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Grips Tips
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Heated Grips

• I have the Hondaline heated grips and love 'um. They rate a 10. They are not any larger in diameter than the stock grips. You could have the best of both worlds, for far less money than buying the heated Hondaline grips, giving you a larger diameter....... Install the Kuryakyn grips, then buy the inexpensive, but HIGHLY effective "Farnham Heated Grips" that velcro over any grips installed. I have bought several "Farnham Heated Grips" over the years. They sell for about $35 to $40 a set. They are a flat, piece of cordova type material about 4" X 6" with wires for heating in them. They just velcro over any grips. They work SO well, I had to install an inline switch, to turn them on and off. When summer time comes, just un-velcro them and un-plug them. I put a inline connector so I could disconnect them in about 3 seconds.
     
• I have always bought the ones from Farnam, WITHOUT the switch, then went to radio shack to buy the kind of switch that I wanted, and located it WHERE I wanted it. I used them on several GL1500's. The most recent GL1500 I used them on, I bought a small "lighted" switch, and located it near the ignition key, on the small flat plastic area. With a connector in line, I could unplug it, leaving the switch still in place, and put away my heated hand grips until the next cold season. This time around, I decided to buy the build in Hondaline ones, which I am very happy with, however I can't switch to some more comfortable, stylish grips like the Kuryakyn's.
     
• LOVE THEM! I rate them an 11 or 12 out of 10! I'm looking forward to Fall riding when the temps are around freezing and I can plug in the electric vest and turn the grips on so I can really see what they are like. I've used them a number of times so far, including one day while touring around the North part of Lake Superior, temps dropped to 8C (47F) with humidity (had to look over the windshield cause the fog condensed on it). But even then they were only turned up to about 2/3 of max. During that ride I had a T-shirt, electric vest (plugged in and turned on), insulating vest plus my jacket with its TWO liners!
    
• I am *very* happy with my "Hot Grips" brand heated grips. They are much larger in diameter than the Honda ones and are about 1/2 the price. They are about $120 from Venco and come with an adjustable heat control like the Honda units. One caution. The oscillations of the heat control circuit created noise in the intercom until I discovered that this was cured ONLY by wiring the ground DIRECTLY to the battery. I use the ACCY terminal for the positive so they turn off automatically with the ignition.

Removal

• If you wish to remove your grips without destroying them, You can very easily do so with compressed air. It's especially easy on the GL1800 since the ends come off and the end of the grip is wide open. Just slip your air nozzle under the edge of the rubber grip and work your way around. The glue will separate very easily. (If you are using one of those "safety" air guns which reduce the air pressure it may be necessary to make your own nozzle just for this purpose. However, mine came off "easy" with a safety air nozzle. You can also use this procedure on closed end grips. Just push the nozzle into the hole on the end of the grip and work it towards the outer edge of the grip (between the grip and handle bar). Sometimes (if you have room) you can slip the nozzle under the other end of the grip, work your way around (it's easy) and blow the grips right off. They will come off perfectly good and undamaged. You can put them in your "spare parts" drawer for another occasion, or, sell them.