1200 DVT Throttle Grip Lube

Firstly, I don't recommend you do this without being very careful.

However, if like me you find your throttle grip a bit stiff, then here's some info for you. As background, a while back my throttle grip started to feel heavy, with "sticktion", not moving in the smooth, light way it did when I picked my bike up. I decided to sort it out - after all, how hard could it be? It's ride by wire so a quick lube should sort it.

The throttle housing at the grip is easily accessible by a couple of allen bolts. The housing is in two parts. Here's a front view.

WP_20150630_21_23_53_Pro by Tobers, on Flickr

Upon removal of the metal housing, you see this:

WP_20150630_21_23_41_Pro by Tobers, on Flickr

However, removing the housing results in a heart-rending "twang" as a previously un-seen spring's tension is released. That's the throttle return spring that's tucked into the housing and fits into the side of the inner part of the housing. You can just see the tang of the spring sticking out of the left of the white plastic bit. At this point things started to get tricky.

It's impossible to re-site the spring with the grip in situ. To help the collective Multistradisti, I took a bunch of pictures. The actual fly by wire mechanism is really simple - looks like a magnet inside a plastic housing which induces a current to indicate throttle position.

WP_20150703_20_53_12_Pro by Tobers, on Flickr

The plastic housing is a bit fiddle, with another spring inside which I was dreading pinging into the corner of my garage.

WP_20150703_20_53_37_Pro by Tobers, on Flickr

WP_20150703_20_54_11_Pro by Tobers, on Flickr

The problem now became one of how to put the bloody thing back together. Getting the tang of the spring into the hole in the housing of just a nightmare and has to be done with the grip off.

As you can see, I've removed the grip to get at the mechanism to replace the main spring properly. To remove the grip I had to undo the handlebar clamp and move the bars to the left to get enough slack in the cables to slide the grip off. Here you can see the bar itself with the drilled location hole for the housing.

WP_20150703_20_53_46_Pro by Tobers, on Flickr

The "sticktion" problem turned out to be the heated grip cable which is somewhat clumsily designed in how it fits into the housing. It had dislocated a bit and, being rubber, had managed to put pressure on the white plastic throttle thing and the metal housing, resulting in quite a bit of friction. The grip itself has a flange which rotates inside the metal housing, which is also un-lubricated.

After fannying about for some time, I managed to reassemble the throttle housing onto the grip. While doing so, I put some dry Teflon lube on it (dry so as to not attract any grit). I used Finish Line bicycle lube which is Teflon suspended in a fast evaporating solution which just leaves the Teflon behind.

Once the grip was reassembled, which is very fiddle especially trying to site the heated grip cable, I could then put the grip back on the bar. This isn't simple either, as the metal housing has the pin to locate in the hole in the bar so you need to have the housing loose so you can slide it on, but not so loose that the bloody return spring twangs itself into oblivion again.

Anyway, the upshot of this disastrous DIY was very positive, with a much smoother, lighter throttle action.