heated grips element installation

Hello; I looked over the Canadian Tire winter sports cacalogue, on Page three they list heated grips you can install yourself. I ordered the kit and recieved it yesterday. It includes two heater elements a resister harness and a three position switch. I thought I would take power from my voltmeter, which turns off when the key is removed. Thesse were designed for use on snowmobiles which don't have a twisting throttle grip. Waht I had hoped to do was to have teh wires coming out of the grips to the outside, then run the wires through the bars to come out at the centre, then make all the connections under the instruments, and mount the switch on the dashboard of the fairing, then put the grips back on over the elements.

I haven't started on this yet, and wonder if there is anyone here that might have done this already. Any help will be appreciated.

It seems like the twisting of the MC grip will compromise the wiring? I may be missing something but some MC specific heated grips may be a better option.

I have installed those heaters on a couple bikes for customers, and they seem to work well. Your idea of running with the wiring to the bar end should work, but , on the throttle side, after you put the grip back on, you run the risk of the wires chafing either on the bar or the throttle barrel. Also, if for some reason you want to install bar-end weights, or a Throttlemeister(or equivalent), the wires will be in the way. I'd suggest running the wires from the elements through some sleeving or heatshrink tubing and tape/tie-wrap it to the bar, on the throttle side leaving enough slack for throttle rotation. I'm presuming these are the self-adhesive heaters from Kimpex? One thing to keep in mind, if you should ever get the idea to use foam grips over the heaters, you won't feel much heat. The solid rubber grips work better. Let me know how things work out for you.

Hello; I pretty much destroyed the grip on the throtrtle side getting it off, so a little hold up there, I dicided to run the wires to the inside after all, it looked like if I had them going through the bar I would have to bend them at the solder joint, shich looked like a weak point. I'll get the new grip today and finish the job up. How do you like my idea of using the voltmeter as a power source?

Personally I'd look for something with a little bigger wires going to it, or if you can find a spare IGN hot terminal so as to not run down the battery by mistake.

One way that we remove grips is with an air nozzle with a small end. Just work the point under the grip, apply air in bursts, and use it to break the grip free of the glue, then just walk it off. It also works when replacing the grips. With a little practice you can get both grips off in 10-15 seconds.

I too bought a generic heated grip kit, possibly from Canadian Tire. I don't remember. I installed them on my '79' R100RT. I ran the wires directly up the handle bars to the centre and ran them out a small hole drilled in the backside of the bar. A much more elegant solution than running the wires outside the bars. I connected the ground wires directly to the frame. On my bike the heater elements were about 5-7 thou too big in diameter to fit. I had to file and sand them down to get them to fit. I connected the power connection to the output from the ignition key switch. They have worked just fine ever since.