Replacing hand grips

[calif phil]

Kury Akyn makes a cover for heated grips, that looks decent and even covers the thermostat knob, the only things is they are huge, really adds a lot to the diameter, unfortunately I am not used to holding something that big.   

[Tom H]

tomboyjr brought up the Grab On brand. That was the brand I tried. A little cheaper than the Grip Puppies and work just as well.

IIRR the material is hypalon, the same as used on salt water fishing rods.

Tom

[Hossamania]

It's cheaper to throw it out than to inventory it, stock it, keep track of it, then send it out to another job. Saw it all the time. Usually sealed boxes can get returned, but open packages get tossed. I commented once that it was a lot of good product getting tossed. The warehouse guy said "you want it?" I said "Well, no." He threw it right in the trash.

From what I've seen If it's an outside contractor (Especially a big one), If a box or even a pallet is opened they no longer know how much of what is left and to inventory it or ship it somewhere it gets scraped. If it's there it was figured in the bid and was paid for. We recently had a new roof put on the plant. BIG building(cost 3.8mil to get it done). When the contractor left the foreman said"Do you want us to scrap the remaining stock or will you?" We kept it

And where is that stock now? Taking up space on the warehouse?

[tomboyjr]

tomboyjr brought up the Grab On brand. That was the brand I tried. A little cheaper than the Grip Puppies and work just as well.

IIRR the material is hypalon, the same as used on salt water fishing rods.

Tom

My Grab-on grips were actual grips, not grip covers. I really liked them. Had a chrome cap on the end, they looked like any other brand of grips for a Harley.

[Hossamania]

The shrink tubing proved a bit slippery, though better than the worn out sticky stock grips. Grip Puppies on the way, will give a review once installed. They should slip on nicely over the shrink tubing compared to wrestling them over the sticky grips.
The BMW guys love the Puppies, so they must be the choice of champions! If they suck, easily removed and on to the next product.
Eventually the heat will fail and I'll need new grips anyway. Just trying to avoid the pia of wiring them in.

On a positive note, the grips on my old '01 needed replacing too, went back to stock grips and they feel nice.

[Tom H]

The Grab On grips. Must have been the "Grab On Grip Covers". I did not know they made other products.  They also claim EPDM foam, not sure it that is the same as hypalon. They sure felt and installed like my salt water foam handles. I build my own fishing rods from a blank.

Hossamania. You "may" want to remove the shrink tube. That could make the new Grip Puppies a bit larger than their stock size. Also "could" make them slip on the relatively slippery shrink tubing.

As I mentioned, WD40 is your friend here. Slid a set right over my smooth but ribbed rubber type grips using WD. If you have a MX type grip with the large tall thin ribbs, might not work as well or at all. Once the WD drys in less then an hour, no slipping.

Tom

[Hossamania]

Another update, the Grip Puppies turned up early. Got them installed easily. Cut off the shrink tubing. The old grips are now worse than ever, soft and gummy from the heat applied to the shrink tube. Sprayed some glass cleaner on them and the covers slipped on with a little effort. They are thicker than I normally like in a grip. Took them for a ride last night, they are comfortable in general. I was worried about clutch handle clearance, but everything worked fine. They have good gription, easy to roll on the throttle just using a light touch. I will continue to look at thinner options, and I'm sure at some point the heating elements in the grips will fail, requiring replacement. But for now, I can live with these, they are not bad.
If anyone orders them, they probably need to be the Big Paw to fit over HD grips. Metric and European bars are smaller, allowing the regular size Puppies. Measure your grips, the Big Paw says 1.45" to 1.65" diameter grips. Mine were right at 1.5" with the shrink tube. Maybe could have gotten away with standard Puppies, but would have been a fight to install.

That's a whole lot of typing for a grip review!

[Hossamania]

Update #whatever: the Grip Puppies were just too thick for my liking, and did not transfer heat very well. Doing some more searching, I found some shrink tubing to repair fishing rod handles. They have a little "stiction" to them, not as much as the stock rubber grip, but not as smoothe as normal shrink tubing. We'll see how they do. Winter now, so testing may be minimal. (I still have a replacement set of grips that will eventually get installed, just too lazy to do it yet.)
I got the 45 millimeter size, but 40 would probably have worked, maybe even 35 but didn't want to chance it. Ordered from Amazon. $10

[Hossamania]

You cannot see attachments on this board.

You cannot see attachments on this board.

[Hossamania]

A quick update, I just got back from a ride, 30°F, heaters on, thicker winter gloves,the new skins worked well on the grips. Much more comfortable than the foam Grip Puppies, good grip with the leather gloves. Heat transferred very well. For now I'm happy with them. Update later if I rede them with no gloves before changing out to new grips. Will probably push that off as long as possible with the way these feel.