Heated grips take time before they will switch on.

[Throttled]

I don't use the heated grips that often, but when I do, as soon as I start the bike I switch them (Oxford ones) on, scrolling through the heat settings to the warmest. But today, they refused to switch on and I had to ride off with cold grips. But, after 5 minutes, I tried again and there was some sign of them switching on, as the lowest setting light flickered. After another 5 minutes they worked fine and I was able to switch them on and could feel them warming up my hands.

Is that delay the sign of a pending failure? I am thinking maybe it is a sign the bike battery is on its way out, as I do not ride anything like as much as I used to.

[kingmunky]

I think if the battery is on the way out, depending on the way they are wired up, the grips would just not turn on or repeatedly turn on/off if the voltage was poor.

How are they wired to the bike? Direct to the battery or via a fused connection? It is quite common for the control units to suffer from water ingress and corrosion to develop on the contacts inside, usually a replacement controller does the trick, or a good clean-up of all the corroded bits and silicone sealant all over the control unit afterwards.

You don't say how old the grips are, if they're not years old it might be worth an email to Oxford complaining, they posted me a new control unit when that happened to me.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Sounds like a bad connection somewhere. Maybe damp has got into it.

[Throttled]

I don't know how long the grips have been on the bike, which is a 2012 and came with them when I got it in 2016. It does live outside and it could be damp.

[Stu]

I would check wiring

I had a similar issue with mine that turned out to be faulty wiring

[kingmunky]

Yep, check the wiring and then if the problem persists, take the control unit apart and see if theres moisture in there.

[Throttled]

There is not much to see with the wiring, the wires go from the control unit into a bundle of other wires that are all inside a sheath that disappears under the tank. I will run it again in the next few days and hope it is some moisture that has now gone.

Now I have heated grips, I cannot imagine not having them.

[Blackholesun]

How long do these usually take to heat up (Oxford one ) 

[iangaryprice]

Mine aren't Oxford, I cheap ones off ebay, With bare hands I can feel heat in about 1-2mins, about 5mins with gloves on. I start with them on max (4) if its not very cold I will end up turning them down after about 15mins.

 

[V650]

My oxford ones take about 5 mins also till you can feel the heat come through the gloves 

[KiwiBob]

My Oxford grips start to get warm after 1 minute with bare hands.

[husoi]

My Honda OEM ones stopped working and won't be replacing them.

Instead will be getting heated gloves so it doesn't matter which bike I'll be riding and the gloves usually heat quicker with a better heat distribution than grips   

[billy sugger]

2 hours ago, husoi said:

My Honda OEM ones stopped working and won't be replacing them.

Instead will be getting heated gloves so it doesn't matter which bike I'll be riding and the gloves usually heat quicker with a better heat distribution than grips   

I tried heated gloves, but they became such a faff connecting/disconnecting them when getting on the bike/off the bike I quickly returned to heated grips. 

I have Honda OEM ones on the 600,and they are brilliant. I like how they go into standby mode if the bike is just ticking over, but kick in once reaching 1800rpm,or thereabouts 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

5 hours ago, husoi said:

My Honda OEM ones stopped working and won't be replacing them.

Instead will be getting heated gloves so it doesn't matter which bike I'll be riding and the gloves usually heat quicker with a better heat distribution than grips   

I have Gerbing heated gloves, which can be used with either batteries or hardwired to the bike. I'm very pleased with them. They don't get hot, you just don't get cold hands. The fingers and back of the hands are kept comfortable.

[Blackholesun]

Seems to be a few mins...100% was melting my hands ! 

[Stu]

Heated grips on the FJR where oxford ones and it took a few mins to warm up 

 

People report they get red hot! not in my case 100% was warm but never hot 

 

On the BMW they have 5 settings and don't take long to warm up on setting 3 they are too hot  

[jedibiker]

On 29/01/2022 at 13:42, Blackholesun said:

How long do these usually take to heat up (Oxford one ) 

minutes really

[jedibiker]

id be checking the earth part of the wiring, but if the battery is old it could be that. the bikes running power should boost the amps though to even light up the control so wiring seems the problem. I got my mrs R&G ones which were a very good price and get really hot.