Given how poor they are supposed to be - can they handle extra load?

Mine has a replacement non oem reg/rec - but I don't want to burn it out - would it cope with heated grips?

they are generally poo - but to be fair, heated grips!! it is summer! (nearly)

Yep they are rubbish, I put a Yamaha reg rec on one, they are much more reliable .... Managed to get the wiring connector off a scrap loom and soldered it on the loom, after three previous honda items it was the thing to do as the yam ones are better and cheaper to replace ... And yes the bike has heated grips. You can actually buy the connectors new off the net for different reg recs

More electrical load actually is better for the oem type rect/reg, it will generate less heat, and heat is what can kill it. Best practice no matter what the electrical load, is to mount the rect/reg with heat tranfer compound between the metal sufaces. This raises the question as to whether your particular rect/reg has an appropriate metal surface. Have you got a picture.

I'll have a look at the existing reg/rec - make sure it is mounted onto the frame properly. Last time I had the bike in bits I did clock that it wasn't OEM - and amongst the receipts that came with the bike was a new reg/rec about 2yrs ago.

All of my previous bikes have had heated grips - they are useful for early morning ride outs in Spring / Autumn - where it can be 5C or so for the first hour...

magg wrote:More electrical load actually is better for the oem type rect/reg, it will generate less heat, and heat is what can kill it. Best practice no matter what the electrical load, is to mount the rect/reg with heat tranfer compound between the metal sufaces. This raises the question as to whether your particular rect/reg has an appropriate metal surface. Have you got a picture.

I'll get a pic when I can when ... I used an ally plate to raise the larger reg rec over the two pressed ribs on the subframe, I was going to use heat synk compound with the original reg reec years ago and tried to get some from a mate who builds pc's and he said to me he hadn't seen that stuff for years

A modern, finned reg/rec won't be using the frame as a (dubious) heat dissipator, so heat transfer paste shouldn't matter.

Ciao,

Any oem or copy of the oem SCR type rec/reg will benefit from the substantial heat sink potential of the rear sub frame. That is why there is a flat mounting plate for this type of rect/reg. To acheive the best thermal connection beteen the metallic area of the rect/reg and the mounting plate and thus the sub frame, I recommend that the mounting plate be as flat as possible and thermal transfer compound be applied between the surfaces.

If you are using a more modern FET rect/reg then they are usually suspended in free space as the amount of heat generated is significantly less.

I can't recall the brand of the reg/rec on the RVF - but I do know that it has heat fins on it.

Fins on all surfaces, or at least one flat metal surface?