This is what happens to ceramic resistors after 4.5 months on a motorcycle:
The pictured resistor is part of the low circuit on the SPI Grip Heater Kit I installed back in October. It only took three weeks before one of the connections broke apart from the vibration. I attempted a makeshift repair by chipping away at the broken end to expose enough material to re-solder the wire to. Two weeks later, that repair failed as well.
In the meantime, I’ve been using the grips on the high setting, which is about half a degree cooler than the surface of the sun. Longer rides have been a constant game of pain management: turn the grips on and enjoy ten minutes of bliss until they fully warm up and start cooking the skin on my palms. Turn the grips off and enjoy ten minutes of bliss until they cool down to the point of freezing. My hands ought to be as tough as tempered steel by now.
Still, it took me until this weekend to get around to actually fixing the problem. The solution? Check back tomorrow and find out!
The Latest
Recent Comments
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Is the solution to use a Heat-Troller?
Pretty much, though I didn’t go with an actual Heat-troller from Warm & Safe.
It looks like the resistor needs to be fastened to a heat sink (Al plate, metal bodywork, frame, etc.). That would also provide a place to secure the wires so they don’t vibrate.
It was.
I used silicone adhesive for my ceramic resistor.
Not that I need a resistor, I run my grips on high all the time, hot isn’t hot enough and low is too low.
there are other brands of grip heaters (like Symtec and Dual-Star) that don’t use a resistor at all- nice, because you don’t lose watts to the resistor.
That is really odd. Although there are heated grips that do not utilize a resistor as Tedder mentioned, I have not had that happen to any of the ceramic resistored grips I have or have installed (around 15 of them). I even double checked today before making the comment as a dozen of the bikes are here (I share garage space).
Perhaps yours was mounted on a part of the bike that was prone to excessive vibration? Did you zip tie it to the frame? Was it close to the spark plug wires? I zip tie them to a rubber hose or with some other wiring with thick insulation.
Here are some other options
1. Symtec heaters
2. Wire it up with a switch to switch between parallel and series forgoing the resistor all together (and thus reducing power draw when on the low setting)
3. Use some sort of PWM controller, no need to spend the bucks on a WnS heat troller, you can get a PWM controller from many switch manufacturers. Cole Hersee makes a nice one, it’s actually the same one Hot Grips sells. I found a nice one for $20 that is good up to 12 amps, which is enough to a heated jacket. I’ll have to figure out where from, it’s been a while.
@Eddie: Hi Eddie. This post is over a year old, but thank you for your tips. As I mentioned in the post itself and in the comments above, I’ve since come up with an alternate solution (a Gerbing’s Permanent Dual-Temp Controller). The resistor pictured above was mounted in a heatsink mounting bracket that I kludged together.
I’m glad to hear you’ve had success with resistor-based heated grip kits, but after my own experience, and the hassle of dealing with it, I can’t personally recommend them to others. A power controller is the way to go.