Installing heated stuff on the CBR 600RR

For Christmas Laurel was kind enough to give me the gift of time on the bike - she got me a Gerbing heated jacket liner. Sweet! I tried it out in December and the thing works like a charm. In fact maybe too well. The thing gets too hot, causing me to hit the on/off switch while I ride. It isn't real fun groping for the switch while you're on the bike, so I did some research and found that the Heat Troller is the way to go (see links). It allows me to adjust the heat - actually it pulses power to the jacket - so you can set it at a "constant," comfortable heat level.

Along with the ajustable jacket I also looked at the Gerbings heated gloves. They're nice, but not quite what I wanted. They don't offer a lot of protection, and they're big poofy things. So instead I opted for heated grips. On many positive recommendations I got the Dual-Star heated grips (again see links), which is another local Washington company.

Of course, Heat Troller also makes an adjustable module for the grips, which I also bought an installed. So here's what I did.

The CBR 600 isn't known as a touring bike exactly, but since I have only one bike this is my de-facto touring bike. So I may as well be as warm.

First I removed the grips using an air compressor, cleaned the bars and mounted the Dual Star pads according to the instructions. When I installed the pads the ambient temperature was about 38 degrees, so they didn't stick real well. I didn't add any adhesive because I figured once the elements were turned on the glue would warm up, activate and stick. I routed the wires loosely, following the same path the existing cables took, and put the grips back on.

I routed the wires to the left side of the bike, right where the front and mid panels meet. There's an ideal space right there on the left, above the fuse box. Basically it's right where the left side fairing and the front fairing meet. One knob is above it, one below. You can see where the fairings meet in the image here.

Here the knobs are turned all the way ON. Turning them to the left (counter-clockise) all the way brings the indicator directly to the LED and switches the power OFF.

There's room for the wiring and doesn't require you to have wires inside the air intake, which I figured wasn't a wise place to put wires. Although actually it probably wouldn't hurt anything. There's an existing rubber shield you can route the wires along - the shield helps insulate the wires from the radiator pipe, which I'm sure gets really really hot. But, if it's good enough for Honda to route wires there it's good enough for me.

Next, I installed the Heat Troller devices to the battery. The jacket troller is dead simple, just hang the co-axial connector out the seat and you're done. I tucked the Troller device itself under the right-side panel (opposite the one shown in the picture below). There's not a whole lot of room under the seat. If I like it there I'll zip-tie it down later.

The grip troller has no fuse or relay, which worries me a little because if I forget to turn off the grip warmers it'll drain the battery. So I have to be careful. See the helpful links sites to see how others have wired up a relay.

Now the drilling. I previously drilled a hole for the Dual-Star stock 3-way switch. It was a 1/2" hole, a bit too large for the Heat Troller knobs. So I added a rubber washer to prevent water from getting inside the hole.

I drilled smaller holes for the LED's, but I used one size up on the bit that was recommended by them so it'd protrude just a little, making it more visible. I chose to put the lights just under the knobs so they'd be visible, also marking the Off point on the switch. I figured the left side is the best place for the knobs so I can work them without removing my throttle hand.

Next, I chose to wire the grips according to Tom Barber's recommendation, which is to omit the blue wire. Apparently the grips get plenty warm at half power. You can wire the red + blue together, but several people say that's just too hot. Besides that I'm worried about draining the battery with the grips pulling full power.

So, from the Heat Troller site, this is what I did:

Way 2: Wire the two red wires coming off of the Dual Star grips together and wire the two white wires coming off of the Dual Star grips together so that you end up with two wires: 1) Red with Red. 2) White with White. Then the White goes to White on the Heat-troller and the Reds go to the Purple on the Heat-troller. You will not wire up the two Blue wires to anything. The heat troller provides the ground circuit. Tape the Blue wires off individually so they ARE NOT connected together and do not short out.

Here I finally got to test my work. Next I bundled up the excess wire, in case I wanted to remove or re-use it later. I zip-tied the wires from the grips along with the other cables in the cockpit, leaving enough play for full travel of the bars.

There are two or three strategic places to hide wires on the bike. The first is in the rubber guide I mentioned above. The second is behind the side panel, just below and in front of the seat. I zip-tied a group of wires here, and this is where the Heat Troller is conncted to the grip wires:

Finally, I tucked a lot of stuff under the seat, but behind the right side side panel I put the jacket heat troller box. It fits nicely. This way there are less wires under the seat. The only issue is that the jacket plug is on the left, causing you to connect across the seat. No big deal.

Under the tank cover (which is just a plastic shell) I routed all of the wires, along the left side. I didn't even need to remove the shell or the front fairing. You can see them up there if you get down low and look up

The finished product looks like this. Yeah, so my bike is filthy. It's winter, give me a break.