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Oxford Heated Grips Brief Review
By Pocketpete
Review Date 6th Jan 2019
Well they are grips made by Oxford and of course they are heated...
I ordered the Honda heated grips which came with the adventure/touring pack supplied with my bike. However Honda had none in stock and I was given the Oxford ones instead and a £52 refund as they were cheaper than the OEM ones.
They are supposed to be wired directly to the battery without being put into the wiring loom. They have an so called intelligent voltage detection method which shuts them off without them draining your battery if you leave them switched on by mistake. The shop told me they had wired them directly into the front loom. They always switch off and have not caused any problems.
The control is easy to use with gloves on and they get really hot on anything above 50% power. Anything above this level almost burns the gloves. I find them effective at keeping my hands warm on those long cold rides. They cost £68 fitted so they're not that expensive. The left one seems a bit hotter than the right one?
Since fitting these I have fitted the Givi handguards (Givi Handguards (HP1121) Review). This has virtually rendered the heated grips unused. The guards keep 85% of the wind and rain off and with a decent pair of gloves I hardly ever use the heaters any more. Maybe on the odd long run in winter I will switch them on to take the edge off.
An added benefit is that the handgrip itself is a little bit grippier than the standard ones. They are a softer rubber material and have worn away a tiny bit on the edges but apparently you can buy replacement grips without replacing the entire unit.
So that's it really, those are Oxford heated grips. They do the job, they get hot and are grippy. I would recommend buying them, but the handguards also do the job although they're not as much fun. The Oxford controller glows blue when switched on and turns red if you put it on 100% power. That feature alone really sells 'em for me. Having both grips and handguards is a bit of overkill.
What keeps your stiff little fingers warm? Send your review to ren@bikesandtravels.com
Reader's Comments
Ian Soady said :-
Even though they may be "intelligent" I'd still wire them through an ignition controlled relay. Won't take long and it could save you a long wait for a big yellow taxi* some time
*Other breakdown services are available and recommended by me......
10/01/2019 12:31:22 UTC
John S said :-
I've got the same grips and I agree, if you crank them up they get so hot as to be painful. Not tried hand guards as I don't think they'd suit my GSXF.
I've had no problem with the intelligent on-off system. I'm not an electrician but I managed to wire my grips directly to the battery. I even managed to get the tank off to hide the wire!
11/01/2019 17:30:06 UTC
Pocketpete said :-
Mine are wired to the ignition which was done by the dealer so they only work when the keys in. If I turn the engine off using the key switch they turn off within 2 seconds. If I use the engine cut off switch they stay on 5 seconds.
My neighbour has them on the 125 wired to the battery and his turn off quicker than mine. He says they work well except the are hotter on the right hand side.
11/01/2019 21:02:46 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
When you say "wired to the ignition" does this mean that they're just spliced in? That will put a load on the ignition circuit that it wasn't designed for so I'd definitely use a relay as wiring is normally selected to be the minimum that will take the design load. A relay will add only a tiny current; the hot grips up to 3.6 amps according to their web site, ie 45 watts or so.
However, it's your bike......
12/01/2019 12:15:29 UTC
Pocketpete said :-
Hi ian. I'm not sure how they wired them in, I wouldn't know how to check. They are a honda dealer so I would have thought they know the best way to wire them.
But as has been proven many times over sometimes dealers are not always to be trusted....
All I can tell us they are not wired to the battery as I would have seen the connectors on the terminals. They did say they wired them to the ignition as they would with the honda ones.
The wires disappear under the fairing but ren might be able to discover how they have done them when we strip it down for the shim thing. It will be interesting to see how they have done them I read there was an options plug add extra lights and things Maybe they have wired to that.
14/01/2019 17:54:35 UTC
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