Used review: R&G heated grips, £40
They work, so why pay more?
THESE are among the cheapest heated grips you can get, at £40, and seem to work as well as any.
It's my second pair from R&G. The first set went with a bike I sold last year. I'd used them for over a year and they still worked, but they never quite got as warm as most factory-fitted pairs. There was also a bit of a problem with the lead going into the control box. The outer sleeve had worked its way out of the box, exposing the smaller, coloured leads inside.
I've had this set since February, so they're into their second winter, and I don't have either of those complaints this time. All the leads are as they should be and you wouldn't want the grips to get any hotter than they do.
There are five heat settings and even at the lowest they're quite warming. It will be a frosty day when you need level five.
There's only one button, which is easy to operate with a gloved hand. Five little red lights tell you what setting you're on.
The grips themselves are not much thicker than the bike's original ones were.
There was no easy way to attach the control box to my SV650's clip-on bars so it's stuck to the top yoke, which seemed more desirable then glueing it to plastic.
A couple of times on a recent ride they switched themselves off. I don't know whether the cause stemmed from them or the current supplied by the SV. My remedy was to switch them back on.
My first pair I fitted myself without difficulty in about an hour, going for the lazy option of connecting both leads directly to the bike's battery terminals. This set I got a dealer to fit at the SV's first service, and they're properly wired up so they switch off with the ignition.
Ten months later, the grips have gone a little smooth from wear but they still do what I need them to. So why pay more?
Price: £40
