Leather conditioner eats hand grip rubber?

[MV_Dave]

My 1100 has a set of Hot Grips installed by the previous owner. They work great and I really enjoy them on cold days. Recently I've noticed the rubber material on the grip deteriorating at an ever increasing rate.

When I looked for information on replacing the grips I found that Hot Grips claims that the oils in leather conditions, combined with heat and friction, destroys the rubber grip material.

They claim "By riding with leather gloves that have been treated with a leather preservative, the grips are constantly getting that preservative pressed and rubbed into them under high temperature, changing the chemical makeup of the grip. The MINK-OIL treatment of your leather glove palms can ruin the grips."

I have been using leather conditioner on my gloves but this is the first I've heard about it harming rubber. Has anyone else heard or seen this?

Note, they also advise against prolonged contact with "general purpose bike cleaner such as Greased Lightning, Simple Green, even the ever popular S100".

 

[Motorcycle Dave]

Think about this for a min.
Leather is skin right ? your wife and or girl friend has nice soft skin right she uses hand lotion on her skin
there is no need to spend a bunch of $$$$$$$ on leather conditioners to rub all over your seat, or your gloves
go to Walgreens and pick a nice hand lotion you like the smell of, use it, it's not oily it will not hurt your
hand grips it cost much less it is good for your gloves and then use it on your own skin... try it I have been doing that
30+ years on my leathers.

 

[T_C]

Wow! To make an item specific for motorcycle and then say it is not compatible with leather that has been conditioned? I'm sure they tell you this in fine print after you opened the package and installed the item, right.

I stick with neatsfoot oil for all my weathered leather, not mink oil, but it might not be compatible with their particular rubber either.

Plenty of other manufacturers out there that do make grips compatible with their intended user. Vote with your money and move on.

 

[st1300r]

Pretty common for grease to attack rubber. Worked as a cook many moons ago. Grease would always chew up the rubber in sneakers pretty quickly.

 

[T_C]

Pretty common for grease to attack rubber.

Hmm.. guess that would explain the 'oil' resistant rating on the soles of decent boots.

I worked for a few years in a plant that did vinyl dip molding. Lots of liquid vinyls and the solvents that were used with it. Most shoes didn't last long. nWhen they built a new plant and installed the ventilation system the contractor used PVC pipe to plumb the wash system in the exhaust, they ignored the fine print. Two months later all the traps were ate through.. duhh... your collecting the residue from vinyl solvents.... guess what dissolves poly vinyl chloride pipe?

 

[st1300r]

Oil resistant probably Nitrile.
Didn't lookup how it does with animal fat.
No way I'd wear a good pair of anything in a commercial kitchen

So you worked in a vinyl dip plant 1st that didn't have ventilation. Yikes.

 

[T_C]

naww.. they had the original plant inside a historical building (old stables for police dept) so the ventilation really sucked (or not) due to limits on modifying things.
Built a new plant.. had 125,000 cfm input fans and 100,000 cfm exhaust system... guess what happens if you don't shut the systems down simultaneously. WARNING! make sure no-one is coming or going through outside doors.

 

[st1300r]

That's an ongoing battle here when it's cold out. Dust collection system bigger then a few houses and plant exhaust fans but close all the loading bay doors because it's cold out and choke off make up air. Sometimes it whistles between the office and the plant

Got a better one guess what happens when the variable frequency drive go's out on the coolling tower pumps. Hmm just open the backup pump valves (all the way :nuts1: ) and hit the go button. Lot of water comes out of an 8" line 150 feet long at the 1st (now missing) 90? bend even after you shut the pump off LOL.

Back on topic (sort of) Grip material.

KRATON G polymers exhibit good resistance to ozone attack and can typically withstand prolongedoutdoor exposure applications.All KRATON D and KRATON G polymers products have good resistance to water, acids, and bases.Soaking in hydrocarbon solvents and oils will deteriorate both grades; however, short exposures can be​

tolerated.

 

[JoeP]

Slightly off topic, but is there a chance you got brake fluid on the grips? I protected my tank and all painted surface while bleeding my brakes, but had fluid on my hands and got it on the grips. The brake fluid turned the grips gummy and basically ate them off the handle bars after a few weeks, not matter how hard I tried to clean them. I ended up replacing the heated grips.

 

[MV_Dave]

JoeP, no chance it was exposed to brake fluid. I used some leather conditioner I had around that contained "natural oils", whatever that means. I didn't think twice about it until I saw the Hot Grips web page.

T_C, that was my reaction too. Why make a motorcycle grip that is not compatible with motorcycle gloves???

In any case, I'm going to try some grip tape as an interim fix. It appears that the heating elements on the Hot Grips is embedded in the rubber so there's no way to just replace the grip. :-(