to be overkill. I had to cut them off, using a chisel, knife and screwdriver. Then there was the task of getting all the epoxy off the bars themselves. I opted to get another throttle tube for the right-hand bar- there was no way I could get the old grip off the throttle tube without destroying it. Tellingly, Oxford supplies a small tube of superglue to secure the grips in place rather than a super strong epoxy. I ' ll be keeping the epoxy away from any grips going forwards. Lesson learnt. Old grips off, there was still a bit of work to get the new grips on as they were a little tight on the bars and throttle tube, but nothing some sandpaper and a half-round file couldn ' t fix with a bit of elbow grease. Getting the wiring in place was simple enough as I just traced the routing of the previous install. Doing this as a fresh install would need more thought, as well as possibly removing the tank and bodywork. The build quality has gone up since my old grips were made, with standard push-connectors being replaced with screwtogether, sealed waterproof connectors.
was enough to keep my hands warm, but a higher setting was needed to get some heat through the insulation. There was plenty of heat on the high setting even in sub-zero
temps on the way home over the Lewis Pass. I connected mine directly to the battery, so I didn ' t have the ' intelligent heat setting memory ' which warms the grips to the same heat as on the last ride. Even though the grips are directly wired to the battery, a voltage sensing system switches them off when the voltage drops( such as when you stop the bike) stopping any flat battery moments. My bike possibly has a slightly low voltage at idle as the grips were turning off when the bike was on tick-over at junctions, but came on again when the revs went up. If I get another five to 10 years out of these, I ' ll be more than happy. They have a good heat range to cover everything from cool summer mornings in light gloves all the way to sub-zero days in thick winter gloves.
OXFORD HOTGRIPS Premium $ 219. 90 Evo $ 319. 90 Pro $ 419. 90 Click here for more info.
Above / below: The development progress between the old v8 and the new v9.
OPERATION The bar-mounted controller has five preprogrammed temperature settings that work on a thermostat, so the temp stays at what you set it( five steps between 35 and 45-degrees). With thin summer gloves, the lowest setting
44 KIWI RIDER