So I set out to put heated grips on my KLR650. What brand to choose? I wanted to get grips I would not have to modify, and possibly damage the resisting wire; so I would need to buy open ended grips to coexist with my brush guards. I also wanted a full kit so I would not have to find my own switching and electrical parts and I wanted at least two levels of heating. The Hot Grips seemed to meet all my requirements and cost $110.00 plus a couple bucks for epoxy. The vendor provided the measurements, which fit what I needed and expressed a willingness to bore out the ends of the grips at no extra charge. They even advertised a "dirt bike" model with softer rubber.
I received the package via UPS ground in about a week as promised and tore open the package to check out all the parts. I was disappointed with the hardness of the rubber. If these are really the softer dirt bike grips I would hate to feel the standard grips. Another disappointment was the bare three position toggle switch provided. Aparently you are expected to mount the switch in a dash or fairing area. The kit included a resistor to consume some of the power and allow the grips run on a half-heat setting, so your alternator gets no break on the low setting.
The ends of the grips were bored out as promised and several lengths or wire and a diagram were provided for making the necessary connections. Since I plan to replace the switch with something designed to fit a motorcycle handlebar I decide to make the connections to the switch via slide-on connectors soldered to the wires. This will allow me to unplug the provided switch and plug in a better one when I find it. I decided to solder all rest of the connections to avoid continuity problems.
For the first time in my life I was able to remove the already installed grips without damaging them. I tried a variety of tools to smooth down the ridges on the throttle barrel and found success with an orbital sander. The directions cautioned against forcing the heated grips to fit over the bar or throttle barrel. With both grips removed and the bars prepared I epoxied the phenolic tube into the left grip as directed. The tube acts as a spacer to take the place of the throttle barrel on the left side so the company can make identical grips for both sides ( I assume this is to reduce production and inventory costs). I then epoxied both grips to the bars, being careful to place the wire leads out of the way on the left side and in a position to allow full throttle rotation on the right side.
While the epoxy began to set, I removed the seat to connect the power wire to the battery. At Tom's suggestion I tested the wires connected to the small fuse block to find a switched power wire. I skinned a short section of that wire and soldered one end wire of a mini-fuse holder to the exposed section and wrapped the joint in electrical tape. I then soldered the grips power lead to the other end of the mini-fuse holder and installed the recommended 4 amp fuse. I ran the power lead under the gas tank and zip-tied it to the wire bundle protruding from the top of the tank and ran the wire through the tripple clamp to a spot behind the instruments.
I attached and soldered all the rest of the wires and connectors as directed and then attached the connectors to the toggle switch and the resistor. With all the connections made I did a short test of the heating elements and the resistor before attaching the resistor to the fork tube as suggested. The grips heated on high and the grips and resistor heated on low. I turned the forks all the way to the left (to check for proper clearance) and stuck the resistor on the fork tube with silicon sealant and secured it with two zip ties.
Since the toggle switch was naked I mounted it in a small plastic project box from Radio Shack and mounted the box on the dash of the KLR. This is not the best looking setup and I plan to replace the project box and switch with a more appropriate and weather-proofed switch, probably on the handlebar. After zip-tying the wires into a fairly neat bundle behind the instruments I had a pretty decent looking installation.
I replaced the brush guards being careful to maintain a space between the aluminum guard and the grip. In a tipover I don't want the guard to make an impact on the grip and possibly damage the heating elements. I had stripped out the head of the specialized bolt on the right guard during removal with a Cobalt brand hex key socket and Tom had managed to complete the removal using a star bit. Unable to find a matching bolt I tried a different hex bit (from a cheap Ace hardware ratchet set) and found the hex impression in the bolt servicable after all. The cheaper hex bit fit the bolt better and held well enough for me to tighten the bolt very tight to avoid slippage of the guard anchor inside the bar.
A couple of short tests over the weekend confirmed that the grips indeed heat when switched on. The grips are pretty beefy in diameter. If you like narrow diameter grips these may not suit you. As expected, the harder rubber transmits more of the single cylinder engine's vibrations than the Superbike ® gel grips I had enjoyed before the Hot Grips. But I am please with the operation of the heated grips so far and I will post more information about their effectiveness when I have more experience with them.