ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ!
whatever I do here, I do on my own motorcycle and I take responsibility for it, my own motorcycle!
If you decide to do something along these lines and break/disarm/annihilate/exterminate your motorcycle, it's totally your own responsibility!
So, as clearly as this can be said: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE for your damages!!!!
31.12.2022
Repair a heated grip!
A few months ago I realized that the right heated grip was not heating. Or, rather it was working intermittently, mostly though, not heating at all.
Right side...
Left side... The measurementswere taken with the switch on the 2nd click (strong heating), around 3 minutes after switching on.
I bought a set of Ariete grips, specifically for heated elements at a very decent price, locally, from Motoraid.
Removing the right grip, we could go the easy way, which meant actually destroying the old grip, cutting carefully across its length, or going the slow way, trying to remove it intact.
Since I had new grips, I went with cutting!
We removed as much paper as we deemed safe. Using a magnifying glass always helps!
Care must be taken not to unstick or -more seriously- not to damage the very thin wire. Also, whatever yellow paper is there, I believe it's best it's being left alone. The less we remove, the better. I think!
In fact we went by this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBX2qWHfHHc
Since I have seen a similar damage on my original heated grip, which I replaced completely at a quite dear cost, this time I decided to repair it, if the damage was repairable, of course. This happened around 10 years ago...
Very carefully we drew the cables from the inside of the bar.
Before that, we removed the hand guard, the metal end plate of the throttle and the throttle cable. This way the plastic tube that consists of the throttle could be easily pulled out if needed.
We also moved the tank back, so we have access to the heated grips' plug.
We pulled the cables out and even though they seemed a little worn, they didn't show any signs of cutting.
Notice how thin is the heating element wire.
We started checking the cables for current continuity, using a multimeter. In fact, checking the black wire it was good from plug to end of tube. The brown cable however was not continuing!
We pulled as much as possible through the handlebar, and pulled it out of the left side of the bar.
Using two needles we carefully pinched the cable and tried to see if there was current continuity from halfway its length to the bar end. There was good current flow... So, the damage was not in the upper half, meaning we destroyed the grip rather unnecessarily... Well...
Checking the lower half, we had no such luck... So, we started checking the outer sheath of the cable for cuts. There was none visible, but we
noticed it was pinched a little at one point, around 20cm away from the plug. In fact the cut was right between the two needles!!!
With a very slight pull, the brown cable was cut in two!
Seeing the damage in all of the cable, I decided to replace it completely. So, we found a good quality 0.50 dual cable and soldered its ends to the grip and to the plug. In fact, we left about 2cm of the original cable at the grip end and another 10-15cm near the plug.
Before putting it all back together...
After just two minutes!!!
After 5 minutes!!!! Success... Well... close!!! We have to put everything back together again!!!
We reinstalled the metal end plate, the throttle cable and the hand guard. At one time we had to remove the windscreen, so we could tilt the handlebars towards the instruments, so we could fish the new cable from below. So, reinstall the windscreen as well and of course adjust and tighten the handlebars.
In the end, we sprayed just a couple of drops of WD40 and easily pushed the new grip over the throttle. 24 hours later I mounted my right side bar end and the bike was completely ready to ride!
I refer a lot as a "we". In fact my good friend Spyros was there to offer two more (pairs of) eyes, a decisive advice, and of course a very steady hadn for soldering!
Now...
For sale: Slightly used, badly cut right hand grip! Decent price: $149,99