Heated grips...
 

I'm going to fit some heated grips soon.....any particular ones recommended. ..? Steve

Ive tried a few and found oxford to be the warmest and the most reliable.

Whatever you buy cut the **** connectors off and replace with these.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/40093...D1104897156122

I've used Oxford, Daytona and Symtec Heat Demon pads that fit under your stock grips. All worked well enough, although I did have a few issues with the Oxford controllers when they changed the design to the fancy push button type (the older style Hot Grips were never a problem). Overall I have to say I preferred the value, simplicity and robustness of the Symtec kit.

However, just to throw a spanner in the works Steve, if you can justify the additional cost, get some heated gloves instead. Once you've used them you'll never ever go back to heated grips! The heat is instant as it doesn't have fight through the grip rubber and then the outer and mid layers of your gloves. The best thing though is that you can use them on more than one bike, or even in the car - especially useful if you have a rag top Series Land Rover with a Smiths non-heater!

+1 on the heated gloves. I've had many bikes with heated grips and nothing comes close to the gloves. I've ridden in the snow on Tierra Del Fuego and in the freezing rain in Alaska with the only warm dry bit on my body being my hands. You can also take them with you if you change bikes. I have the Stromsheild EXO 2 gloves.

Thanks guys, good info. I've actually got Keis heated gloves.....I mistakenly thought heated grips were far better! . I shall save the money and stick with the gloves. I ran them off a Keis power pack before as the XR650R has no battery. Now I have a bike with all mod cons I can do away with the power pack! And have them on the highest setting and not run out of juice! Joy! Steve

I took your advise guys and got myself a used pair of Stormsheild EXO 2 gloves from eBay for �50.
They are thinner and more comfortable than my other winter gloves, Richa Ice Polar GTX.

Was out and tested them last night.
FYI I have no handguards on the XTX and the temp was around 3�C.

After an hour of riding my fingertips were cold, but toasty, almost sweaty, further up. I guess it was the balancing point between cold fingertips and warm hands.
All in all they worked way better than the Richa gloves specially considering that they are thinner and more comfortable. With the Richa my hands are literally frozen after an hour and I have to stop. With the stormshield, the thought of stopping didn't cross my mind, I could just keep on riding. I will install handguards on the XTX down the line and I expect that to improve the gloves' performance even more by deflecting the cold winds.

To round up I'm very satisfied with the purchase and looking into getting the stormshield heated vest that connects to the existing wiring of the gloves with the splitter cable.

Im getting hand guards for exactly the reason of wind blast. I have then on another bike and even without heated gloves they make a difference.

I'm running handguards and heated grips, works a treat. The bike had motrax heated grips but only one was working when I got it, replaced the faulty one with an r+g and it's toasty so I'll probably look at going for the full r+g at some point

My bike came with heated grips and yes they're lovely, but in real cold the problem is the outside of the fingers facing the road. Hand guards certainly help but heated gloves sound awfully nice and correct this. I had to use my bike in February on the m4 for a 2 hour trip. It was -2 which with wind chill factor more like -15. I never ever want to do that again, even with my hand guards and gloves. When your fingers stop working you're in danger territory.

Heated gloves really come into their own in conditions like you describe, particularly if you find you're on tight roads and/or in urban areas, when you're continually on the clutch and brakes (and probably resting a finger or two on the levers when you're not). Heated grips are bu99er all use in this situation as your fingers aren't anywhere near the source of heat!