Riding through winter or preparing to cross a mountain range? Cold hands may be a mild inconvenience or perhaps prove really physically damaging, but they don’t have to be an essential part of bike travel. Heavy winter gloves consume a lot of precious pannier space, but heated grips are always there, ready for use with the flick of a switch as altitudes increase and temperatures drop.
Daytona Heated Grips are designed to keep hands warm throughout the journey and are provided with a special ‘start’ function, so when they are initially switched on they warm up quickly. Once up to temperature, the second setting, marked ‘on’ provides continual, though reduced warmth. Of course you can always switch it back to ‘start’ at any point if you need extra heat. To be honest, calling the settings ‘hot’ and ‘warm’, might be more logical.
Either way, the switch isn’t illuminated, and if you ride through winter nights in the UK, it’s always a matter of feeling for the switch, which isn’t that convenient. I presume you won’t plan to travel at night when abroad, but the ‘Oxford’ set I used on a previous bike had a tiny red light that used to glow, which was really good to avoid fumbling.
You may ask why I didn’t position the switch immediately beside the switchgear? Well, that brings me to fitting. The packaging blurb says “Daytona Heated Grips come complete with everything needed to install. Simple to fit and supplied with specific instructions covering Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki & Yamaha wiring….” I beg to differ.
The length of cable supplied is too short to permit citing the switch just anywhere unfortunately, and I’m really glad that I got TWS Vehicle Wiring (01793 327598) to fit them, because they didn’t come with a fuse either and because I wanted to ensure power would be isolated when the ignition was off.
The wiring itself wasn’t the only thing, though perhaps I somehow bought the wrong ones, but my Suzuki throttle tube also had to be ‘trimmed’ to enable the grip to fit. They are all open ended though, so fitting them in association with bar end weights or handguards isn’t a problem.
Moaning aside, they really do, do the job. The rubber is soft and comfortable to the touch without compromising control of the bike and it is designed to be impervious to the weather and thus perishing. The whole system is waterproof and although the switch isn’t the easiest to operate with winter gloves, that may not be an issue if you are just crossing the high Anatolian plateau between the heat of Greece and Iran. I had to do a quick trip from Carmarthen to Tyneside in January and I have to say, they were a Godsend, and worth the £59.99 asking price.
For further information visit: motohaus.com
Paddy tyson