Personally, I would go with Oxford Heaterz heated grips. They work very well along with a decent pair of gloves (not heated) and are adjustable in heat up to 130 degrees.
Plus they are easy to install and are cheaper than those Tourmasters.
I went with heated gloves as I just wasn't ready to pull the trigger on changing the grips and the grips I'm most interested don't come in a heated version anyway so the decision was easy for me.
That said I have a friend with heated grips on his BMW and he loves them.
At the same time I'm perfectly happy with my heated gloves so...well...uh...I'm really no help here. Either works well from what I can tell and it comes down to personal choice and whether you have your eyes on a set of non-heated grips you might prefer.
I've used heated grips for years. When I got the S, I put the Oxford Premium Heaterz on it. From a pure comfort perspective, heated gloves are always going to win because they provide heat to both the front and back of the hand... riding in sub 5C, even with thick gauntlets the backs of my hands will be ice cold while the palms are sweating. However heated gloves tend to be a lot more money to begin with and will wear out long before grips will.
I don't think the alternator can handle both. I swapped out the headlamp for LED just to make sure I had the juice for the Heaterz.
I just did a morning run for the first time (finally no snow) for about 40 miles and it was 22F outside. running between 65-75mph and I had wired heated gloves and jacket. The gloves were on high and the jacket on low (didn't even really need the jacket). It was fantastic. The heated gloves really worked.
Personally I would recommend the heated gloves over grips because you are still taking cold wind to the back of the hand and grips wouldn't quite solve that as far as I could tell.
OK, I have decided to go all out and get the grips AND the gloves.
1. I need good gloves. I don't have any so they might as well be heated. (battery powered)
2. I plan on having this bike for a VERY long time, so might as well add the heated grips as well.
Questions: I have the OEM light bar on the bike. Do I need to change the headlight bulb to be safe running the heated grips?
If so, what light bulb do I need? I would like to do all the "surgery" at once.
Thanks for all the help.
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