Africa in my gloves
One of the “gadgets” I’ve always cherished on a motorcycle are the heated grips. Those who ride on colder days know perfectly well that it is hard to use clutch or brake lever with frozen hands. And what if the weather decides to make a joke when we planned to get to work on a motorcycle, because the weatherman said it will be soooo warm… But instead, the morning will welcome us with beautiful frost painting on the window and -5ºC on thermometer? I have experienced this the hard way and I know that if I did not have heated grips, riding would be a misery.
As we are going around the world, not just for a month, we have a good chance of waking up on cold mornings. Not to mention a desire to see higher parts of the globe accessible for motor vehicles. Well, we have to survive the winter too. 😉
I did not think too long, which manufacturer to choose, as I used heated grips with other motorcycles and know they work well. Oxford Premium Touring grips have a waterproof, well-organized 5-stage temperature controller. Battery discharge protection switches heating off when the engine is not running or the charge falls below a critical value. Power consumption is below 4A when heating at 100%. And I must admit, little Africa appears in gloves at full heat.
The manufacturer recommends to connect directly to the battery. I decided to run wires different way, so that the possibility to switch on can only take place after turning on the ignition. KTM has prepared two extra sockets for additional equipment marked ACC1 and ACC2. Each is protected with a 10A fuse. ACC1 is under constant voltage, where ACC2 is activated after turning the key. In addition, both are behind the head lamp, so attaching the accessories does not require running meters of the cable. I connected grips to the aforementioned second socket, which involved quite of shortening of the harness. At the same time I have replaced existing connectors with watertight ones. Although the ACC2 is already protected against overvoltage, I left the genuine fuse attached, because the same socket supplies additional LED lights.
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