Heated Yamaha Grips

[jim oneill]

I,m getting the factory Yamaha Heated Grips installed this Thursday. Can anyone share their experiences with these? Assume they do the job? Please let me know thanks

 

[Gary F]

You will love them. My bike an 2008 came with them being in Alberta Canada. I recently rode from Edmonton to Pheonix in

below feezing temperatures and my hands were warm. Just remember when idling your bike does not seem to produce much electrical power but once underway the grips heat up nicely. Enjoy your riding.

 

[FJRBluesman]

I don't have the OEM heated grips I bought my bike with the Symtec heated grips already installed. They are very good, they keep my heands comfy in the winter... along with large gloves. Althought that takes away some of the heating, harder to feel, but I can feel it.

Enjoy, and ride safe.

 

[FJR919]

The Yamaha grips are worth every penny. They are much more sophisticated than the average heated grip as they adjust for temperature change and turn off when voltage dips too low. One of my winter projects is installing them on my '08. I'm still riding the '05 because that already has the heated grips on it.

 

[bramfrank]

They're nice and they're more sophisticated than conventional grips but they aren't all THAT smart.

Aside from the fact that they are plug and play, the controller has 'infinite adjustment' and they have a feature that drops the power to the grips by 50% when running lower than 5 mph - - it's as simple as that.

They work very well.

 

[Further]

I'm sure you'll love the factory grips, I just thought they were OUTRAGEOUSLY overpriced. I think nearly $400, right? That's almost twice as expensive as BMW grips.

I opted for Heaterz by an English company called Oxford. White Horse Press sells them for $79.

https://www.whitehorsepress.com/product_inf...roducts_id=5252

Had them for a half year now. Used them through some below freezing days in Canadian Rockies. Lots of power. 4 settings with LED indicators.

I find everything about them very nice. One caveat: They supply a Crazy Glue type stuff to mount them with instead of the usual rubber cement style grip glue. It got me in big trouble. One of them froze before I could get the grip all the way onto the bar on the clutch side.

The company ended up being good about replacing the one grip I had to cut off. But the process took several weeks. I put the new one on with regular grip glue. It's fine.

 

[dbx]

Does the Yamaha OEM controller work equally well with aftermarket heating elements, such as Dual-Star or Symtec?

dbx

 

[bramfrank]

Does the Yamaha OEM controller work equally well with aftermarket heating elements, such as Dual-Star or Symtec?

One thing that makes the OEM grips interesting is the way Yamaha designed the routing of the wiring from the grips - the throttle side cabling is integrated inside a cast extension to the throttle grip and the cabling on the left side is routed behind and clamped to the switchgear housing - so there's no loose wiring visible anywhere.

The controller, chassis wiring and 'intelligence' are integrated with the ECU. I haven't measured the resistance of the grips themselves, but you'd need to start with the OEM package, then replace the rubber . .. and that's hugely wasteful. So I'd suggest that while it may be possible, it is likely not hugely practical. Here's a link to the technical description of the OEM grips compared with 'cheapies'.

Someone here found the set available on line for slightly under $300 - I got lucky and found mine on Ebay last spring for way less than that.

It may be expensive, but it is a very class act.

 

[terrysig]

For anyone who put them on themself, how "plug and play" is the installation? Still debating on heat gloves for grips. Did a quick google of the part number and found a low price of $309. While I don't consider that low, this thread and others see to indicate that the price is "reasonably" justified.

 

[dbx]

Does the Yamaha OEM controller work equally well with aftermarket heating elements, such as Dual-Star or Symtec?

One thing that makes the OEM grips interesting is the way Yamaha designed the routing of the wiring from the grips - the throttle side cabling is integrated inside a cast extension to the throttle grip and the cabling on the left side is routed behind and clamped to the switchgear housing - so there's no loose wiring visible anywhere.

That's no big deal to me. It's easy to install Dual-Star heated grips without showing any loose wiring.

The controller, chassis wiring and 'intelligence' are integrated with the ECU. I haven't measured the resistance of the grips themselves, but you'd need to start with the OEM package, then replace the rubber . .. and that's hugely wasteful. So I'd suggest that while it may be possible, it is likely not hugely practical.

I should have been more clear. I'm not starting from nothing; I'm starting with an '07 AE, so it already has OEM heated grips installed. I've only done a short test ride so far, but I'm pretty sure I don't like the hard, skinny grips so what I was thinking was to remove the OEM grips and replace them with Dual-Star heating elements and the grips of my choice, all while retaining the flashy & snazzy OEM heat controller. I guess it probably comes down to measuring and comparing the resistance of the OEM grips versus the Dual-Star elements.

dbx

 

[Niehart]

Grip Puppies would be your friend. They slide over Mama Yama grips and cost about $8.00.

 

[UselessPickles]

I'm starting with an '07 AE, so it already has OEM heated grips installed. I've only done a short test ride so far, but I'm pretty sure I don't like the hard, skinny grips...

Have you tried Grip Puppies yet? Cheap, effective and easy to install. I'm pretty sure that people have reported that the OEM heated grips produce enough heat to be effective through the Grip Puppies. It's easy enough to find out for yourself and might save you some headaches with adapting aftermarket heating elements to the OEM controller.

 

[rushes]

For anyone who put them on themself, how "plug and play" is the installation?

Everything you need is there. The instructions could be better.

Tip: The plugs for the grips are hidden next to the left front turn signal.

 

[ionbeam]

...I'm starting with an '07 AE, so it already has OEM heated grips installed...while retaining the flashy & snazzy OEM heat controller. I guess it probably comes down to measuring and comparing the resistance of the OEM grips versus the Dual-Star elements.

The Dual-Star elements are directly interchangeable with the OEM grips, they are the same wattage. The snazzy OEM controller will never know the difference.

 

[dbx]

The Dual-Star elements are directly interchangeable with the OEM grips, they are the same wattage. The snazzy OEM controller will never know the difference.

Thanks, Alan! That's the excellent information I was looking for. I also have a set of grip puppies on the shelf that I'll try, but I really like the idea of being able to upgrade the grips.

dbx

 

[SCWatts]

I had the OEM heated grips installed about a month ago. I have Renauld's Syndrome, in which cold weather makes my fingertips and toes turn white and get painful. On the plus side, that gets me out of shoveling snow. The downside is riding in cool weather.

The grips make a huge difference for me. For some reason, my left thumbtip still gets cold. Am thinking of adding a gloveliner on that side.

You'll be happy you purchased the heated grips. There's so much blood circulating through the surface of your palms and fingers that keeping them warm does an amazing job of helping warm you all over.

 

[ionbeam]

...I have Renauld's Syndrome...my fingertips and toes turn white and get painful...The downside is riding in cool weather...For some reason, my left thumbtip still gets cold. There's so much blood circulating through the surface of your palms and fingers that keeping them warm does an amazing job of helping warm you all over.

Excerpted from a PM to jim oneill:

Some observations in no particular order: If you take your hand off of a grip at 40-50 mph it will cool to air temperature in <1 minute and take longer than that to come back up to temperature. Related to this fact, the bigger your hand the more grip that stays covered and the warmer the grips will stay. When riding in the summer I tend to let my finger tips dangling and have a loose grip. In the fall this keeps them off the heated grips and exposes some of the grips to the wind so I have to adjust the way I grip the grips. I can ride with my summer mesh gloves down to the lower 50s comfortably, below that I wear a couple of different winter gauntlets. One pair is wind proof with heavy goat skin palms and fingers. The thick leather does not transfer heat very well so these gloves stop being useful in the lower 40s. With these gloves my fingers will get cold. I've got another pair of heavy winter gauntlets whose back and fingers are heavily insulated but the palms let heat through quite well. On my naked Honda & V-Max without heated grips these gauntlets still let my hands freeze at 40 degrees, but on the FJR with heated grips I can wear these gloves comfortably at 15 degrees. In fact, when I ride in the low 20s my fingers do not get cold at all.

If a glove bunches up under your palm/fingers the reduced circulation will cause some chilling. SCWatts is correct about the blood flow, if someone is getting over heated in the summer, one of the things to do is run cold water over the wrists to help reduce body temperature.

 

[rfespinosa]

For anyone who put them on themself, how "plug and play" is the installation? Still debating on heat gloves for grips. Did a quick google of the part number and found a low price of $309. While I don't consider that low, this thread and others see to indicate that the price is "reasonably" justified.

It took me about 8 hours to install, I am slower than most. The instructions say 2.5 hr for a shop tech, I would say that's possible but I could not do it that fast even for a 2nd or 3rd install. The plug you need to find is by the left front turn signal, it required removing that outside plastic. I found the most challenging part was the right hand side grip's throttle cable connections and housing.

I think you can do it, go for it.

Ron

 

[Hudson]

I got the OEM heated grips dealer installed when I bought the FJR and I have a question for those who installed their vista or breakaway throttle lock: how hard was it to remove the OEM grip in order to install the throttle lock? Any tips or tricks? Any risk in removing the OEM heated grip (like breaking the heat element)?