Hi and wiring advice...

Hey everyone. Im new to the world of VFRs having had a fleet of Suzukis over the years... Just got myself a 2003 VFR800 a few weeks back and I am loving it! Such a sweet bike, so much more stable than anything else Ive been on. Looking forward to spring and summer now!

Ive already been helped out by kia001 getting me a Leo Vince exhaust (thanks chap!) but need a bit of advice in order to get some Hot Grips fitted properly. I do live in Scotland after all!! Ive wired them up no problem but I want to get them relayed into the loom properly. Does anyone know the best point to splice a relay into? Im going to position it under the seat somewhere hopefully. Does the rear light wiring run along the side of the bike somewhere? If so, does anyone know the wire colour I should look out for? Thanks for any advice...

 

Might be good to wire them directly from battery + through a fuse, of course, and a switch.

 

If you do that, you run the risk of leaving them on and running down your battery after your ride.

I would recommend a aux fuse block wired with a relay.

 

Yup, thats the way they are wired up at present. And thats exactly what happened at the weekend Question is, where is the best place to wire a relay into?

 

I think, and it has been a while, I used my tailight; but that was based mainly on my putting my aux fuse box in the tail section of my bike.

 

The lighting circuit makes the most sense, trigger the Aux. circuit relay off the headlight circuit so it is not drawing while cranking.

 

I think you're still going to need an additional connection to + battery post in order to power grips through the relay; they draw lots of current and should not be connected through existing wires.

 

Thats a good idea... Thanks mate

 

Yes the idea is that a connection to the battery is where the aux power box gets its power, the connection to the tail light or headlight is only for the relay, so that the power only flows when the bike is running. Thus avoiding having an accessory left on when the bike is not running, and draining the battery.

 

don't all the lights go off when the bike is cranking? I actually have never paid attention...

 

You may want to consider if there are other electrical gizmos you may eventually want to wire in and make provision for them now.

On my 6th Gen model I was able to access dead space on the left side of the underseat fairing close to the battery where I was able to install a waterproof ignition switched relay and compact waterproof fuse box. It did involve in some minor surgery to the underseat fender to remove a couple of unnecessary plastic lugs which were preventing easy access. Just don’t get carried away and remove something needed to retain the seat!

On my bike the front and rear lights come on with the ignition. So I simply took a feed from the positive side of the tail light (Brown and Blue wire), to the relay to act as a trigger and for neatness made up a small loom with soldered ring connections to the battery. A thick red wire runs from the positive terminal to the input side of the relay and a similar thick red wire takes the output feed to the auxilliary fuse box. A thick wire runs from the negative terminal to an auxilliary earthing point bolted to the frame with a small sub feed running to the ground side of the relay.

This arrangement avoids the need to fit loads of connections to the battery where space is fairly cramped. Now all the accessories turn off with the ignition and so far I have avoided a flat battery. Each new accessory is simply wired to the fuse box and grounding point and each is protected by a suitable fuse.

If you are unsure any auto electrician should be able to produce a neat solution, but if you are happy working with electrical wiring this was not really difficult, although working in a warm well lit garage really helped. To be honest most of the time was taken up sourcing the components and getting the wire gauge and lengths right before finally taping everything up neatly.

Even so I found one accessory (my optimate battery tender) required me to slightly modify the loom as it required a connection to the INPUT side of the relay and to the earthing point.

 

Sounds like youve got a neat setup there, and thanks for the advice! What sort of things/accessories do you actually have fitted though? Ive only every put on heated grips before. Although, come to think of it, a satnav power might be handy, also an ipod power feed... :redface:

 

Currently heated grips (numb fingers are not good in the Alps), TomTom Rider 2 (I still get lost), Oxford 360T battery tender (just the shore lead) and a waterproof standard cigarette lighter socket mounted on the left front side fairing.

The 12v socket is perhaps the most versatile extra to think about. For instance it allows me to recharge my Iphone (or laptop) inside the tank bag – useful on longer camping trips without access to mains power. Likewise I occasionally put a £25 LIDL PMR system in the tank bag for basic bike-bike coms - again drawing power from the socket on longer tours.

If you visit any decent accessory shop you will quickly realise that there are way too many electrical gizmos out there. The challenge is working out what is unnecessary and focusing on stuff which will help make you a safer rider, won’t distract from your riding, and where possible is multi-purpose. You may want to think about buying an iphone3 or 4 which can also provide satnav, speed camera alerts, an ipod and even a decent video/stills camera.

 

It is great too that we are starting to see combined units save the clutter. Like I can dial my phone thru Zumo GPS without having to have my phone out. And Escort is now marketing a combination GPS and radar detector. Don't know how good it is at either, but a neat idea I think.

 

Thanks for all the info guys... As a bit of a side note, what is the best sat nav to use? I always haved used Tom Toms after my Garmin years ago sent me off a dual carrigeway, onto a minor road for 15 miles only to rejoin the dual carrigeway again at the next junction. Needless to say I took it back!

 

Be careful what wire size you use to grips as too small could melt down and cause a fire.

 

I like the Garmins best of all, having owned many and used others including built ins on cars and Tom Toms and Magelllan's. I just find their interface the best. As for the routing issue you mention, I have seen heard of similar things with all of them. Although less and less all the time. You have to remember it is just a computer, so it doesn't rationalize it can simply look at yes or no. So if it looks at a bend in the highway that is 25 miles long, and you put in that you average 60 MPH on the highway, so 25 minutes; but there is a road that cuts across the bend that is 10 miles long and you have in that you average 45 MPH on such roads which would be what about 14 minutes? then as a computer it will direct you to take that side road. Where a person likely would not.

You always have to remember too, that they are just a tool, ultimately it is up to you to interpret them.

And sometimes there is no explanation that we can find. I live on a street that essentially a rounded square with one road in, I live about 25% of the way around the loop. it is very clear the quickest way out for me is to go right out of my driveway. But about every six months or so, when I am going somewhere my car will direct me to go all the way around the loop. Why? I don't know. But I don't do it.