Heated Grips and Auxiliary Fuse Block

[jao]

So I after reading lots of reviews of how great heated grips are I decided that I wanted to get some. I ended up deciding to try the oxford brand, and after measuring my handlebar diameter and the length of my current grips I went with the Touring version.

I watched the revzilla video on installation, and agreed with them that even though it comes with an intelligent controller that shuts them off automatically if the engine is off it would be better to have it wired to a relay instead of directly to the battery.

So after much research into wiring a relay switch, I thought it would be better to wire the relay to an auxiliary fuse block so that if I wanted to hook up future electronics I could just hook them up to the switched fuse block and use the one relay.

 

[jao]

So after doing some research I found an automotive relay that was rated above the max available surplus voltage I had available for my motorcycle, and it had a tab on the top for mounting that I liked.

I found a fuse block that would fit, along with a bus terminal.

All were found on Amazon.

 

[jao]

While researching attaching wiring I studied up on soldering, and discovered shrink tubing. Although I have done some soldering in the past I had never heard of these, and thought they were super cool, so had to buy some.

Since I was in it this far, I figured I might as well buy a heat gun to do it right (my wife was so supportive of my project).

 

[jao]

The next step was figuring out where and how to mount the various bits. I decided on using some aluminum bar stock (picked up from ace), along with some stainless steel fasteners.

The first part was for the relay, and after trying out several different spots I settled on this one just below the gas tank (it is covered by the plastics normally)

I then made a bracket to attach the fuse block to the top of the air filter box.

And although I forgot to take a picture before, here is the bus mounted to a piece of the aluminum bar stock mounted to the battery holder.

 

[jao]

Fortunately my motorcycle has a keyed on power source in the fuse block (verified using a digital multi-meter) for ABS (which my bike does not have), that I could tap into.

So I used some online wire gauge calculators to find the optimal wire size for the amperage and voltage and came up with 12 awg. So stopped by ace for some wire, ordered an inline fuse holder rated to handle up to 30 amps, and some micro-fuse connectors (I ordered through a company called digi-key).

(Micro-fuse connector)

Here is my completed relay with the attached wires and connectors.

 

[jao]

The next step was to remove the old grips. I used an air compressor and the left hand one slid off very easily. The right one had a very generous amount of glue applied, but once I was finally able to separate all the glue, it blew of fairly easily too. This left me with a bare bar on one side, and a throttle body on the other side with a lip on the end whose diameter was a little too large for the heated grip to slide over.

 

[jao]

After about a half hour, and lots of encouragement from my daughter, the lip had been sanded down to the same diameter as the rest of the throttle body, and the grip slid on fairly easily. The left side grip slid on very easily. I used the provided mount for the controller with the longer screws and spacers to mount it to the left side of the handlebar.

 

[jao]

Connected all the wiring together for the heated grips as well as connected to the auxiliary fuse block and negative bus. Tested them out and they got a wonderfully toasty warm.

It was a great learning experience for me.

 

[Tally Whacker]

I did something almost exactly the same for my old 955 Speed Triple. I used a Blue Sea fuse block to power my heated grips and socket for electric vest, with the relay upstream of the fuse block. It worked flawlessly for years.