I have been running a pair of ol cheepo grip heaters for 2 years now and they work good. For $20 I would say they work great. I would not consider paying seeral hundred for a fancy pair with a heat troller. One thing that I always hated was how the throttle side would get scalding hot while the non-throttle side would barely get warm. For those of you who are not fimilar with these they of grip heaters, they are two stick on heating elements that are placed under the grip. There is a high and low setting. The low setting send power through a ceramic "resistor" before hitting the heating element. It is a bit of a waste of power as it heats up the ceramic block a bit. This extra power I could be using for other things (like lights) as my little bit has limited extra power. But again for 20 bucks I will live with it. I have tried to insulate the non throttle side. Electrical tape, and even electricla insulation wrap. However the problem is the grip. Wrapping the bar thick enough to insulate results in not being able to slide the grip on. I guess I could buy two sets of grips and use two throttle side. On one particularly cold ride as my right hand was burning and my left freezing, I had an idea. Why not run the resistor to the right heater and no resitor to the left. I would only have an on-and off and no, Hi and low. That is fine. That sould even up the heat output. Do you think this would work. This last winter I took apart the front end of my bike only to find that I had ripped out the wiring to the grip heaters. Looks like the ceramic block had liberated itself from the rest of the wiring. I am thinking that I will buy another set of heaters and place the curret pair underneath my seat cover. That is if you think if will work.
For the last 15 yr I have made grip heaters for myself and friends. For 30$ you can make your own and make them as hot as you might want. Nichrome wire, heat shrink, cover with foam grip covers. I started making my own when I saw how shitty Harley's were. As far as I know every pair I made is still working. It's not rocket science.
My solution is to find an old throttle tube from just about anything, cut off the cable part and slot it lengthwise. I then glue/safety wire that to the bar (tucking the safety wire twists into the slot) and then glue the heater pad to that. The only down side is having to buy two pairs of grips, so you can use two throttle side grips. Upside is I use the same grips (Oury Roads, the big squishy blocky ones) on my MTB, so I get to use the pair of leftover left side grips on the bicycle. Win-win.
Not sure about the grip warmers you got, but the ones on snowmobiles have high (13Ω and low (20Ω traces. On the sled: Low = low trace Med = high trace high = both traces On the bike: throttle side = high trace clutch side = high+low trace Put some PVC heatshrink tubing over the bar, double-side-tape'd the element to the heatshrink, slide a grip over the whole thing... done.
I like fatter grips. So I wrap them with hockey stick tape. Once I get them as fat as I like, I put the grip heaters on, then some more layers of hockey tape. Works great, doesn't cook the tape, both sides are equal heat. Been this way for years. I'm happy.
Seperate traces. You mean two sets of power input wires and heating elements for the two traces. Humm makes sense. Thsi would avoid wasted power heating up the resistor block. Got a brand or a link. I think I might try two throttle side grips and beef up the insulating wrap as well. Thanks
https://www.denniskirk.com/race-shop-inc/grip-heater-element-kit-gh1.p595917.prd/595917.sku Like these.
Ther'es a common ground on the two, but yes, two traces on the warmer instead of one. OEM from Polaris is about $30/ea. $50 gets you a high-output pair from RSI: http://www.rsiracing.net/catalog/index.php?cPath=3 That's what I have on my sled, they draw quite a bit more power than the stock ones but crank out about 3x the heat.
I bought a roll of gasket material from an autoparts store. Cut out a rectangle, wrapped it around the bar, put the heater around it, and slid the grip back on. The grip was tighter, but with a little soapy water mixture on there, it slid on pretty easily. The gasket material is a better thermal insulator than electrical tape, I guess, because it wasn't very thick and definitely does the job.
I found rescue tape on the left grip works well...it withstands 500 degrees of heat...best way I have found without going to these which have a throttle and a clutch side http://lockitt.com/Lockitt/product/ACGP/GPST200.html try the rescue tape... Dan
