BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Hello,I have a 2011 R1200RT: The temperatures are dropping here with winter approaching.I have been using the heated grips.

I think the heated grips too hot on high setting. They are hot enough that they are hard to touch without gloves. With leather gloves, they really get hot on the palms of my hands. It is a little annoying changing from low to hi to low.

The question is:Is there any adjustment to this?ORIs there any modification I can do, perhaps with a resistor somewhere?
Regards,        Kevin

The Rider's Manual infers that there is only one heat output. The two stages low/high are the rate at which the grips heat up to the same temperature.

"The handlebar grips have two-stage heating. Stage two is for heating the grips quickly: it is advisable to switch back to stage one as soon as the grips are warm."

Not that I ride my bike in the Winter, I'd have to agree that the grips do appear to feel like they indeed do have two heat settings. The basic wiring diagram in the Haynes Manual only shows a two position switch and a coil for the heated grip. Between the two is the ZFE central electronics unit, presumably, this controls the voltage to the grips after that it's down to Ohm's Law.

Of course I don't know how hot your grips are getting, but bear in mind, in the middle of winter when the wind chill is high, when the gloves are wet, when you have your super thick winter gloves on...that heat has to push through all of that. I would be surprised if they are really too hot.

David. wrote: Not that I ride my bike in the Winter, I'd have to agree that the grips do appear to feel like they indeed do have two heat settings. The basic wiring diagram in the Haynes Manual only shows a two position switch and a coil for the heated grip. Between the two is the ZFE central electronics unit, presumably, this controls the voltage to the grips after that it's down to Ohm's Law.

The grips always have 12v applied to them, the ZFE will control the pulse width which if set at 50% the grips will be at half power. There is no clean way to control the output but a suitably sized resistor in series with the heating element will reduce its power. This reduction will apply to both settings.

Thanks for the replies, and the suggestions.
It sounds like I should stop complaining.  :-)

Kevin

If anything, I wonder if the low setting isn't warm enough. As has been said, the hot setting is intended only for the initial few minutes to get them up to temperature, warm up the innards and so on. After that you would normally change to low and leave them there. However, on a previous bike of mine, the low setting was similarly too low, so I would have to swap occasionally to give 'em a boost.


Just in case an owner of a later model is wondering what this is all about, the newer bikes have multiple settings so you can adjust to suit.

As an owner of the newer bike with the 5 I think settings.... today 10 degrees C and with summer gloves, level 1 was ok but maybe not warm enough, level 2 was too warm ,,,, didnt dare try any higher in case my gloves caught fire  :alas:


Bought some grip puppies today, lets see what happens with them on....