I've seen a few threads recently around wiring heated grips and thought I'd pop up a new one to show you all what I've been working on.
Please remember that I'm no electronics or mechanical wizard, I just like to give things a try... also, this is Matt's modular accessory-powering system Mk1 - so the gaffer tape is a useful addition at this point. In future revisions, it may look fancier...
On my previous bike (Thundercat) I wired in heated grips using a relay (following Mike's guide from BF!). Now, when I did this, I wasn't thinking about adding any other electrical components to the bike, I merely wanted my hands to be a bit hotter, so the installation was a bit of a mess. Sadly I don't have any pictures, but there were wires everywhere!!
A few months later it was decided that I was off to france for my holidays, so I needed to wire in a phone charger... Out came the soldering iron again and a few other wires joined the spaghetti junction under the seat..
When I got the storm, it came with an Autocom system which had been removed. I decided that if I was going to wire it in, I was going to create a 'base circuit' which would be reasonably tidy, easily removable come selling-time and also very simple to add new electrical items to..... It also had to be turned off when the ignition was off, so I'd need a relay and live feed.
Anyways, here's what I came up with:
It is very simple... It's two Tamiya connectors which have been stuck into a small hobby box from Maplin.
The relay has been professionally
attached to the side of the box and the wires measured/soldered in place. Live feed from the bike has been taken from the rear brake light circuit (soldered in place, then taped over for waterproofing..)
The positive connection to the battery has an inline fuse, earth cables run to the same earthing point as the R/R.
Once this is setup, then all I need to do to add a new electrical component is attach a male socket to the wires and plug it in! Bob's yer auntie.
Obviously you could turn this into a multi-gang socket type of plug, but I decided two would be plenty for space reasons (space inside the box and space under the seat for gadgets!) and also to save too much current being drawn from the battery.
As I said earlier this is Mk1 - I'm going to be refining this over the next year, hopefully getting something that is all-enclosed and looking a bit neater
Does anyone know if you can get relays which are smaller?Anyways, let me know your thoughts!!
