Honda Heated Grips

Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
15
Age
62
Location
Farmington, Minnesota
Just purchased a 05 ST1300ABS and decided to buy the OE Honda heated grips. Want to share some information. First off as many of you know the OE grips are a little spendy as compared to aftermarket grips. If a grip or the switch every fail you will have to buy a complete grip set again. Honda does not sell any service parts for the grips. I followed the instructions and they have you use a plastic spacer when installing the right side grip. Do your own measurement and you will find that if you use the spacer and install the grip when you install the new weight it will bind up into the grip and the throttle will not turn. If you look inside the grip you will see a ring in the outer end that the grip needs to slide on untill it lines up. I installed the grip with the plastic spacer and learned the hard way. And as I stated Honda does not sell the grips so I got to purchase a complete kit again. I have contacted Honda and while they agree parts should be availiale they are looking into it and will be getting back to me. I will post how Honda handles the situation. This is the 11th Honda motorcycle I have purchased and the first issue I have had. As the say "the jury is out".
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
227
Location
ABQ
Bike
ST1300
STOC #
324
Dual-Stars are the way to go, $30.00 and 3 years of use so far!

Just remember that the left bar end will need additional insulation even though that left heater has more element area. Heat shrink works best, some have used two wraps of electrical tape, bottom line is that aluminum bar is a hell of a heat sink and needs some insulation.

Add a heat troller and your still money ahead compared to the Honda heated grips.
 

Marshal_Mercer

Bumbleberry + Crumble = Yum!
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
601
Location
Alameda, CA
Bike
Has new home
STOC #
6214
Heated Grips

jslarson said:
Just purchased a 05 ST1300ABS and decided to buy the OE Honda heated grips. Want to share some information. First off as many of you know the OE grips are a little spendy as compared to aftermarket grips. If a grip or the switch every fail you will have to buy a complete grip set again. Honda does not sell any service parts for the grips. I followed the instructions and they have you use a plastic spacer when installing the right side grip. Do your own measurement and you will find that if you use the spacer and install the grip when you install the new weight it will bind up into the grip and the throttle will not turn. If you look inside the grip you will see a ring in the outer end that the grip needs to slide on untill it lines up. I installed the grip with the plastic spacer and learned the hard way. And as I stated Honda does not sell the grips so I got to purchase a complete kit again. I have contacted Honda and while they agree parts should be availiale they are looking into it and will be getting back to me. I will post how Honda handles the situation. This is the 11th Honda motorcycle I have purchased and the first issue I have had. As the say "the jury is out".
I suspect that you know that the spacer is only there so that you will allow that amount of space between the grips and the control pod, then it is removed. Thought that I should mention it, anyway. If the space remaining between the grips and the bar end weights is too small, move the grip toward the control pod some more when the spacer is out, before the grip glue sets-up.

Also, you should have no trouble removing the grips: just remove the end weights, lift-up the grip from the bar (I use a Phillips screw driver), and spray some alcohol between the inside of the grip and the bar. Off they come. Dry-off everything and reattach.

Hope that you don't give up on these as they work really well.

Contact me off-line if you need to at mhmercer@earthlink.net

Marshal
 
OP
OP
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
15
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62
Location
Farmington, Minnesota
Got the call from Honda Today!!

Randy called me today from Honda customer service. Honda is going to do nothing for me. I am sorry, Randy explained to me that this is not correct. He made a phone call and called me back, thats something. I was told that Honda buys the grips from a company in Japan, imagine that. Honda has no control over the fact that the company does not provide service parts. ( being the small player that Honda is ) Honda gets top buck for everything they sell and I expected they would offer me something in the form of compensation and to keep a loyal customer. I have purchased 11 Honda motorcycles, 2 Honda generators, and 2 Honda Lawn mowers - maybe I am not loyal enough. My son races MX and I will be purchasing his new bike in the next month - will he be riding team Red or Green? Maybe Honda has gotten so big that they don't care? So be carefull if buying Honda accesoriess, my dealer told me parts are never avaliable. As a fellow rider please pass your comments along to Honda and your dealer. We all work hard for the money we give to Honda - is it to much to ask that they have parts avaliable for their product?

Thanks to everyone who reads this and passes it on.
 

Bones

Your Humble Scribe
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western Mass
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2014 BMW R1200RT
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I put the OEM Honda heated grips on my '03. They were not available at all when I bought the bike, and when Honda finally released them in the US dealers in my region (New England, where it gets cold often) weren't on the top of the list. I hunted around and found them at HondaDirectLine in Miami (where it never gets cold). Anyway, I bought the kit and installed them with the help of a buddy who used to be a Honda mechanic. After two seasons they died, all at once. Diagnosing the problem using the original instructions, it looked like the controller was bad. I called my dealer but they only found a part number for the whole kit. I called Honda Customer Service to see how I could get just a controller. The woman I spoke to said she'd look into it for me. In the mean time, I called my dealer, told him the story, and gave the service manager the contact information of the woman in Customer Service. In a couple hours I got a call back from the Honda rep. Long story short, she said to visit the dealer who sold me the bike so they could confirm that the grips were bad. I did, the dealer agreed they were bad, and Honda warranteed a new set. They arrived at the dealer a few days later and I returned to the dealer which installed them. No cost to me except some time. The service manager said he was asked to return the bad grips to Honda because they wanted to figure out why they died. Maybe my situation is different because the product stopped working, but Honda replaced it and paid my dealer to install the replacement even though I bought the original somewhere else and installed it myself. I give my dealer credit for working with Honda to get the situation fixed. It was basically painless. Don't know if all this information is helpful but I thought I'd share it.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2004
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202
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62
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Thousand Oaks, CA
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2003 ST1300
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4095
Kennedy said:
Guess that was good of the dealer to do that for you. I had mine along with the 12 volt outlet installed by the dealer at time of purchase. I figure at the very least now they will have the same 3 year warranty as the bike with out problems if they give up because they were part of the bike and purchase price when I took delivery.
American Honda warrants your bike as manufactured and deliverd to the dealer. They could care less what the dealer installed at the time of purchase. Does not matter if it is a Honda accessory or not. The "Motorcycle" and the "accessory" will have their own warranties respectively.
 

Bones

Your Humble Scribe
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Honda warrantied my bad OEM grips which were two seasons old and which I originally installed. Was Honda obligated to do that? I don't know, but the fact is they did.
 
OP
OP
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
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Location
Farmington, Minnesota
Honda Comes Through!

After several calls back to the customer service center my call was esculated to another individule who took the time to listen and understand my position. He represented Honda the way I thought they would be, very professional and business minded. He quickly resolved the problem and asked me to send the grips to him for a partial refund. As I installed the grips myself I felt I needed to share in the responsibility. My faith in Honda has been restored. Now if the snow will go away i can actually get out there and ride.
Again thanks to everyone for there comments and support.
 
Joined
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Honda Dealer

I worked for a Honda dealer and can confirm that (unless things have changed in the past 9 months) all parts installed at the time of purchase are covered under the bikes full waranty. That is one of the perks of adding accessories at the original point of sale. The same is true for Honda cars.

I'm sorry, but thankfully Norman is wrong this time.
 
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
12
Location
Cedar City, UT
Bike
ST1300
If it cold enough to need heated grips, it is cold enough to need a heated vest. A heated vest is worth its weight in gold, trust me (riding in Alaska and crossing the U.S. last October proved the worth of a heated vest to me and the wife). The widder system, for another $100 can add heated gloves tied to the vest power and thermostat. Now your heat is on the OUTSIDE of your hand where the cold wind is and not the inside.

JH
 

deanrd

06 ST1300a
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Dover, NH
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06 ST1300a
Can anyone tell me which connector on the quartet harness is used by the Honda factory heated grips?

I've installed the harness and Symtec heated grips, but I'm not sure which plug to use. Red, White or Black? I'm thinking White.
 
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deanrd said:
Can anyone tell me which connector on the quartet harness is used by the Honda factory heated grips?

I've installed the harness and Symtec heated grips, but I'm not sure which plug to use. Red, White or Black? I'm thinking White.
Not sure which connector the Honda grips use, but I used the white plug when I installed my Symtec's. The green wire is the ground, and the red/black is the switched 12V. Mine work great!
 
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
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us
Mine failed too and want to install kimpex which I just ordered. Can I just adapt the Honda controller and splice into harness? Any wisdom or warnings will be appreciated. Thanks
 

st13fundred

Blue:The color of which place?
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123
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Beaverton, OR
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'04 ST13A
Mine failed too and want to install kimpex which I just ordered. Can I just adapt the Honda controller and splice into harness? Any wisdom or warnings will be appreciated. Thanks
It is possible to interface aftermarket heaters with the Honda controller. Over the winter, I was able to connect Symtec elements to the Honda grip controller and am pleased with the results (good heat). The goal is to make the aftermarket elements mimic the same resistance load of factory grips. The factory heated grips are 2.2 ohms each and are wired in series, totalling a 4.4 ohm load to the controller.

In my case, I needed to wire the Symtec elements in parallel, which provided a 4.21 ohm load (clutch-side 7.5 ohms in parallel with throttle-side 9.6 ohms). If you can combine the Kimpex elements in a series or parallel circuit that totals 4.4 ohms +/- 10%, then the controller should be happy. If you can't, you may have to combine some external resistors with the elements to come up with the resulting 4.4 ohm load. Just make sure the resistors have a higher wattage rating than the total wattage of the circuit (because they will get hot).

I should mention my Honda controller is happy most of the time, meaning there are no blinking LED's when I am riding. When I stop at traffic light however, the controller will blink on settings 3 and 4, if I have either brake applied. Of course the bike is idling down around 850 RPM, so the combined current draw of the heated elements and the brake lights are enough to make the controller stop conducting (its a built-in safety feature) until I remove some of the load (release brake or turn down heat setting) or increase RPMs slightly (1000 RPM will stop the blinking, even with the brake still applied). I believe the main culprit is the Symtec element's overall resistance (a bit too low). At 4.21 ohms, they cause slightly more current draw than the Honda elements at 4.4 ohms. This is why I mentioned the +/- 10% resitance variance above.. because the Honda manual says their elements can be 2.2 ohms +/- 10% and still be within spec (2.0 to 2.4 ohms each).

So I think I have three things I can do that may solve this small annoyance: 1) I can increase my idle adjustment to 1000 RPM, 2) to reduce overall load, I can change my brake lights to LEDs, and 3) the controller may be trying to tell me my battery is due for replacement (it will be 5 years old later in 2009).

Like I said, the issue is more an annoyance than a problem. I am very pleased overall, because now I'm able to use BMW grips instead of those hard Honda grips. I posted a wiring diagram and some photos in the Handlebars and Footpegs section (in a thread having to do with the G2 throttle tamer).


Matt
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
23
Location
Bel Air, Maryland
Bike
07 Honda ST1300
I just had the Honda heated grips installed by my dealer while the ST was in for its first service. I usually put on accessories myself, but was short on time. I figured since they were Honda genuine parts, while it was being serviced at a Honda genuine dealer I'd get the pros to do it. Big mistake as they did a real sloppy job. Particularly on the right grip, leaving about a 1/4" gap all smeared with dried glue between the grip end and the right hand controls. The wire on the left grip was lined up to run out the back but the wire on the right grip runs out at the bottom so it almost interferes with the starter button and gets in the way of my thumb while I'm riding. It?s like they got the grip halfway on then went to answer the phone while the glue set up on them. The thermostat control was also mounted crooked and the hole they cut into the left dash to install the control is oblong and makes a nice place for rain to run in. I just picked it up on Saturday and had to ride directly to a function, so I?m taking it back today to see what they?ll do about fixing it. I've thrown a lot of business their way over the last few years, especially lately, so I'm hopeful... :(
 
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
23
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Bel Air, Maryland
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07 Honda ST1300
Well I just dropped it back off at the dealer for them to re-install the right grip. They seemed willing to fix it. At first they did try telling me the spacing of a 1/4" from the hand controls was normal because there is a stop and you don't want them too close to the hand controls. I told them the original grips weren't spaced that far off and after reading some of the other threads on installing the OEM grips I saw there is a spacer that you are supposed to use. Looks like it should leave about an 1/8" space between both the bar end and the grip and the grip and the hand controls.

Does anyone have any pics of their OEM grips as they look properly installed? Specifically a shot of the grips spacing from the hand controls? :confused:
 
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
23
Location
Bel Air, Maryland
Bike
07 Honda ST1300
Well kudos to my dealer. They fixed it without a fuss and in about half a day. Much happier now. I didn't take a before picture to show the huge gap and all the dried up glue but here are some pics of what they look like now. Still not sure about the wire on the right grip being so close to the starter button, but I guess its done that way to give the throttle as much play as possible without running out of slack in the wire.
 

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