Hello!
Since two years or so, i have enjoyed my Oxford Hotgrips on my K100 RS- 85. The handles are brilliant, almost to hot! But the electronic controlling unit is rubbish... Ive read some forums, and discovered that many people have the same problems, the grips doesnt work.

I got a brilliant (?) idea, couldnt i make a "Flinstone kinda DIY"- rebuild, throw away the controll unit and simply plug the grips to the wires? I though want to be able to regulate the power of the grips, full power is simply to hot.

My question: would it be possible to simply connect a light bulb (or two) as a resistor, to reduce the heat in the grip? How do i calculate? The grips draw 2 A each (i guess they are connected parallell?), that gives a total of about 50- 60 watts. Is it as simple to just connect a 25- 30 watt light bulb to the positive line, and then get a 50% reduction of the heat on the grips?

Ive been thinking to have to switches, one main "on/ off" , and the second "hi/low".

Any comments?

/ örjan

I'm no electrician, but I'm pretty sure it would be easy to put a variable resistor in the circuit rather than changing a lightbulb everytime you want to turn up the heat.

Dont fancy the bulb idea much
The heated grips on my K work in simpler fashion
a switch feeds the grips in two ways

1 Direct supply for hottest setting
Centre off
2 via a resistor for not so hot

I cant recall off hand what value resistor is used but
the one I saw in the harness of my RT wasnt very bulky
and looked like this wirewound 22R 10W one
60pence locally



I'd try one like that or this

Cheap, more robust than a bulb and easy

Check out this Variable Grip Heater mod from the K11OG forum. It might be just what you're looking for.