Heated Grip Cruise Control

[Shaman97]

Hey!! I think my bike has an 'undocumented feature'. As I was riding with my grip heaters in the 'Hi' position, after a few (10) minutes, the throttle would become 'stuck' at whatever position I had the throttle at. In the 'Lo' or 'No' position, the throttle would not stick. On the recent trip, this really wasn't so much of an issue since alot of the trip was on slab. However, if I need the 'Hi' position on more twisty roads. it would be a safety/comfort issue.

 

Before I just wholesale replace the heated grip, anyone had this happen to them? If so, what was the fix? Sounding more and more like replacement, eh?

[ShovelStrokeEd]

No problem. What is going on is thermal expansion from the heated grips is causing your throttle sleeve to get longer. It is probably binding on the bar end weight. 2 easy solutions. Remove the switch gear and peer up under the exposed throttle housing and you should see a 6 or 8mm clamp bolt up in there, either torx or socket head. Loosen the throttle housing assembly and slide it away from the bar end weight a bit. Retighten, assemble the switch housing and you'll be good to go. Second, and far easier, IMHO, is to just remove the bar end weight and head to Home Depot or wherever you local hardware source lies, pick up a small enough washer with a big enough hole and install it inside the bar end weight and then refasten. Your bar end weight will then be shifted out by the thickness of the washer. Done and done.

 

I use the same setup with a variety of little spring washers and homemade shims to get the setting correct for Throttlemeisters.

[Shaman97]

Hey Ed, thanks for the info. Does it make a difference that i have Throttlemeisters installed already?

[Ken H.]

Does it make a difference that i have Throttlemeisters installed already?

Well you didn't say that!. If you still get a bind when the throttlemeister is full off, you need to go through the adjustment procedure for it. OTOH if it is just binding and unbinding within it's normal 'holding' range, that is normal when the grips warm / cool. The answer is to just turn it "off" further.

[leikam]

I've had the same thing happen with my grips (no throttlemeister). Never did get around to fixing it, in part because it was always possible to force the throttle closed by twisting the grip. The expansion only provided enough friction to prevent the spring return from working so I considered it more of a feature than an actual safety issue.

 

Just ride south.