Coolride for warm fingers

Hi,

since summer begins to say goodbye in Germany i am considering these:

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Very pricey, but also absolutely unobtrusive and cleverly made. Any experience with those on a GRiSO? Mainly I am wondering if the generator is capable of handling them.

Two thoughts... One, be prepared to drill/mill out an access port in your bars near the clamps for the power access. And two, consider insulating the bar with a layer of shrink tube under the left grip to even out the temps as the right grip will be well insulated by the throttle tube. It's my impression that these inside the bar solutions work much better on snowmobiles as they use thumb lever throttles vs. twist throttles.

I've become a fan of the premium range of Oxford heated grips (Heaterz - Touring / Heaterz - Sport / Heaterz - Adventure) They have much improved tactile feel vs. previous generations. I put a set of the Adventure models on the Stelvio and vastly prefer them over the first generation KOSO heated grips that I have installed on my GRiSO.

My brother has coolride heaters on his Tuono. A proper solution seen from the technical point of view, but it will take a while till the heating reaches Your hands because It's heating up the handle bars too!

Shared on another forum. Neat solution but I like my heated gloves!

I find with heated grips the problem is warm up time. In the winter I stick to short journeys and up to now haven't found any grips that get up to temperature quick enough to make a difference, I suppose because the handlebars act as a heat sink. Certainly  the cheaper the grips the longer the warm up period.

Actually the warm up time might not be that big a deal for me. Usually when I do my morning commute my fingers start dying after about 5 minutes. So if thats about the time it takes for the heaters to kick in I could probably live with it. The elegance of the solution makes them very appealing to me How about the heat compared to normal grips? Same level? Warmer even?

I don't think you will find many grips that will heat up in five minutes.

Well yeah thought about that too, but handguards are just sooo butt ugly. The overall trip is about 40 minutes though. How long do they take to warm up?

All depends which ones you buy some take up to 15 minutes. Plenty of research required before spending the money I would suggest.

I have heated glove liners. Best money I ever spent.

What would be ideal is something that is warm as soon as you set off. Maybe inner gloves that can be pre warmed could be the answer.

Gerbings gloves are the answer

Yeah those Gerbings look good. But what a fuzz with the wiring and connecting to the clothes and gloves etc. The battery options might be ok. They say its one to four hours with a battery pack. Hmm. I guess more research is needed

I have the coolride solution on my GRiSO 1100 and am totally happy with them. It takes about 2 minutes for them to heat up, but then they are really hot. I have installed them about 4 years ago, and i would definitely use them again on a new bike.

As nice as the Gerbings may be, they are kinda over-dimensioned for my needs. With the wiring and all pricewise they go way beyond 200 bucks. And for some decent ones the gloves alone cost more than that, not including the controller etc. I guess the Gerbings make a lot of sense if you start investing into the full winter gear with trousers, jacket and even boots, all nicely connected and powered by the bike. But for me its really just my fingers during the transition time in autumn. After that the bike is put to rest anyway

Thanks for the feedback ervine, that sounds promising. How is it with the finger warming in general, as they don't heat the hands from all sides like heated gloves would. Is it still warm enough for outside temperatures of say 5°C?

@beetle: why the heck do you need anything heated at all downunder? Never thought it would go below 20°C in Australia!

Ha! -7*C mornings are commonplace where I live in winter, we just don't usually get snow. Where Beetle lives it can also get perishingly cold at night but it tends to warm up quicker and a bit more over the course of the day because he's lower and further inland.

This idea that everywhere in Oz is tropical or permanently hot and dry is bollocks. Come visit in August and we'll take you up to Jindabyne or Hotham and you can freeze yer arse off! Better yet we'll take you to Stanthorpe in Queensland and toss you out of the motel in yer undies at 6.00AM on an August morning. You'll need a magnifying glass and tweezers if you want to take a pee!

Pete

Hirnkrampf, the coolrides need between 10 and 15 Minute till they reach the set temperature.

hirnkrampf wrote:

@beetle: why the heck do you need anything heated at all downunder? Never thought it would go below 20°C in Australia!

I wish! It was 5° when I left to come home yesterday. At 120 km/h there's some serious wind chill as well. My hands were toasty warm. Add rain and the misery factor rises. Yes, you need heated gear here.

People get a lot of misconceptions about a countries weather. Here in the east of England we have very little rainfall and mild winters. Snow lasts a few days on average and summers are pleasantly mild. My regular 10 mile ride is possible 10 or 11 months of the year, any longer does need heated grips etc.in the winter but my days of rallying in the snow are long gone.

2highlander wrote:

Hirnkrampf, the coolrides need between 10 and 15 Minute till they reach the set temperature.

Do you have them on your bike? How about setting them to max for quicker warming and then to the desired setting. Or would you let them heat on their max setting all the time?

They don't need 10 to 15 minutes, at least not on my bike. I ride with temp ranging from around 10 degrees celsius and up. A factor not to be forgotten are obviously the gloves. If you have bad quality gloves, than you can heat as much up as you want, but you still will have cold fingers. You definitely can't compare them with heated gloves, they will indeed warm your hands all around.

All I can say is that I am satisfied with the solution, the heat they provide is more then sufficient for me and I don't have those clunky grips on my bike.

Thx ervine. I guess I'll struggle some more with myself and then finally get the coolrides. For my profile they seem to be a good choice. I'll give some feedback once I convinced myself that they are worth it. Can only take a few times with blue fingers and then I should be ready

You van always give Mark Peter of Coolride a call, he is very willing to explain everything in more detail. I have some pictures of my built, and also added them to the Stelvio of my wife. I will post them when I figured out how to do that here.

Good luck with your decision!

Do you have them on a GRiSO? Which size did you order?

Thx

hirnkrampf

ervine wrote:

You van always give Mark Peter of Coolride a call, he is very willing to explain everything in more detail. I have some pictures of my built, and also added them to the Stelvio of my wife. I will post them when I figured out how to do that here.

Good luck with your decision!