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Living in New Hampshire means, of course, cold weather. And while I’m a big fan of heated gear, I also love a heated grip. You can’t forget to pack your heated grips, and you don’t have to pull over to put them on. To be fair, heated gloves keep your hands warm, and heated grips keep your hands from freezing. Sometimes, though, that’s all you need.
Not an Easy Install
To that end, I’ve installed Koso Apollo heated grips on the G310 GS. As some inmates had warned me, the stock grips put up more of a fight than I have ever experienced. I’ve installed replacement grips (some heated, some just new) on a lot of motorcycles. This took the cake for a bear of a job. That wasn’t the fault of the new grips, though.
I’ve been a fan of Koso’s Apollo grips for a few years now, ever since a friend of mine gifted me with a set. They put out a lot of heat; that’s their job. But they do it elegantly, with a fantastic low-profile single-button controller, unlike some other brands that need cockpit space for the separate knob.
Aftermarket, Not OEM
To be clear: I bought these grips myself, for the princely sum of around $120 USD, after looking up what a set of OEM heated grips for the 310 would cost me. No, thanks, BMW; I’ll stick with my known quantity here. Note, though, that the BMW grips replace the entire throttle tube assembly. At the bars, this is an easier replacement, but it does require more disassembly of the bike to access the stock accessory plug behind the headlight. I didn’t do that.
Pull Off the Stock Grips
The first step is getting the original grips off. That was, like I said, a challenge at best. Once you start, there’s no turning back, and there’s no saving those stock grips. I prefer to make every change and upgrade to my bike thoughtfully, so that it’s easy to return it to stock. That was a definite no-go here.
Photo: Kate Murphy
None of my tricks worked. I stuffed a small flat-head screwdriver between the grip and the tube. I mashed the tip of a compressed-air blow-gun in there too. The only way to go was to cut everything off. I soon found out why: the stock throttle tube is textured, and the stock grips are flimsy.
Photo: Kate Murphy
This involved a LOT of cut, pull, cut, pull. I have never had a bike fight me like this. Whew.
Trim and Sand the Throttle Tube
After cutting off the rubber grip, there was no way the new grip would fit over the textured throttle tube. So I went at it with a box cutter, shaving down all of the nubs on the grip. After I got that relatively smooth, I broke out the 60-grit sandpaper and went to work.
This is a filthy job, and you’ll end up with black plastic dust everywhere. I recommend having a vacuum handy. Photo: Kate Murphy
The texture in the plastic gives a good clue about making sure you’re sanding everything down evenly. I still used a micrometer to make sure I was keeping it mostly circular and similar along its length.
Photo: Kate Murphy
You’ll see in the photos that I initially left the plastic ring molded into the tube on the inside of the bar intact. This was not a good plan. I did have to cut that all off, again with the box cutter and the sanding. Without doing that, the new grip would not have enough clearance to mount to the bike and still allow reinstallation of the bar end.
Photo: Kate Murphy
Once I got all of that sanded down with 60 grit, I finished with 120 grit to smooth everything out. I stopped there, though, to give the glue a good rough surface to stick to.
Cut the Left Hand Grip Off
The other side was much easier, though still did not come off with compressed air. I cut that one off, too, but that came off clean with only a little glue residue.
Photo: Kate Murphy
Clean the Surfaces
I cleaned both bar surfaces with 90% isopropyl to make sure there was no grease or oil on anything. Then, the mildly-scary part: installing the new grips. Koso includes a small tube of cyanoacrylate glue. I toss that in a drawer for later use, and haul out the better stuff: Super Glue branded “extra time control” gel glue. This gives you a little (but not a lot of) breathing room. I covered everything with old towels (sometimes even the gel glue splashes), donned nitrile gloves, got a dead-blow mallet ready.
Not a paid endorsement. This stuff is just awesome. Photo: Kate Murphy
Know Your Goal
I’m going to stop here and suggest you visualize where the wires and button will line up on the bike, and make sure you have a plan in mind for final position. The grip control is one button, which should face rearward, and all the protruding wires should not interfere with anything. You’ll have to work quickly, so visualizing the finish line is the way to go.
Work Quickly
I spread the glue on the throttle tube and zipped it on! And pounded it the rest of the way with the mallet. Even then, I needed to trim some of the grip off the end to make sure the throttle snapped closed, even with the bar end installed. The other side went on just a smidge easier.
Photo: Kate Murphy
Route the Wires
I routed the wiring along the brake and clutch wires, using the stock wire holders where I could, and zip-ties everywhere else. I made sure the throttle-side wire had enough play to fully open the throttle without straining anything, and secured it from there. Then, I removed the bodywork covering the gas tank, to route the wires underneath and backward under the seat.
Worst. Fasteners. Ever.
I’ll say this here: I’ve been a BMW owner and rider since 2005, and I’ve worked on a whole bunch of BMW motorcycles, my own and others. This 310 is the first one I have ever seen with fairing bolts and clips made from an alloy of tin cans and cheese. Nearly half of the fairing bolts were cross-threaded into their clips from the factory. Removing everything took longer and was much more difficult than I was expecting.
Power Distribution
With the fairing off, I was able to route the grip wires under the tank and then under the seat. I took the opportunity to install a small fused power distribution block and relay. I tapped the trigger wire to the relay from the accessory wire at the bike’s fuse block (it’s easy to figure out what’s what in there; everything is labeled), and powered the distribution block through the relay from the battery. Now I have three empty slots for further installs, and the whole thing is keyed to the ignition.
A lovely little fused power distribution block. Photo: Kate Murphy
Tucked under the spare fuses, the power distribution stays put but is easy enough to access when I want to wire anything else up. Also note, I removed and reinstalled the battery anchor, to route all the wires underneath it and to one side of the battery. This will keep everything still, and the seat won’t pinch any wires.
Photo: Kate Murphy
Replace Those Fasteners
Reinstallation of the fairing went as well as you might imagine. Cross-threaded bolts remained cross-threaded, and several didn’t want to tighten back up at all. I went online and bought a full set of replacement fairing bolts and clips, because I definitely don’t want to deal with any of that again. Another very un-BMW feature, these cheesy fasteners.
The clips and fairing bolts were so bad, the “oh shit kit” did not help. Photo: Kate Murphy
The Grips: The Deets
The grips themselves work great and I’m very pleased with the install. The controller flashes white when I turn the key to start the bike, letting me know they’re powered and ready. They have five heat levels, and the indicator light changes color to let you know what level they’re on. When you push the button they go up each successive short push: blue (20%), green (40%), yellow (60%), orange (80%), red (100%). If you want them off altogether, from any level, hold the button down for three seconds and the grips turn off. All of these colors are easy to discern at a glance, even in bright sunshine. If the grips flash purple, that means they’ve noticed the battery is low, and in that case they turn off automatically.
The Koso grips have a slightly larger circumference than the stockers, and they’re more comfortable to me. They’re also slightly stickier. I don’t have a problem holding the throttle open for a long time.
Installation: Grips 10/10. Very pleased. Bike: 2/10. Get it together with your fasteners, even on the cheap bikes, BMW. It’s like working on an old Kawasaki!
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