Electrical Can get Complicated on these bikes!!!

With that in mind, and now that I have outfitted four bikes for rallying, I have some experience in doing these setups and have some basic conventions that I carry through from one bike to the next. Then I have improvements that keep getting made. Since I had wired this exact bike once before I knew all the places whereI wanted improvement.

My prior setup really consisted of a single auxilliary power block underneath the seat. This power block is actuated with a 30 amp auto (rat shack) relay. That relay was designed with 6 circuits:

1. Always on Instruments (GPS/V1/Salamander SAE Plug)
2. Switched Instruments (Power Port/Voltmeter/Littlight/Heated Grips
3. Hawke Oiler (Not used on the reconfigured bike)
   
4. Phillips HIDS
5. Widder Control
6. Tiny HIDS (Not used on the reconfigured bike)

This is the old schematic I did for the Vstrom the first time around. Of course this stuff (nice pictures) is not my profession so this is the best I could do. As you can see it does get somewhat complicated. One of my goals was to simplify this in the rebuild.

I accomplished this by removeing two of the circuits (Hawke Oiler and Tiny HID's). I also ran the new HID lights in the stock reflectors off the stock headlight wiring (as described in the prior posts).

I also had a problem with the original set-up that was getting magnified on this bike. The subpanel would not be easily accessible (I would have to remove several bolts and take off the aux fuel with platform) to get to it underneath the seat. In the case of a blown fuse that might be a problem as it would take time to simply remove and replace. I've found that I have very little problem with this as long as I use good looming and secure my wiring (most fuses get blown from a short). The addition of soldering critical joints would also assist in alleviating wiring and blown fuse problems.

Still - all my bikes have a problem. When it rians I usually remove my V1 and sometimes the GPS if it is a real frog choker (do I really have to worry about the V1 signalw when I'm going 30 mph in a driving rain?). Since these wires are always hot the ends are then exposed to rain. A single drop can cross the pos and neg on the Garmin connector and especially can short out the R45 telephone connector used for the V1. It is not uncommon to wash the bike and find out I have blown that little 5 amp fuse because of water exposure or even dew overnight can short out the circuit. This means a simple rain storm could cause me to have to get the seat off to replace that fuse (which is on a separate line away from the power block wired directly to the battery. Of course I do this because I like to have my GPS and V1 running all the time even when the bike is not running.

What I did to aleviate this problem was to put a waterproof switch in line with the hot wire on the right cowling panel of the Vstrom. That way I could power down that circuit anytime I desired (like when I left the bike outside for the night or I could power it down during and short storm to avoid making a complete stop). The glossy line near the base of the switch is some RTV sealant I used as the hole I cut was not as exact (that will teach me to do "on bike" mods!) as I would like it.


The next change I made was to run one large feed from the aux panel up to a separate power stripl in the front of the bike. This could be accessed by removing the large right side side panel and makes additions/changes and on the road diagnostics much easier. To accomplish this I put a Positive power strip inside of a little plastic "job box". This was attached to the right side rail I had put underneath the fairing to mount the HID hardware on (see prior post on lights). I also drilled a through hole so I could bring power out of the front of the box to the switch for the GPS and V1. This ways I could run the wires for the front forward from the auxilliary panel together, and then through the front panel. All the positive feeds come out of the bottom of the little plastic box (protecting all the circuits from the elements). Finally I used trim tape to mount another power strip to the outside of the job box for negative leads. This simplified the wiring on the aux panel to four simple circuits:

1. PHID's
2. Fwd Power strip
3. Widder Power Plugs
4. Rear mounted SAE Plug (Salamander) used to power primarily the Star Trax but can be used for anything - like a tire pump!

I have been very pleased with the results and really feel it will eliminate any problems. The two primary panels are seen in the pictures below. The rellay to the left of the aux panel is the main power relay. It is activated by power to the tailights and in that manner turns the power to the panel off and on with the key. The relay on the right of the panel is for the PHID's which have much of their wiring in the tail of the bike along with the ballasts that you can see in the second to last picture below.

Note: The third pictue below shows a wide view of the complete auxilliary panel. The red wire behind the battery is the circuit for the "always on" power for the GPS/V1. The fuse for this circuit is directly underneath the rubber battery retainer.