Heated Grips: Oxford v. OEM v. Other?

I had the Oxford on my last bike and the quality was very good. The only downside was the bulky controller. Other than that, I was impressed by the quality and fit.

I can't stand tacked-on stuff, so without even seeing them, for what has been commented, only the OEM would be acceptable to me... if at all. Any pictures of those? I hope don't need them, since I don't plan to tour or anything like that, but would like to know if those OEMs are even an option. Is there an empty connector somewhere there, like for the OEM QS? How about the grips themselves? Are they any thicker than the standard ones? And more importantly, do you lose any grip surface? If that thing reduces the already small space (4-1/4"), it'd also be a deal-breaker to me. I'd just rely on better gloves to prevent cold hands in cases of weather turning colder than forecasted. I wouldn't schedule a ride in cold weather on purpose. Just like with rain, I don't find pleasure in riding in cold weather, especially with the stock super sport tires, since grip is very limited, and traction loss is pretty sudden. Not very safe. Once I have sport-touring rubber (Pilot Road 5s, most likely), it'll be a bit less critical, but still, not a good idea to push the bike in the twisties even mildly. That's also in part why I chose a naked this time. Don't need a sport-touring machine without touring anymore, and since I don't like to ride in either rain or cold on purpose, this bike should be perfect for my needs. Might just have to carry an extra pair of gloves in case weather turns nasty all of a sudden. And I think my new HELD Goretex gloves might be the ticket. Looking forward to my first mountain/twisty outing on my new bike, but weather screwed up my plans this week for the TX Hill Country. Might have to push it until next year. Oh well. At least my bike is all decked the way I want it, except the seat, which I'll order this week.

Yeah, I definitely prefer the look of the OEM controller. However, I read here and at least one other place that the grips may not be warm enough and the right side may not heat evenly. If you got a good set, I am still concerned with potential QC issues -- something I almost never worry about w/ yamaha.

I went ahead and ordered a set of the oxford grips. If I can't deal w/ the extra controller I'll switch to the OEMs after a season.

I have the OEM heaters, put them on in March when we were starting to get out of winter temps. Started using the grips again this week now that we're heading into cooler temps again. I am definitively in the camp of "meh..." My only problem, I've never had heated grips before so I have no basis for my comparison. They heat unevenly from left grip to right grip, they heat up the most where the palms are resting on the grip and not where my fingertips are (which is where I need the most heat). And if you're hitting highway speeds, might as well not even have them on because you'll never really feel them. However, I'm not really sure what the expectations are in terms of how cold is just too cold for the grips to be effective, regardless of which brand. I rode to work this morning and it was mid-30's and they were useless above 50mph. If any heated grip is legitimately not really intended to bake my hands when doing 80mph down the highway in 35 degree temps, then I guess the OEM grips are not so bad.

I'm looking at getting some heated glove liners as I don't want to replace my winter gloves yet again. All the heated gloves on the market offer zero real protection from what I've seen.

i think i definitely remember seeing your initial writeup on them. I don't know if the oxfords will be much better, and I also commute at 65-75 mph, so I may be too optimistic on how these improve ride quality. I've heard the same thing about heated gloves lacking protection. 

Unless you're blind, the left grip of the OEM heated grips are crooked (by design, but crooked nonetheless). The controller is much wider at the top than facing the rider. Maybe that's not your definition of crooked, but it is to me . Anyway, with the description of their performance, I'll never install them, so it doesn't matter anymore if they're crooked or not. He he.

I've owned many BMW motorcycles, and all of them actually started burning my hands in high, even with foam grips in place, and near freezing temperatures. I never ride in freezing temperatures by choice, but had to on one trip that forecasters got all wrong. Had to leave with lots of snow and ice on the highway. It was the worst ride of my life, but fortunately, didn't fall. At any rate, that's the coldest I had tested the heated grips, and still had to lower their setting to 'min' while doing about 70 at 35ºF, once it was dry. And no, none of those bikes had any protection for the hands. Had other bikes with heated grips, but never really tested them like on the BMWs. Both the FJR and Concours 1400 worked better than the description of the MT-10, but nowhere close to the BMWs. Those are by far the most powerful stock heated grips, and are very well integrated. But those bikes actually have alternators, not generators. On my last BMW (2015 R1200RT), it didn't even have a cluster switch; everything was controlled electronically via menus, at least on my fully-optioned example. Same with the heated seats, stereo, bluetooth, navigation, riding modes, TC and ABS settings, etc. It only had the typical controls, like cruise, turn-signals, horn, etc. I really welcome the relative simplicity of my FZ-10 .

I've triple-checked mine over the past months; still aren't all that effective, IMHO.

In regards to the Oxford unit, I ordered a set since they worked very well on my ninja 300. When I got them in though I realized that the mounting hardware that comes with the grips will not allow the controller to be mounted out of the box. The original design is meant to be inboard of the left grip. The problem with this is that the fz10s clutch bracket has only a single bolt. On top of that the bracket is at a 65 degree angle so even if you don't care about using only one bolt, it's going to hit the stock mirrors.

On my ninja I had it on the brake side, the layout of which allowed it to overlap the shell for the ignition group without blocking the kill switch. On the fz the brake bracket and the ignition group is also much bigger meaning it will not fit at all.

The solution I had was to either rbuy or have made a 10mm OD 6mm ID x 25mm metal bushing to space it far enough to be above the kill switch. Problem with that is I'd still have to deal with the bracket being off center and blocking the switch partially.

The solution I ultimately came up with was to design a 2 piece spacer/centered mount that I 3d printed. I have yet to do the install but the test fit was good and I can torque it down tight enough to prevent any movement in the lever. I'm probably going to get some sleeves made and redesign the spacer to allow the bolts to torque down on metal instead of solid plastic.

I'll take some photos of the setup when I get around to doing the install.

I was considering the oem solution but I have a sena remote on the left grip where the controller would go so that was a non-starter as I'd start to run low on grip real-estate.

TL;DR - Oxford are great but you're going to have to get creative with the controller mounting