
 
 
 
 
The other option (my preference and the way we did it this time) is the fuse box next to the battery. The fuse box is easier as you also have good access to a decent earth point the negative battery terminal.

 
 
To connect to the fuse box, first remove all the fuses and put them somewhere safe. Then unclip the fuse box from the classis and gently pull it up to gain access to the underside.
 
 
You will see that there are several wires going into the box. On one side of the box there are only two wires and one of them is thicker than all the others it has several empty connections points next to it. On Neos bike this was the brown with a blue stripe that also runs through the junction box under the tank.

 
You need to connect the supply wire (red) for the grips to this wire.
 
 There are many different ways to do this. Don't go for the bare the wire and wrap it around with lots of botch tape. If this wire fails you loose all power to your bike (including the engine management unit) which wont be fun in the fast lane of the motorway. If this wire shorts to the frame lots of blue smoke will start to come out of the wiring. Blue smoke is very expensive and getting it put back into the wires will cost a lot of money. Not to mention you will loose power and the bike may even catch fire.
 
Use proper connectors, preferably crimps.
 
If you can get access to a soldering iron then the best method is describe below.
 
You will need to remove the bus bar that the large feed wire (The brown and blue one) connects to. This is fiddly but not hard.
 
If you look at the top of the fuse box down where the fuses plug in you can see down inside the plastic boxing you will see that the bus bar is held in place with 4 plastic clips. The bus bar with the feed wire has only 4 connectors on it the fifth connector is for the back up supply for the alarms.
 
 
[NEED A PICTURE OF THIS - ANY FOCCER WITH A GOOD CAM?]
 
Using a very small screw driver release these clips and remove the bus bar.

 
 
Clean on of the bays and solder your feed wire to this.

 
 
Refit the bus bar and fuse box and connect the negative power wire (black) to the negative battery terminal.
 
Route the power cable from wherever you connected it to the controller. I tend to follow the bikes main wiring loom since Yamaha chose to run all there wires that way so will I.
 
Plug the power wire into the control box.
 
Using the remaining cable ties secure any loose cables and connectors.
 
So now you should have connected the feed wire, fitted the grips and the control box.
 
Refit your fuel tank (remembering to switch on the fuel).
 
Test it. (Do not run the engine in a closed space.).
 
Hope this helps.
« Last Edit: 07 January 2011, 03:29:37 pm by John Silva »
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John Silva

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Re: HOW TO: fit heated grips.
« Reply #1 on: 02 January 2011, 11:57:29 am »
Reply posted by Alistair on 13/11/2006


Very good article, thanks for preparing that. A few additional tips:
 
A very quick +12V switched supply is fed to the brake lever microswitch.
This can be tapped into easiest by removing the switch to connect the wire (through a hole in the the +ve spade) and re-bolting it back, pre-assembled.
 
The earth can be connected to any decent bolt that goes in the frame but choose one that is not exposed to much corrosion.
 
Before assembly, it is worth connecting the grips to a 12volt mains adaptor to check that the heating elements work and to find where they are fitted in the moulding.
The warmest part should face forward on the bike (this also tends to match the recommended 'wiring exit angle' for the LH & RH sides on good grips, at any rate).
 
Firm-hold hair fixing spray does work well as a grip-glue and gives you some assembly and positioning time before drying.
Still wait at least 12 hours with any gluing, though.
 
Before starting work, offer the grips and wiring loom up to the bike to get an idea of what is going where, cable routing, pre-assembly required adjustments, etc.
Heat-shrink as many of the connectors as possible.
 
After assembly, the wiring loom should not be pulled tight during, or foul the action of, turning the bars from lock to lock.
« Last Edit: 07 January 2011, 03:33:23 pm by John Silva »
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John Silva

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Re: HOW TO: fit heated grips.
« Reply #2 on: 02 January 2011, 01:23:18 pm »
Reply posted by verynastyandy on 26/01/2008
 

Good write up Pointer2null, but yer pictures are crap.
 
Anyway thanks, I followed your guide to fit my grips.
 
Took me ages to figure out the fuse box, and I didn't want to wreck it. But eventually got there.
 I took some photos. They key one ain't great, I really needed a tri-pod, my extension tubes and my off camera flash lead, but I didn't bring them with me (done in my old man's garage as I don't have one).
 
So OK, lets see if I can post pictures. Hope it still works as it used to.


This is on my 2004 Fazer thou. I have two live feeds to the fuse box, each with a spare tag. As you can see I've pulled one pair out. To do this I slipped an instrument screwdriver down between each of the two clips, I then pushed firmly (no need to force it) on the flat of the rail (not on the rounded bits the fuses plug into, you don't want to push on these). An extra pair of hands is handy to do this (note old boy's paw).

Here's a crap close up. It should show the clips though. They just rest against the tags keeping them in place.




Couple of notes.
 
I removed the battery before I started - just good practice. I put the battery back in to check that that was indeed a switch live as per my wiring diagram. I then again removed the battery.
 
This is the feed to the headlamps and the fan. This is the un-fused side. The only fuse back from this switched live is the main 30amp fuse. So make sure you retain the in-line fuse supplied with the heated grips, or you could risk a serious melt-down sometime in the future.
 
Oh and naturally you do this at your own risk. It's got bugger all to me with me if it turns to shit. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of this information. Blah blah blah.


This shows where I mounted the switch as recommended by fazgen2, you can just see it behind the brake master cylinder.
« Last Edit: 07 January 2011, 03:36:34 pm by John Silva »
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pointer2null

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Re: HOW TO: fit heated grips.
« Reply #3 on: 14 September 2011, 07:04:54 pm »
where's all me piccies gone?

GhostCat

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Re: HOW TO: fit heated grips.
« Reply #4 on: 06 July 2018, 04:33:59 pm »
Thanks (again) for this guide, Johns pictures are excellent, and the fusebox is the same as my FZ1S. If it helps anyone to get the terminals out of the bottom of the fusebox, I've posted a picture where you need to slide the screwdrivers. It is very fiddly, I found that if I pulled gently on the wire from below, I could dislodge the terminals one at a time. Also bear in mind, my diagram is looking at the wrong end of the fuse box, better to use the 10 amp connection at the other end as per Johns guide.
fuse box fz1s
fuse box fz1s

t.guzz.rav

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Re: HOW TO: fit heated grips.
« Reply #5 on: 11 July 2019, 11:08:18 am »
Okay I know this is an old thread but and my fist post but had to join to say a big thanks to the above tutorial and pictures, spot on!  I have a 52 plate FZS600 removed my battery and fuse box and after a lot of swearing managed to wriggle the busbar clear mine had 2 spare outputs on the unfused size so have terminated both one for my fused 5v USB feed and another for future use.  Drilled a 32mm hole in the front cowling ready to screw in my USB feed.