Harley Davidson Hand Grips
A hand grip's job sounds simple until you order the wrong one. Harley-Davidson has fitted more than one throttle system over the years, and a grip built for one does not go on the other, so the safest check is against the bike in front of you rather than the name on the box. This page is mostly the unheated grips: feel, diameter and security. The heated versions of the same styles sit here too, and have their own page for the wiring side.
This page is mostly the unheated grip: feel, vibration, diameter, security and looks. Not entirely, though. 29 of the 98 listings here are heated grips, because the collection is built on the word "grips" and they share the style names. The wiring side of those is covered on the heated grips page. What most of the 98 listings will not tell you from the title alone is which throttle system they are built for, and that is the detail that decides whether a grip goes on your bike at all.
Hand grips for sale here run from plain cable-throttle originals to Kahuna, Empire, Willie G Skull and Redline styles, at 10% off RRP with free UK delivery available.
Which throttle does your bike take?
Harley-Davidson has fitted two different throttle systems over the years: a cable that pulls a drum, and an electronic throttle that reads a sensor. The grip built for one will not fit the other. Full stop. Which one a particular bike has depends on the model line and roughly when it was built, and the changeover happened at a different point for Touring, Softail and Dyna. There is no single year that covers the whole range.
Of the 98 hand grips live on this page, only eight say so in the title: 56100364 and 56100356 are marked Cable, and 56100361, 56100378, 56100231, 56100234, 56740-08 and 56100428 are marked for electronic or TPS throttle. The other 90, including every Kahuna, Adversary, Switchback and Redline listing and all but one of the Empire ones, do not say either way. Harley-Davidson's own listings do split them, by model and year rather than by throttle. The twelve we checked fall into two groups with no overlap: 56100364, 56100356, 56751-04 and 56741-04 are listed for '96 to '07 Touring, '96 to '17 Dyna and '95 to '15 Softail among others; 56100361, 56100378, 56100231, 56100234, 56740-08, 56100428 and 56100478 for '08 to '25 Touring and '16 to '24 Softail, with 56100355 for '08-later Touring only. Same style names on both sides of that line. The tags on this page split by model family (Touring, Softail, Dyna, Road Glide, Street Glide), not by throttle type. Checking the tag alone will not settle it. Check what is already on your bike, or ask the parts desk before you order.
What bar diameter do Harley hand grips come in?
The style name is not the only variable. The same Willie G Skull design ships in at least two bar diameters, 56751-04 at 1.33in and 56741-04 at 1.66in. Other listings are marked small (56100355, 56246-08) or large (56100478) diameter. Both Willie G Skull sizes sit in the first fitment group above, in Harley-Davidson's own listing. Measure the bar you are fitting to, not just the finish you want.
Why does a fitted grip work loose?
A recurring complaint on rider forums on both sides of the Atlantic, going back more than a decade, is a hand grip working loose on the bar even though it was glued, sometimes by a dealer, with the adhesive supplied in the kit. What actually fixes it is genuinely disputed: threads recommend hairspray, superglue, Gorilla Glue, contact cement, weatherstrip adhesive and even a shaped zip-tie packed against the switch housing, and no single answer comes up as reliably solving it. Check the fitting instructions that come with the grip. If one is moving on the bar, that is a job for a workshop, not another tube of glue from the shed.
Is a loose handlebar grip an MOT fail?
The DVSA's MOT inspection manual for motorcycles classifies "Handlebar grip insecure to handlebar" as a Dangerous defect, its most serious category, and "Handlebar grip missing" as Major, one grade down. That is a government roadworthiness test, not a sales pitch. It treats a grip that moves on the bar as more than cosmetic, whatever caused it to come loose.
What else the job needs
There is no wiring or extra harness to buy for an unheated grip; that only applies to the heated versions, here and on the Harley-Davidson heated grips page. The cost that catches people out here is not a part at all. It is a second visit: more than one rider forum describes going back to a garage because the first glue job did not hold, so paying for a proper fit once is usually cheaper than doing the job twice.
Everything sold here sits within the wider Harley-Davidson parts range, so if what your bike needs is not on this page, that is the next place to look.