Originally Jim Hollander developed the heated grips for motorcycle off-road Enduros, including the ISDT (International Six-Day Trial, later known as the ISDE) a very large demand for heated grips on snowmobiles existed in the 1980s. While in Europe at the Six-Days supporting the USA Team in 1982, Jim drove to the Magura GmbH factory in Germany. Meeting with engineers, they indicated a serious interest in making a heated grip for BMW motorcycles, but they were primarily interested in the utility patent Jim had acquired, not in having his fledgling business manufacture grips for them.

Jim purchased a new Austrian Battenfeld 75-ton injection molding machine in 1983, and built up a manufacturing facility in New England around the Battenfeld. An established machine shop and an Italian 100-ton MIR injection molder on a 400 amp 3-phase site was purchased in 1984. Bombardier asked us to produce a heated grip for their Ski-Doo snowmobiles. Soon Polaris and Arctic Cat wanted heated grips for their snowmobiles. For the most part, the heated grips were sold as aftermarket kits in the 1980s. In 1989 Yamaha Motor Corporation (of Japan) engineers approached us to make OEM grips for the Yamaha snowmobile line.

Production of Yamaha's heated snowmobile grips took place from 1990 thru 2001. During that period of OEM supply we had the distinction of being the only supplier to Yamaha without a single defective item on the production line. Even the Japanese suppliers had not accomplished that, and Yamaha invited us to the Japan factory for a special ceremony recognizing the accomplishment. In 2001 Yamaha's sudden need for a multitude of different models and heat outputs became unreasonable, and we elected to discontinue supplying Japan.

We continue to supply aftermarket kits and replacement grips for Yamaha Canada and Yamaha USA. Snowmobile companies have switched to printed foil heating circuits that stick to the handlebar under the grip. Despite numerous reports of these kinds of heaters developing a hot spot and burning a hole thru the grip (and into the rider's glove) these low cost heaters satisfy the bean-counters when the warranty claim rate is put into the equation. OEM grip heaters that barely last the warranty period result in steady internet complaints, and boosts our bulletproof model 123 sales, a patented 3-wire grip design that contains 12 feet of resistance wire internally.

OEM heated grips and manufacturing our own injection molded power-resistors for the snow-thrower industry became a part of our production in the period of 2002 thru 2012. A steady demand for heated motorcycle grips has existed from 1980 thru 2012, despite numerous copy-cat products from the Far East.

Developing Prototypes in EARLY Years Story