R1100RT Fitting Heated Grips

Last modified 29 Aug 05

This is a guide to fitting heated grips to a R1100Rt. The job requires few tools, most are already in the BMW tool kit. It will take the average home mechanic an afternoons work to complete the job and save you a tidy sum of money!

Are your bars suitable?

The first job is to check if the handle bars are suitable to run the wires for the heated grips, Look between the twist grip and the bar end weight, At this point the bars end is swaged in and then a section is milled out to allow for the grip wires to run up the bars, remove the bar end weight to check

Check right hand side as the left hand side has a ferrule glued on that masks the swaging and cutaway.

Check if the additional hole is in the bars for the heater wires to exit the bars, I believe from '97 onward all bars were suitable for heated grips but it costs nothing to check, If yours aren't, you can always buy a pair second hand from the breakers.

The Kit

This is the kit as I bought it, officially it's a kit for the R1100RS. You could buy the parts singly but you might have difficulty getting the white plastic 4 pin coupler that connects the heater wires to the bike loom, anyway this seemed a reasonably cheap way to get all the parts and I got a shiny new pair of bar end weights!

Lets get started.

First remove the seats and both mirrors, mirrors are removed by striking them firmly from the mirror side with the palm of your hand catching it with the other hand. Then remove the LHS body panel and safely store it.

IMPORTANT at this stage, Cover the bike with a couple of old sheets, you'll be lucky if you don't drop at least one screwdriver on the tank!

Remove all the screws holding the dash panel in place, motor the screen up clear. ensure the dash panel is free then lift it off far enough to disconnect the couplers for the left side switches, lift the dash panel away to the right and secure it from dropping. It will still be attached by the R/H rider display.

The heater switch.

This picture shows were you will find the 3 pin coupler for the heater switch. It's a white 3 pin coupler top left behind the dash panel. It might be tie wrapped to the frame - cut it loose carefully.

Fit the switch in to the panel by first popping out the the blanking piece then press the new 3 position switch in, Get it the right way up, Pictogram at the bottom. Plug ALL couplers back in before you put the dash panel back!

Fitting the grips.

Here we have run a draw wire through the R/H bar from the outlet hole up and out of the cutaway in the bar end, N.B it does not pass through the treaded hole in the end! Tape the heater crimps to the draw wire with clear tape, be mean with the tape as the hole is only just big enough for the crimps and draw wire to go through. gently pull the draw wire back through guiding the heater wire as you go. you might have to seesaw the wire a bit but providing the crimps are neatly taped it will go through. Re-assemble the twist grip but make sure the heater wire is free to turn without binding.

This is the L/H side showing the feral on the bar end that must be removed, it was there purely to support the rubber grip, the heated grip is on a rigid plastic sleeve 

Twist it off with a pipe wrench, its only glued on

This is what it looks like with the feral removed and the draw wire run, The heater wires have been loosely attached and will need taping securely before drawing through the bars.

This is what it should look like with the heater wire correctly run. The L/H grip is secured with 2 self tapping screws to pre drilled holes in the bar. Gently pull the grip rubber back at the lever end, and fit the screws securely

Run the wires from the grips via the centre support of the fairing and loosely secure with tie wraps. Then bring the cables to the left side of the bottom yoke (triple tree).

These pictures shows the location of the 4 pin coupler for the the grips. Its taped to the loom. Cut it free carefully.

Close up

IMPORTANT

make sure the wires do not go tight, bind or get nipped when the bars are turned lock to lock, allow a little slack!

Run the wires to the 4 pin coupler and tie wrap loosely. Double check the routing and check again for binding.

Now you need to assemble the 4 pin coupler. Insert the new heater plug loosely in to the bikes coupler, put the heater wire crimps in to the matching slots, brown to brown, black to black. Check these are correct and press the wires home until they click in to place, you might need to press them fully home with a very small screw driver, press on the end of the crimp not the wire. 
Make sure they are secure by gently trying to pull them out, If all's well plug in.

Well that's nearly it, before putting the plastic back on switch on the ignition and check both grips warm up, If not check fuses and connections. If all's well check everything is secure and put the plastic back on.

Note the heater switch is down for low, up for high and centre for off.

Any modifications you carry out on your machine are done so entirely at your own risk

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