Heated Hand Grips

[el_walto]

Does anyone think it would be possible to make heated hand grips for a bike? This is more of a wacky question than a practical one, but I'm interested to see what deigns people might come up with. (i really need to go buy some winter gloves).

 

[ty cohen]

heated hand grips are very popular with motorcyclists and quite common. Several manufacturers make them. Also with heated gloves. Both run off the 12v motorcycle battery system.

I have battery heated gloves that don't run off my motorcycle. I have them wired up using 30guage wire and two AA nimhs that I recharge on a 2 hour quick charger that I can charge up at work. I lasts about 30 mins or so with two AA's. If I get three or 4 AA's I can extend the useability time for a lot longer. My AA's are 2600 mah batts.

 

[Doctorbass]

I found some on ebay for 20$.. it's the most common technic for keeping hands warm during riding. it's a simple heating thin sheet that you place under the hands grip of your bike.. generaly opêrating at 12V. I would recommand you to put a heat insulator between the metal handlebar and this element to avoid dissipating heat thru it and to keep heat transfer directly to your existing handgrip.

Doc

 

[velias]

I use these:
http://www.hotsnapz.com

resuseable heat packs in my gloves.
the small ones fit well they only last 20 minutes or so though.
but long enough for a commute.
you put them in boiling water to reset them.

 

[swade]

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on these heated glove inserts. Each runs off of 3 AA batts:
http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?product_code=HEATED_GLOVES&search_type=search&search_words=battery%20heated%20gloves&prodtemp=t2&cm_re=Result*R1C1*T#MyReviewHeader

Froze my fingers on the way to work today and I have pretty decent gloves...

 

[ty cohen]

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on these heated glove inserts. Each runs off of 3 AA batts:
http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?product_code=HEATED_GLOVES&search_type=search&search_words=battery%20heated%20gloves&prodtemp=t2&cm_re=Result*R1C1*T#MyReviewHeader

Froze my fingers on the way to work today and I have pretty decent gloves...

Well, you can spend $50 or $5 and make your own. Been riding my motorcycle with these diy heated gloves for the past two years. Thinking of switching to a 3AAA battery holder instead of a 2AA battery holder to get 3.9 volts instead of 2.6 volts.

You'll need about 10 watts of power or more in each hand to feel any bit of warmth. Anything below that, you are just warding off the cold and not "heating" your hand.

 

[ty cohen]

I use these:
http://www.hotsnapz.com

resuseable heat packs in my gloves.
the small ones fit well they only last 20 minutes or so though.
but long enough for a commute.
you put them in boiling water to reset them.

I was thinking of those as well before i DIY'ed my heated gloves, but I found out that even the smallest size was a bit too big to fit inside a glove. A mitten is okay, but I would never ride with mittens on.

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

Thinking of switching to a 3AAA battery holder instead of a 2AA battery holder to get 3.9 volts instead of 2.6 volts.

You'll need about 10 watts of power or more in each hand to feel any bit of warmth. Anything below that, you are just warding off the cold and not "heating" your hand.

pulling 2.5 amps out of even 3 AA is a tall order let alone 3 AAA.
I think you can fogettaboutit, the voltage will sag to nothing.
I'm impressed that you're getting useful runtime with 2 AA, it's not many brands of AA that can sustain near 4 amps for long.

 

[swade]

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on these heated glove inserts. Each runs off of 3 AA batts:
http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?product_code=HEATED_GLOVES&search_type=search&search_words=battery%20heated%20gloves&prodtemp=t2&cm_re=Result*R1C1*T#MyReviewHeader

Froze my fingers on the way to work today and I have pretty decent gloves...

Well, you can spend $50 or $5 and make your own. Been riding my motorcycle with these diy heated gloves for the past two years. Thinking of switching to a 3AAA battery holder instead of a 2AA battery holder to get 3.9 volts instead of 2.6 volts.

You'll need about 10 watts of power or more in each hand to feel any bit of warmth. Anything below that, you are just warding off the cold and not "heating" your hand.

How did you build it? Where would one find the parts that warm up the hand?

 

[ty cohen]

I pulled about 3.4 or 3.6 something amps the last time I checked, but I can't really remember. I am pretty sure it was around 9 watts of power using ohms law, so minus the internal losses and the wire losses, it's in that neighbourhood.

I have cheap made in China AA's that are 2600 mah. I can get about 30 mins or so, but I have never taken it that far. Mostly it's in the neighbourhood of around 20 mins. The voltage drops to about 2.0 volts per pair after that run time.

I wear them on my motorcycle commute to work which takes me about 15 - 20 mins or so. I use a rapid charger at work and the get fully charged by noon time. I can wear them back home on the commute, but the temps haven't dropped so far down yet for me to do so. It only gets cold in the morning commute. I used them last winter, but I never wore them on a daily basis then. Most likely I will this year though.

I use about 38 inches of 30 guage wiring sewn into my inner glove liner and that gets attached to the 2 AA battery holder. which then gets velcro'd to my leather motorcycle gloves, (which I wear over the glove liner.) I recently shortened the wiring to 36 inches and it feels a bit warmer. I have no fuse, it is a straight shorting of the batteries using 36 inches of 30 guage wiring. One time something happened with the internal glove wiring and for some reason I got a super hot spot next to my thumb. I had to stop off on the side of the road to disconnect it. It was so hot, it left a red mark on my hand for a few hours.

Cost of two lengths of 36 inches of 30 guage wire: $0.50 ( I got a 50 ft spool for about $2.50, which was cheaper than buying it by the foot)
Cost of two AA battery holders with on /off switch: $2.50
Cost of 4 AA batteries: ~4.00 from ebay if you buy them in packs of 12 or 16 or more. (I got a whole bunch lying around home, plus a couple of chargers already)
Having warm hands during my ride to work: Priceless!!!!

I am rotating between 8 AA's so I don't know if I severely shortened out the life expectancy of my batts yet. These are pretty much brand new AA's and I've gone through about 30 cycles so far with them. I really don't care if I burn out the usefulness of my AA's because I have lots at home, plus my place of work gives them out for free if I need them for whatever reason, no questions asked. ( But the majority of my batts are ebay batts)

 

[mikebikerad]

I got these in the mail this afternoon.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/170925769835?item=170925769835&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME:L:OU:US:3160&vxp=mtr

Put them on and went for a ride tonight. On 15 volts they feel nice and toasty with gloves on. Best accessory I could ever get for winter riding hands down :lol: I wasn't sure how well they would work with twist throttle but I used a zip tie as a strain relief on the connection to the heating element..... all seems good.

 

[johnm]

Atf hotgrips work great low high settings. You can ride in cold weather with smaller gloves.don't use hardness