Modern Vespa

Scooting about last winter I suffered hideous pain in my hands as they thawed in warm buildings after a 35 minute morning commute. This was despite wearing silk gloves under large winter motorcycling gloves, and it probably never got colder than a couple of degrees below freezing. So I thought to myself "this won't do at all!" and pondered how to solve the problem with a minimum of expenditure

You can buy high-resistance wire off ebay very cheaply, I did so, wrapped 1.5m around each handlebar grip, and connected it to a fused, switched, dedicated 12 volt supply from the battery. I then duct taped the wires in place. They warm up very quickly and are remarkably pleasant, even just on a cool august evening.

I already had a cigarette lighter socket wired in inside the glovebox, so I decided to move it to a more convenient position (see second photo). The switch for the grips requires one of those ring crimp things to be inserted for it to be "on", hopefully that'll work better than having a regular switch which some young whippersnapper might press and drain my battery for me.

So if you suffer from cold hands and tightness of wallet, a remedy is available! I await your criticism, derision and abuse keenly.

Nice work. How did you determine whether or not the resistance wire would melt the grips?

... or what the current drain is. If it's more than a few amps, you'll have a flat battery in short order.

Love it... Do you have a shed to sit and ponder in?

cool idea but i'd worry about the ductape - it's not known for its weather resistant properties. i'd worry about ingress of water, and/or the adhesive letting go and the whole works rotating on the grip.

you can get wraparound grip heaters for about £25 on ebay - if my budget was that tight, I think i'd have done without my morning latte for a week or two and purchased a set of those instead nice show of initiative tho - let us know how they hold up.

now you are a true scooterboy not commuterboy .... well done on that fix ... love it

two thumbs up

I agree with (and share) all the concerns voiced! I'll update this thread as things progress/ the handlebars catch fire/ I get electrocuted whilst speeding round the north circular.

One thing I do know is that they don't draw very much current, and they get hot enough to warm my hands nicely but without melting the grips... so far!

As you probably guess, this project is mainly for my own interest and as a challenge. I'm thinking of making some small windshields for my hands as well, needless to say I'll post pictures in due course