Modern Vespa

hi i ride an et4 125cc (as my tag suggests)
does any one know what heated grips are ok to use with my scoot?



thanks... jono

either of the oxford models - the hot grips or the hot hands - will work. the hot hands (the ones that just wrap around the grip and take about 5 minutes to install) get hotter, and you can't control the temperature. on long rides this can be a bit of a problem - i burned my hand thrashing it down the M2 to canterbury. for around town they are just fine. the hot grips take a bit more effort to install, but you can control the temperature, and they don't get ouchie hot like the wraparounds do.

The Oxford rubber grips don't work well on the ET or LX as they are designed with open ends which work on motorbikes or scoots with barends. You'd be better with the type of grips which are thin mini heating elements that wrap on beneath the original grips.

?? ... the Oxford HotHands wraparounds have an On/Off switch that you can attach to a mirror stem or windscreen mount. If they get too warm on a long ride, just turn them off for a while.

http://www.oxprod.com/index.php?pg=3&action=dept&id=30&pid=175

that works if the switch is accessible i had to hide my switch in the glovebox to prevent the local youth from tampering with it .... and the switch on the hothands model is also nowhere near as waterproof as they claim it is.

i'm far too lazy to pull over and rummage in the glovebox every time the grips felt a bit too warm. eventually i wised up and put a bit of padding in the palm of my gloves instead.

This is the style of heated grips I have on my GTS. I believe the ET4 has a robust enough electrical system to run the heated grips, however, if you only do short rides, you might want to keep your battery on a tender on a regular basis so you don't run the battery down. I quite like this style of heated grips because there is nothing to see that shows that you have the heated grips. I hid the switch for the control of the grips in my glovebox. If you do get them installed make sure you have it so that they cannot run without the scooter running otherwise you might not remember to turn them off and will return to your bike with a dead battery.

I'm also looking to fit some heated grips on the GT this weekend - I just need to decide which ones to get...

I was drawn towards the Oxford Hot Grips as it looked like an easy install, but after looking here;

https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic53122

I'm not sure if I like the way they look. The fact that the mount for the cable is facing upwards looks messy to me. Any ideas if these can be installed with the mount pointing down?

Otherwise I'll take a look at the thin under grip heaters. The thing I like about these is keeping the stock grips. Correct me if I'm wrong but is the wiring of these a little more involved? I really do not want to have some kind of wiring nightmare!

You can align them so the wire comes out at the bottom. Just make sure you have clearance on the throttle side so you dont get interference as it rotates.
I ran the wires in thru the hole made for the fly screen supports, which keeps it all nice and tidy.
I then set up the control unit in the glove box, right in the centre under the lock. I had to pull most of the fairings off and made a whole big enough for the plug to head back up into main cavity. I cant adjust the heat on the go, but that isn't usually a big issue.

Steve

Thanks I think the hot hands sounds like the ticket