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Griso - heated grips install

Joe Bar

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Messages
41
Location
Middle England, UK
I've been meaning to get round to it for a while , but as the clocks change tonight and British Summer Time officially ends, I set some time aside today and finally installed some Symtec heated grips to the Griso.

I've installed them on a few of my bikes before but the Griso threw up a couple of issues I was ready for. Firstly, there's not many places to install the switch as there's no fairing panel or excess space around the instrument cluster, so a call to a friend who works in an engineering shop had this neat little alloy bracket knocked up, another ten minutes with a rattle can and it was black

griso7medium.jpg


Peeling the grips of was pretty straightforward, I just lift the edge with a thin blade screwdriver and give it a good squirt of brake cleaner, a quick twist and a wriggle and they're off. The brake cleaner just evaporates away whilts I got on with sorting the throttle tube. The Griso throttle tube is like a lot of the Aprilia and Triumph ones (I think they're all made by Domino an Italian components company), and has a number of ridges moulded in to prevent the grip rotating on the tube. These prevent the heater pads sitting snugly on the tube, so I shaved most of them off with a sharp blade, leaving just a couple at the point where the element edges don't quite reach. You can just see some of the ones I left on the bootom of the tube in the photo below. With that done, I peeled the backing from the elements and fitted them to the tube / bars.

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If you look closely you can see that the heater filament is a little wider on the clutch side than the throttle, this is because the clutch side runs a little hotter to compensate for the heat loss into the bar.

I cut a little groove into the throttle tube grip to give the cable an easier route out, and left enough slack before cable tying it to allow the throttle to full open with a little bit spare. When re-fitting the grips I give them a good squirt of hairspray down the tube, which allows them to slide back on really easy, but soon evaportaes to leave them firmly in place. There's a couple of locators on the throttle side, so made sure to get those lined up as the fit is snugger, and helps prevent the grip rotating on the tube.

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As I was mounting the switch on the brake master cylinder perch, I didn't want two lots of wiring running up to it, so I added three extra cables, taped them up and ran them down into the headlamp shell, which I'd drilled to allow the wires to pass. I also tucked all the excess wiring from the heater elements in there as well. Wiring up is pretty simple, earth cable, ignition fed power supply and feeds to the high and low sides of the switch to power the heater elements.

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I think the finished article is pretty neat and I'm always impressed with how they look like a factory fit, plus you get to keep the grips of your choice rather than the hard rubber type most heated grips come in. Previous sets have proven very effective and equally reliable, so as it's the first day of winter tomorrow, I'm off out to give them a proper road test. :D
 
That's a nice piece of work m8. My girlfriend has heated grips on her beamer r1150r and loves them.
I realy like the way you've managed to fit the switch. looks professional.
 
Nice write up and pics, the little bracket is very smart. I've got a set of these to fit, so will come in very handy :) Where did you take the live feed from on the Griso?
 
tuxracer said:
Nice write up and pics, the little bracket is very smart. I've got a set of these to fit, so will come in very handy :) Where did you take the live feed from on the Griso?

I took the live feed from the headlamp, as it's only live with the engine running.
 
Cheers, I'll have a go at fitting mine at the weekend. Starting to get chilly up here now, snow on the mountains again last week. Hope it holds off for a bit yet as it was a long winter last year.
 
Very nice job! I agree, it looks professional. Thanks for the info and photos!
 
I realize this was posted a long time ago but I just bought a Griso and want heated grips but don't want the bulky aftermarket products that are available. This is exactly what I'm looking for. You rock! Thanks so much for posting such detailed instructions on how you did this and where you bought the product.
 
I just finished installing Symtec heated grips on by 2011 Griso SE. Thanks for posting the steps you took and the pictures. The kit I bought was the Metric External Handlebar grip warmer kit http://www.heatdemons.com/External-Handlebar-Grip-Warmer-Kit-Metric_p_61.html The controller has wires that exit under the switch and are intended to route wires through the bars. Not wanting to drill into the bars and then out the other side (because I didn't want to route the wires through the bars) I mounted the slick (but kind of expensive) controller OVER the brake reservoir perch bracket. I just used longer screws. That allowed me to route the wires under the switch and out. I also ran the wires from the throttle heater element through the opening under the switch and routed the switch and heater wires through 1/4' sheathing down and under the right side cover where I connected everything up.

Four heat levels is nice if it actually gets too hot (which I didn't think it would due to the aluminum handlebars and no fairing). That was the thinking that lead to the following series of unfortunate events putting the grips on...

Due to the aluminum handlebars, I decided to put some double wall shrink wrap on the clutch side to insulate the heater element from the aluminum bar. That was fine and I got the stock grip back on with a good deal of effort. I then started to work on the throttle side, ground off the throttle nubs with a rasp and installed the heater element just as shown above. Put the grip on and noticed the grip was noticeably smaller in diameter than the clutch side. That's when a touch of OCD kicked in and my troubles began.

Not wanting to mess with the clutch side which was fine, I again pulled off the stock throttle grip. This time, the grip tore. :( I went ahead and pulled off the element (fairly easy to do with contact cleaner) and put a piece of shrink wrap over the throttle tub to increase the diameter. I put back the heater element using some 3M 77 spray adhesive (worked great). Ordered a new throttle grip AND TUBE because you cannot just buy a stock Guzzi/Aprilia throttle grip. You buy the throttle tube with the grip on it.

Got the replacement throttle tube and grip. Tried to work the grip off the throttle tube just as I always have done but this time the grip split in a number of places! :evil: It was like the contact cleaner ate through the rubber.

Now, I have to get aftermarket grips as I cannot keep buying throttles and grips until I get one off. I had a set of Progrip 717 grips and put the throttle side on. great! Tried unsuccessfully to put the clutch side on with the shrink wrap there. Ordered another set to put the throttle side grip on the larger clutch side with the shrink wrap on it. That was fine except that now the clutch side was smaller in diameter than the right! :? So, pulled off the heater element and put another layer of shrink wrap on the clutch side. Its now the same size as the throttle side. Put the grip on and DONE!

Now I have great heat from both sides, and somewhat larger diameter grips that should be more comfortable. But its snowing here and so I can't ride.

Conclusions: Don't put shrink wrap on the clutch side (but I cannot vouch for the heat sink effect of the aluminum bard sucking all of the heat away). Or...If you shrink wrap the clutch side, plan to use a throttle grip over there which will match the diameter of the throttle side without shrink wrap.
 

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89milleGT, not to hijack, but what windscreen do you have in that pic? any chance you could PM me a few more + some info?

Thanks,
-Andrew
 
Hey Andrew,
the fairing is a Dart Flyscreen. There isn't one specific for a Griso, so I bought one for a Triumph Bonneville as the Bonniville also has a 7" headlight. I got the idea from another Griso owner. Works pretty well actually. The Dart screen mounts with the headlight shell bolts and has rear tabs, but the tabs don't line up with anything for the Griso. So I got a couple of 6mm long (with 8mm holes) bronze bushings that fit inside the headlight bolt recess and used schnorr washers on the inside edge of the bearing to hold the screen tight with the headlight bolts without over stressing the headlight shell (also got longer flanged bolts). The goal was to keep the screen from moving with just the headlight bolts...which this did (i.e. headlight bucket bracket->washer->bushing->screen bracket->bolt).

I posted a couple of pics at the end of this thread:

https://www.guzzitech.com/forum/163/10138.html?start=10

I'd be happy to send more pics.
 
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