Oxford Heated Grips

The grips with an extra twist!

I’m bopping along in one of my favorite riding areas, and despite the fact that it’s summer, the morning comes with a chill. So, I start pressing the buttons near my left thumb and light up my Oxford heated grips. The thermostat has several options. 25, 40, 75, and 100%. I opt for 75% just to get things warmed up.

A minute or so later I’m not feeling a lot of heat. I look at the thermostat and it has dropped to 25%. Is it defective? No. The beauty of Oxford heated grips is the thermostats have a built-in battery saver. It senses the battery capacity is too low to keep up with demand and drops the thermostat down automatically.

This isn’t a sign that the bike and battery can’t keep up with demand on a normal day – it’s a sign that the battery has passed its prime and, sooner than later, it will fail to start your bike. The advance warning these grips provide has saved my bacon multiple times.

The solution. I pop into a local auto parts store and purchase a new battery for my bike. Yes – it’s true, chains like Auto Zone, Napa, and others typically have the most common motorcycle batteries in stock and pre-charged. That’s nice, because you don’t have to wait several hours for the battery to be charged before installation. Simply buy the battery, go out to the parking lot, undo the old unit, install the new one, return the old battery to the store for disposal and you’re on your way.

Using a sharpie, I usually mark my batteries with the installation date. Turns out the battery I replaced on my recent adventure was 6 years old. It could start the bike, no problem, but that was the best it could do. And heaven forbid if I left my key and headlight on by mistake. It wouldn’t have taken long to wear the battery down to zilch.

30 minutes later, I’m back on the road. Time for a load test. I press the thermostat to 100%. After 5 minutes it’s still delivering at 100% and my hands are really hot.

Oxford grips are fairly easy to install, come with decent instructions, and are quite durable. I have one set that’s more than 10 years old. For those of you with lots of bodywork on the bike, it’s handy to own the shop manual for your make and model so you can better understand how to remove and reinstall the shell pieces.

PT/August 24