35564.1

The HD heated grips have a miserable life expectancy. Both my Wife and I have them on our road kings and I suspect it is just a matter of time before they fail.

I think the failures are related to the control in the left grip and I would like to figure out a work-around for when they do fail (other than replacement). There is no specific information about these grips. The diagram in the installation instructions is just a schematic; a true wiring diagram is apparently not available.

I would like to disassemble one of these grips to figure out how they work with the hope of designing a work around. Do you have a failed left grip you would be willing to part with? I can't pay you for it, just for postage.

Eric

 

Mine worked for about a month. $370 (Aussie) they cost me and they are complete crap. Dealer fixes them every service and they last about 3 days. I have given up.

 

Wish I could help you, but of course I had to turn in my failed grips for warranty replacement. Has to be something wrong with that control. I don't know why H-D deems it necessary to have an infinitely variable control as part of the left grip. BMW does it with a high/low/off switch and I've never had a failure of their heated grips in 200,000+ miles.

I have the heated grips on both my 2007 Road King and my 2009 Ultra. The RK grips failed in a couple of months and were replaced under warranty; the replacement ones have been on for a year or so and haven't failed yet. I installed the Ultra grips a few months ago and have only used them a few times. We'll see about those. I shudder to think about having to replace those after the difficult installation job.

 

Yeah, the installation was the longest 7 hours of my life too.

 

GO with these.. http://www.motorcyclehotseat.com/

They install in the handlebars themselves so you use ANY grip. The cost is low, and Wife has had no problems with them for going on 3 years now..Best 55.00 I ever spent on her bike.

 

yeah, i had them on my 1997 king and they were great. I expected the HD ones to be better as they were adjustable and fancy looking. Big mistake.

 

I inquired about the Harley heated grips at my local dealer and the parts guy kind of made a face and said , they last about 2 years from what he's seen.
I may check out Gerbing gloves , from what I've heard they might be a better investment.
The Beemer riders local to me kind of lean towards them for cold weather riding.
Mick

 

I've had mine on over a year now, no issues. However, during that year I've only used them for about a month.
Ratkiller

 

what are the gloves like in 40 degree weather and it rains?

 

The Gerbing's gloves are a problem in 40° rain, because they're leather. You can use overgloves, but of course that makes your hands more clumsy.

I like heated grips because they allow you to wear light gloves down into the 40s, and also you don't have to be plugged in to the bike as you do with heated gloves. The Gerbing's gloves (and all their other heated gear) are great, but it's much more pleasant on a chilly (not cold) day to be able to just turn on heated grips and go.

So what I do is wear some excellent rain gloves (with a squeegee on the left index finger for wiping my faceshield) when it rains (down into the mid-30s) and turn on the heated grips. If it's dry, then I use heated gloves down into the 20s, and below that I use both.