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Anyone have a preference on these? I've got both sitting around, not sure which to run...
I've got a selkirk kit and a generic e kit.
I've got a selkirk kit and a generic e kit.
Grip heaters - coolant vs. electric
- Thread starter powthief19
- Start date
Ive ran the electric and they take a few minutes to heat the metal bars enough that you can feel them, You need a prety good stator to handle the load as well. Also (in my experience) you don't notice them at low RPM. guess the bike just isn't putting out the power? but the longer I ride in the hight RPM the hotter they get. They are cheep and seamed to be reliable. Im switching to coolant this year in hopes for more constant/consistent heating. Coolant bars cost a lot and ive heard there is some heat loss so if your already having temp problems this might not be the ticket.
R
AME heated grips on my 18 FE501 worked flawlessly last season. I turn them on in the morning when the bike is first started and leave em on all day, during breaks and dig outs. I've not had any battery or heating issues. I believe they have 6 power levels, 6 being the warmest. I run mine on 1 or 2, I wear uninsulated gloves, but do use bar gauntlets. The temps have always been consistent as well.
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Powthief19, I've had three or four sets of the ame's. None lasted two full seasons. As was mentioned, if your estart you can run down battery with frequent stops with electric grips. I prefer the coolant heated bars. They do act as small rad giving up some heat. A fair amount of plumbing with coolant but better heat.
Coolant for sure. Reliable, no dead batteries and a couple other cool benefits is they clear your entire bars from snow and ice and after you use them for a while you get to know what your bike is doing as far as engine temps go. Bars get super hot when engine temps are up where they should be, if the bars start to cool off, its a sign your engine temps are dropping and time to close your engine cover or put in rad blockers.
P
now that i've got my Selkirk coolant heated bars, what are you guys doing for insulation of the bar or are you insulating the bar? I'm assuming there is a significant amout of heat loss from the bar rather than the grips.... thoughts?
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I kind of like the bar covers that come with the TS bars. Adds a little extra insulation.
M
As everyone else has said, the coolant bars are better. I had no issues losing heat and they were a bit more consistent than the electric bar heaters I've used. More expensive, but with your t-stat (assuming you buy a good one, like C3) you can turn them off in the summer and not mess with the plumbing. A few of us will run a small diameter cork inside the bars for the winter to make the heating a little bit better. I put a bolt all the way through it so that I could easily remove it if I needed to. Works great.
A
I'm not getting the cork modification? I could just be a little slow today.
I made my own coolant heated bars (search the threads on here, there's multiple types/instructions) and they are awesome.
Had to change the style of bark busters I run as they can no longer insert into the bar ends.
coolant bars best comfort mod I ever made on my sno bikes. What I notice the most is how much better I feel in late aftenoon on cold days headed out, the bars are putting heat back in my body when I' tired....comfort and safety.
M
We used to use cork inserts in our handlebars on snowmobiles to help the grips retain heat. We use the same methodology on our snow bikes too. (obviously this would only be used for electric heaters, not coolant)
N
I have a length of tow rope wrapped around the bar in the middle
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I personally ran Oxford electric grips, they worked fine but they didn't last long between wire breaks and controller faliing I got one season. I then did two season with out heated grips and did just fine. My buddy was running the coolant bars from timbersled and his bike tipped over in the parking lot and the bar broke in half. Luckily was end of day not beginning of day. Turns out recall on the older bars, this is a known design flaw. They replaces his for free, new design is better. if running coolant make sure you have an upper and lower shut off valve. Why? Because if a tree or branch rips out your upper line you need to be able to turn off that full line so you can continue to ride without losing all your coolant. The upper one for ease of access through the day but the lower one if the break in your line is before the upper one.
