So up here in the great Northwest, you take what you can get when it comes to good riding weather. If it's sunny and 55, then you better ride! July through the middle of September is the only Texas like weather we see. So, besides my Gerbing's heated jacket I needed something to keep my hands warm too for those not so warm days, but $150 for heated gloves was more than I wanted to spend. I looked at the mastic type heater elements that tape under your handgrips, but I was worried about their durability and the ability for the throttle to return freely. Finally I came across Polly Heaters and found a unit that mounts inside the bar! Better yet, it was only $36.95 with shipping and handling. Lots of great reviews on the internet and it will let me keep my Kuryakyn grips! So I ordered them and then started the process of tearing the Magna apart.
Seat: off. Fuel line: disconnected. Gas tank: off. Throttle linkage: disconnected (as the spring bounces across the garage with the dog in full pursuit). Right side grip: off. And then the UH-OH......WELDED IN BAR END WEIGHTS! WHAT?
So at first glance they only looked tacked in place. Insert screwdriver and hammer. No luck. Pry it and still no luck. So I started drilling it and found this heavy piece of metal is at least a half and inch thick and the best part is my drilling started off center, so drilling the whole thing out isn't an option.
Does anyone have any experience removing these things? I am at a loss!
No, but glad I know about them now. Keep us posted, do you have a photo?
Get new bars!?! I just replaced my stock bars with Double T Fat bars and they not only make the bike look more slick (in my opinion), they also it more comfortable. In addition, it feels like the bike is easier to handle. The new bars are a little wider and closer to the rider, so it feels like you have more leverage.
But you did get me thinking, because I thought when I swapped the bars they were hollow all the way through. Is it a 3rd gen? Maybe I am just a little forgetful.
Yes, a 1996 3rd gen. Stock bars. The bar end weights are metal and about the bottom third is welded to the bar. The weights only look to me about 8 to 10 ounces at best. Not quite sure why they installed them, a V4 shouldn't have too much vibration to begin with.
Ok, so I attached some pictures. I ended up buying some metal skil saw blades and making several pie slice cuts into the remainder of the bar end weight and wedging them out. The other side shouldn't be this hard, now that I've learned that I need to center punch the center of the weight and drill it out with progressively sized bits and a can of WD-40.
I took the tank off so I can route the power wire. I think I'm going to connect it to the rear brake light/tail light lead from the running light/turn signal kit I purchased from Jay Kobelin. That way the heaters will shut off with the key when I leave the switch on with my (already displayed) infinite wisdom.
I tried to insert the images, but it doesn't seem to be working for me, so I attached them. The second picture is my now hollow right side bar end. The third is a picture of the probe insert and its three leads (hi/low/ground). If you can see it, there is a metal tab attached to the probe. You're supposed to bend that out so the probe with stay securely fastened inside the bar. The kit also comes with insulation that you wad on either side of the probe.
On one web site a guy attached a thermometer probe to his multimeter. At the grip (not the naked bar or probe) it measured nearly 145 degrees + on the high setting and 115 degrees on the low. Most people say the low setting is just about perfect and they only use the high for riding in near freezing conditions.
Tomorrow's project will include drilling a 3/8" hole near the bottom of the bar to fish the wires through and removing the overglued left side Kuryakyn ISO grip (I put it on a few years ago with copious amounts of epoxy while saying to myself "I can't ever think of a reason I would ever want to take this grip off").
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How many watts does this pull?
On the multimeter the "high" setting draws 2.76 amps, and the low setting draws 1.85 amps. This is directly in line with the Polly Heaters rating of 3 amps and 36 watts on high (it actually measures a little under that).