KDXRIDER.NET

Hey all!, Old rider but new to the KDX & this site.

06 KDX
For winter riding, does it put out enough juice for grip warmers or do I need to go to a higher watt coil?

Thanks

You'll need a higher watt coil to really run grip heaters correctly. Plus the aftermarket coil gives you a little more grunt and stall resistance down low...kinda a nice freebie effect.

I used Fox Thermal Paw gloves in 25 degree temps, and they were warm enough.

Any recommendations on aftermarket coil companies/suppliers?

RickyStator.com

There is some magic interaction that happens with a larger lighting coil and the magnetic field that is generated that as a side effect gives a little bit more low end pull and (more importantly) greatly improved stall resistance. Times when the bike should just die it lugs on back up to spin again. Fredette puts a aftermarket coil on each of his bikes for this very reason. Its a small but noticable gain.

Cool. I'll check into it.
Thanks Morie and bradf

Hey guys,

is it hard to replace the coil? Do you need to replace the Lighting Coil only or the complete stator (I'm a newbe so I'm not even sure there is a difference... )
In any case, more low end grunt and better stall resistance sounds pretty darn good to me.

You can replace the lighting coil only. You'll need a flywheel puller to pull the flywheel and get access to the stator plate.

You could run grip heat fine with the OEM coil if you didn't run the lights.

My grip heat setup runs about three amps. That's about 40 watts!!

Do the math. Aftermarket lighting coil, 75-80 watts. An OEM headlight shell and tail light, 45 watts.

Put them together, and you are going to be right on the edge. In other words, it won't work like you want it to.

My grip heat is wired independently from the lights. BUT...keep in mind you CANNOT wire it independently from the REGULATOR. So, the regulator being common, that's a puzzler, 'eh?

I use two DPDT switches that keeps the regulator in 'both' light and heat circuits, but only one function operates at a time. That due to the 'won't work' part of the above.

Grip heat is great!! Wire it right the first time, though. Get some test lead wire from Radio Shack (very fine strands, very flexible) and put a complete revolution of wire on the throttle for slack, else you will be fixing broken wires on a regular basis.

By 'complete' I mean: From an 'outside' view route the grip wires clockwise around the bars to reach the solder tabs, the 'slot' in the grip heaters being placed at 9 o'clock. Routing the wire more directly to the tabs, even with a loop at the top is not sufficient. Use some RTV at the joint and wrap it with a good (Scotch 33) electrical tape.

BTW, M0rie is right about the coil and its effect on the sparky exciter. Call it FM if you like. Fredette has noted an add of an aftermarket lighting coil as a performace enhancer for years! Yes, it works.

Next time I happen to take a picture of the flux field on an after-market lighting coil equipped KDX, I'll post it.