Though not aftermarket, the Honda S2000 leather-wrapped wheel is a direct swap. It's the same size, shape, design as the Insight but is leather vs. plastic. I swapped mine a few months ago and I love it. I got mine used for about $50 from eBay. Because my car doesn't have cruise control and the S2000 wheel did, I swapped out the plastic housings so I ended up w/the S2000 rim + Insight airbag and housing sans cruise control buttons.

If you must have an aftermarket wheel, I'd guess the S2000 would be the place to start to see what fits that application.

-Joel

 

... I swapped mine a few months ago and I love it.

Same here. My best mod so far. Acura RSX wheels will fit too.

And great advantage to be able to swap and use the Insight's airbag.

BTW, it's a 30 minute job.

 

Thank you Joel, I've heard of people using the S2000 wheel on the Insight. I'll have a look at that when I'm ready for a steering wheel again. I probably will do that after I've done the turbo, springs, wheels, and paint job.

 

That is awesome, my steering wheel is pretty shot, i was going to get a used one but now i will get a S2000 one. Do you guys know if the shift knob and boot are shared with other models as well?

 

The shift knob size/pitch is the very common M10 x 1.5, arguably the most common on the planet since its the same as other popular tuner cars like the Civic, Integra, etc.

I chose a leather Prelude knob for mine:
Honda Prelude KNOB, SHIFT *NH1* (LEA)(BLACK), 08U92-S30-100H, '97-01

(BTW - the boot is not leather, despite what the parts page above says)

For the boot, I did a custom Momo leather one that I cut to fit the plastic frame of the stock Insight boot. It came out nice I think.

 

Question regarding the 2001 Honda Insight stock airbag steering wheel. Well, I guess it could be any steering wheel really. Where from the wheel exactly, does the airbag deploy from? Can an upholstery artist cover the center part of the steering wheel? Or will that effect the airbag's deployment?
I'm asking because I want to give the steering wheel some color and have it match whatever color I do the rest of the interior with. It would be nice to have the Honda S2000 leather-wrapped airbag steering wheel while the center is done in swede or white-leather or whatever.

 

S2000 steering wheel and seats in G1 Insight

 

Very nice! How well do those seats hug yea? The Insight's seats don't hug much at all. They look great though!
Was it a simple bolt-on replacement? Any mods required?

 

The S2000 seats are a great improvement over stock seats. Also they
don't weigh much over a pound or so more than the stock seats.

There is a thread on the forum about how I installed them, search
S2000 seats.

With the S2000 seats and steering wheel it makes you want to drive
fast. I got pulled over two days ago for speeding but BSd my way
out of the ticket.

It was funny, cop pulls over some tiny little weird looking electric car
for speeding. They are desperate here in SoCal as every city is broke
and think they can convert their PDs into revenue streams to keep
the city employees from giving up their OT.

 

Ha, ha! I've been pulled over for speeding in the Insight just as it is.
I've been trying to find that S2000 steering wheel on ebay, but all I get is crap, and things that fit every Honda on the planet. Ebay's search system sometimes sucks.
I'd love to get both steering wheel and seats for my car, but I'd have the seats redone to match the Insights interior's colors.

How did you get out of a ticket? I never have such luck.

Also, all the S2000 steering wheels I do find on ebay, seem to have cruise-control switches. I have no use for cruise-control.

 

How did you get out of a ticket? I never have such luck.

Professional courtesy.

 

insightlover - while I have not done it myself I have seen it posted that you can just take the plastic center piece off your current wheel that doesn't have cruise control and put it on the S2000 wheel and it looks stock.

Hope that helps

 

Len,
I have seen your post many times, but never realized your Insight was a Citrus. Nice!
I concur with the steering wheel having an awesome feel! The way I look at it, since I spend so much time in the car, I might as well splurge on items which enhance the experience.
I LOVE THOSE SEATS TOO!

 

The seats are great. Seat height is raised slightly from stock and much more comfortable
on long drives. S2000 steering wheel is stiff and gives better road feel.

After I saw a citrus insight in person I was amazed at that color and spent quite awhile
to find a nice one. Sold the silver one I had real quick, with the high gas prices a
clean one at the right price can sell in a couple days.

 

Search for: s2000 steering wheel -racing -hub

You can do the same for RSX.

Here's a decent one: 02 03 04 05 Honda S2000 OEM Leather Steering Wheel LKQ | eBay

I would not cover my steering wheel with material. It may interfere with the airbag deployment. I recently saw a pic of a deployed airbag somewhere, but now I can't find it. I took the liberty to copy Len's pic and marked where the cover flap splits. I just can't recall if it was over the red or green dotted lines. Hope we never have to find out. (I am unable to upload at this moment, but you can PM for it.)

Good luck!

 

Thanks, but that one has the cruise-control buttons which I don't want.
It's that interference that I'm wondering about. I'd need to know how the center plastic comes off/apart during airbag deployment. If it's just a simple piece of plastic that stays in one piece, then there is no issue of covering it with material. However, if it splits in half or whatever............then that would be a problem.