Also useful for GoldWing rallies?

This Article develops the topic introduced by John Gratton in his recent Article, describing the cost effective solution he found in his quest for more comfortable camping.

Camping rallies of various sorts are an important part of many Wingers’ enjoyment of their hobby and many are perfectly happy camping in a tent; tents needn’t cost much and they can be small enough to pack on to the bike.  But as one Winger said to me recently, as we were sitting and chatting outside his tent in sunshine at a camping event, there comes a time when you’ve had enough of tents, even when it hasn’t been wet.  He’d reached that point and was thinking very seriously about the alternatives, even if it would mean towing his bike to the venue in future rather than riding it there.

It was this conversation coupled with seeing how well John Gratton had done, kitting himself out with a very reasonably priced motorhome and a lightweight trailer, which gave me the idea for this more broadly-based article, which outlines the wider range of alternatives to a tent which I have come across Wingers using over the years.

There is always more than one way of skinning a rabbit and so it is with the alternatives to tents.  As shown by John’s example even if you go for a motorhome, which is potentially the most expensive option, it doesn’t need to be all that expensive to provide very effectively for a comfort-seeking Winger’s needs.  I know another Winger who has a motorhome he has bought and refurbished for similar money to John’s and you would be hard pressed to tell it from a nearly new one.

And a motorhome is by no means the only viable option either – there is quite a range of possibilities and Wingers, who are often quite ingenious and resourceful people, have come up with some interesting ideas.

Budget and somewhere to park it

For Wingers who are seeking an alternative to a tent, there are almost always going to be two primary considerations: how much can they afford to spend and, assuming it involves either an extra or a change of vehicle and/or a trailer of some sort,  whether they have access to suitable parking and/or storage.  American RVs can be bought relatively cheaply when they are a few years old precisely because not many people have somewhere to park them.

Even if you haven’t got enough money for the more luxurious options, there are other, relatively low cost alternatives to tents.  And even if you are not short of funds, few people would be bold enough to jump straight in at the deep end by spending a very large sum of money on a brand new motorhome as a way of discovering whether they like it.  As John Gratton explained in his Article, it was important to him not to be in prospect of losing a lot of money reselling the motorhome if it didn’t meet his expectations – although it turned out to be just the job.  So if you are getting fed up with tents read on;  you might find that someone has come up with an approach which suits you.

Ageing RVs don't cost much - but have you the space to store one?

Luxury RVs

Of course if funds are plentiful and parking space isn’t a problem, we might all be tempted by the luxurious accommodation of a large American RV, with which we could either tow our GoldWing for use on arrival or even have the RV driven ahead for us while we enjoyed riding the bike.  Because they can be a problem to store when not in use and the demands of the well-heeled are always for new rather than used ones, these vehicles depreciate much more steeply than UK or European motorhomes, so if you have the parking space at or near home, an RV which is over 10 years old can be bought for a small fraction of its original cost.  And the older ones were very solidly built, so they may need very little in the way of refurbishment.  Spares for the engine, chassis and for the habitation equipment are often available in UK too, so you don’t even need to order from America over the internet.

There is something which I find very appealing about the style of some of the older RVs, the ones which avoided looking boxy and had lots of chrome bits – it’s a bit like the appeal of a GoldWing I suppose.  Unfortunately, or probably fortunately,  whenever I’ve toyed with the idea of buying one I’ve always decided against it but the urge never quite goes away.

One GoldWing family I knew went as far as selling their home in order to buy a large and modern RV.  It was as big as they come and cost over £150,000.  They lived in it for a couple of years or more, towing their GoldWing to camping events, together with their childrens’ bicycles and all sorts of other things, in a large box van trailer.  This arrangement seemed to suit them very well to start with, in spite of the need to base themselves close enough to Dad’s work to allow him to get there each day.  But at weekends they were free to travel in their home, with all it’s luxuries, to wherever the next camping rally was to be held.

In the end they sold the RV, with some delay and difficulty, and reverted to a more conventional approach to a family residence.  And curiously enough they had reverted to camping in a tent at GoldWing rallies to provide a change from living in a motorhome, even before they sold it.  Converting the family’s bricks and mortar into a depreciating asset like an RV may not have been such a good idea after all.

Van plus gazebo goes a long way towards providing all you really need

3.5 ton Vans and the like

At the other end of the spectrum of alternatives to tents, another Winger couple I know bought a big, old and distinctly, well worn 3.5 ton Ford Transit van (which was nevertheless still a reliable runner) for only £600.  They used it to carry their GoldWing trike in the back (it was just wide enough inside) and to provide what was said to be very comfortable sleeping accommodation once the trike was unloaded, simply by erecting a camping bed in the back and using camping-type portable equipment.

Actually it wasn’t quite that simple because the Winger couple themselves slept in a huge caravan, complete with the mother-in-law, and it was another Winger who slept as their guest in the back of the van, as the alternative to his tent.  Nevertheless the idea of using a big van to carry a GoldWing, or even a trike, and also to provide living space which is as big as many tents, clearly worked very well.

Interestingly this couple have since sold both the big caravan, the 4 x 4 which towed it and the old Transit van which carried the trike in favour of a motorhome and a converted car trailer for the trike.  I did wonder whether this change came about because the caravan was a bit too comfortable for the mother in law, who no longer seems to accompany them, but of course it would be tactless to ask.

The £600 which this Winger paid for his 3.5 ton high-top van might have been unusually cheap for what he got, but the basic idea of using a big old van to provide both bike-carrying capacity and accommodation is clearly viable.

Indeed some of the “new” motorhomes which are sold commercially are conversions of used large vans (a couple of years old, high mileage but clean and tidy) to which windows and then a complete motorhome interior is installed – and fine, good-as-new motorhomes they make too, saving significantly on the cost of a completely new motorhome.  So converting a used high top van into a motorhome (using permanent fittings) and towing the bike on a trailer is another option if you have the skills.

Used large vans also come in a variety of body shapes and special adaptations too; for example there are lutons as well as high-tops and even horse boxes which already have accommodation built into them for the rider as well as the horse.  There’s one on EBay as I write this; just sweep out the stable and then ride your bike up the ramp – couldn’t be simpler!  Minibuses, especially the ex-council community bus type, are potentially adaptable to bike-carrying and accommodation too and with a little imagination and the application of some inexpensive stick-on graphics, your new acquisition could look the biking part too.

So there is no limit other than your own resources and ingenuity in the extent to which you can fit out a  large van or minibus or ambulance for comfortable living as well as carrying your GoldWing bike or trike.  A 3.5 ton van is of course capable of carrying two GoldWings if that’s what you need to be able to do.

Large vans are also very useful for many other carrying purposes as a family vehicle too of course, or even as a way of earning extra money.  Having said that the downside of owning a large van, or indeed a van of any size, is that motor insurance is often relatively expensive these days – more expensive for example than equivalent (private use) cover for a car and substantially more than for a “proper” motorhome.   The insurance cost is worth checking before you commit yourself to buying a van.

Big vans are fairly spacious anyway compared with small tents but as with a tent it can be very useful to have a sheltered entrance, so you don’t have to keep the door closed all the time to keep the rain out.  Gazebos are widely available and inexpensive these days and they can be erected alongside the side door of the van to provide rain shelter or shade.

Box van trailer fitted out for living in as well as bike transportation

Trailer adaptations

Another way of avoiding sleeping in a tent which a Winger, well known for extreme thriftiness, has used on a number of occasions is to tow his bike behind his car in a box van trailer and once on site the bike is unloaded and the trailer becomes living accommodation, using portable camping-type equipment.  His one concession to adapting the trailer itself for habitation was to install a caravan-type roof vent.

This could perhaps be described as the sub-minimalist approach and a bit more effort to install folding or removable facilities wouldn’t go amiss, especially if you plan to go accompanied by a lady.

Caravans

A wife or partner who is comfortable towing a caravan without assistance opens up your options considerably because a caravan offers a very comfortable (and potentially affordable) alternative to a tent providing you have a way of getting it towed there while you ride your bike.

I know several Wingers who use this approach; she tows the caravan to the event and he rides the bike there.  Sometimes they travel together, sometimes separately.  I suppose the ideal wife would get the caravan set up on site and have the tea on the table, timed perfectly for His Lordship’s arrival.  (As a Winger friend of mine, who’d better remain nameless, is fond of pointing out, it’s all a question of getting them properly trained.  His own conspicuous failure to get his wife to drive anything at all speaks volumes.)

A lightweight GRP caravan (Freedom Microlight)

Caravans are available to suit modest budgets and I bought one a few years ago, similar to the one in the picture, for well under £1,000.  It had all necessary facilities and more, including heating and a fridge, although the bed, which converted from dinette seating, would have been a bit small for a couple who are as horizontally challenged as I am.   It wasn’t spacious or luxurious but it did the job and it even came with a full sized awning which more than doubled the floor area – but which was such a pain to erect we only tried it once.

Since the body shell was fibreglass it couldn’t leak or rot and it was also light and easy to tow.  Experiments trying to tow it behind a GoldWing sidecar outfit proved to be a bit ambitious (it was dangerously unstable) but behind a car it behaved perfectly.  When it became surplus to requirements I even managed to sell it on EBay for a small profit.

There are specialised small caravans which can be towed behind GoldWings, or at least behind trikes or sidecar outfits, but these are not cheap and nor are they even remotely spacious – so in terms of home comforts they are little more than sleeping boxes and the only advantage they have over a tent is that you don’t have to unfold and erect them before you crawl inside. Taking off wet biking gear inside and finding somewhere to stow it could however be quite a challenge.  With these types of mini-caravan (and also folding camping trailers which you can tow behind a bike or trike) there is no heating or seating and you’re potentially not much better off than in a tent, which is what this article is about leaving behind.

So if you want the advantages of proper caravan-type comforts: comfortable seating as well as a bed, heating as well as cooking facilities, a toilet and maybe even a shower as well, then you need to compromise by finding a way of towing the thing to the rally site and getting your bike there separately.

With one of these outfits you would be allowed to tow a GoldWing on a second trailer

Towing two trailers

Unfortunately it is illegal in UK to tow more than one trailer behind a vehicle, otherwise you could have a lot of fun, and probably cause spectacular traffic hold-ups, by using a combination of two trailers, one to live in and the other to carry your GoldWing.

There are exceptions to this legal limitation but only for recovery vehicles and showman’s vehicles.  I suppose it might be possible to sleep in the cab of a recovery truck but I wouldn’t fancy trying to persuade my wife to join me.  A proper showman’s outfit would cut a dash on arrival but the speed limitation might be a problem if the camping rally is some distance away.

Bus Conversions

Whilst we’re on the subject of legal limitations there are maximum length and width (but not height) limits which apply to motorhomes and therefore to any vehicle which can be re-designated for use as a motorhome.  Gone are the days when you could buy any retired bus or coach cheaply and convert it to a mobile home and/or bike garage.  A motorhome cannot now exceed 12 metres in length or 2.5 metres in width, including any protuberances other than driving mirrors.  DVLA got themselves into an embarrassing mess a few years ago by allowing imported US RVs to be registered in UK without bothering to measure them.  Forty feet in length is a popular size in the US and this is just over the 12 metre limit, so they were unwittingly allowing over-size vehicles  on to our roads.  Not that these vehicles were all getting stuck anywhere or having lots of accidents because they are no bigger than coaches anyway, it was just that rules is rules and they were discovered to be negligently failing to apply them; they now measure everything scrupulously and interpret the rules strictly to make up for their past mistakes.

Fun, but oversize for UK roads

Standard modern buses and coaches all exceed these motorhome length and width limits, so if you want to convert a bus or coach you will have to chose one of the smaller ones.  Double deckers are OK so in theory you could create a garage/workshop downstairs and living accommodation upstairs if you wish.  Unfortunately bendy buses cannot be re-designated as motorhomes.  This is a pity because with one of those at your disposal for adaptation you really could get creative with really luxurious living facilities.  There must be some vehicle category which the Formula One guys can use to register and tax their huge transporter/habitation vehicles but whatever it might be, it isn’t as a motorhome.

Incidentally insurance companies aren’t keen on DIY motorhome conversions anyway, so if you do convert a big transit van and then decide to re-designate it as a motorhome (which DVLA will let you do subject to a vehicle inspection) you probably won’t get the cheaper motor insurance which branded motorhomes attract.

Easily convertable?

Ambulances

There is no size limit for ambulances and if you buy and convert a vehicle which was originally an ambulance it wouldn’t matter how big it was as long as you retain the original vehicle categorisation.  Quite what you have to do to achieve this and how you get an ambulance insured I don’t know but it must be possible.

One Winger I spotted a few years ago seems to have got away with converting a coach-sized ambulance (or maybe just a coach) into a habitable vehicle behind which he towed his GoldWing on a trailer.  This vehicle was, according to its tax disc, registered as an ambulance.

Maybe the EU hasn’t yet got around to making rules for the size and natures of ambulances – meantime more or less anything seems to be acceptable as an ambulance as long as it’s labelled as such.  And ambulances, even privately owned ambulances, get free road tax in UK too!

In the example I spotted at a camping rally the coach’s windows were of darkened glass (thereby obscuring its internal configuration nicely) and it was painted in plain blue colour with the word “Ambulance”  (discretely, in small letters) front and sides – looking much like one of the “Jumbulances” which are used to transport pilgrims to places like Lourdes to take the cure – and which, incidentally, are available for hire if you ever need one, click here for details.

Doubtless this Winger’s vehicle’s primary and usual purpose was something similar and by using it to live in at a GoldWing camping event he was merely taking it on its holidays with him rather than misrepresenting its true role.

If size was not a problem?

Toy Haulers

In America permitted vehicle sizes (including what can be driven on an ordinary driving licence) are far less restrictive than in UK and a wide variety of what they call “Toy Haulers” are manufactured.  These vehicle are purpose made to provide garage accommodation as well as living and sleeping space.  Toy haulers can be RVs (i.e motorhomes with built-in garage space at the back) or trailers (what we would call a box van trailers) or fifth wheelers.  Sadly most of these will be too long or wide or both to be registerable in UK, but the ingenuity with which ramps and other devices have been employed to load and secure bikes on board in combination with habitable accommodation is well worth studying for ideas.

Just as we have to find a way around the rules or to avoid unnecessary taxation sometimes, so do Americans who build or adapt their own toy haulers.  In Florida any vehicle (including a trailer) which incorporates habitable accommodation of any kind attracts annual property taxation, which is substantial, as well as the cost of a tag plate, which is equivalent to our road tax.  A way of avoiding the property tax element is to install habitation facilities discreetly – so for example by using a box van trailer, which in America might be 40 or more feet long,  and installing all sorts of kitchen, seating and sleeping facilities and of course air conditioning, but no windows.  That way the vehicle escapes the notice of the relevant taxation authority.

Summary

Anyway, back to the realities of avoiding tents for purposes of GoldWing camping rallies in a UK climate.  There are plenty of options and even if you need to stick to a modest budget with a bit of ingenuity you can contrive quite a presentable as well as a comfortable solution.  The minimum requirements are:

1. Must provide better warm, dry eating, seating and sleeping facilities than a tent, otherwise there’s no point.
2. Mustn’t turn the transit journey to the event into a burdensome or risky family ordeal, so don’t try to make the wife tow a caravan or she’ll find a way of getting her own back.
3. Must be compatible with whatever parking space/storage is available/affordable when not in use.
4. Must be affordable overall, depreciation being potentially the most important element of the extra cost compared with tenting.

In ascending order of desirability (but descending affordability) the options are:

1. Buy a cheap box trailer (maybe even costing under £1,000) and use camping type kit to live in it and either travel alone or accept the need to find a new female partner for each outing.
2. Buy a big old van as an extra/replacement vehicle and adapt it for habitation as well as transporting your bike or trike.  Cheap to buy and should have plenty of life left in them; spares and many repairs are also cheap.  Depreciation not important but insurance might be expensive.
3. Buy a decent box van trailer (£1,500-£3,000) which your existing car (might need to be a fairly big one) can tow and can also cope with the bike – and adapt it properly for habitation, so decent ventilation and better-than-a bucket amenities.  Still going to be fairly cramped but might still have dual purpose value as a load carrier and good trailers depreciate only very slowly.
4. Buy a old/cheap caravan to tow either with the family car (wife has to do the driving) or (better) with a van which can carry the bike and other kit too.  Depreciation relatively low but probably need some refurbishment and it won’t gain value.
5. Buy an old/cheap motorhome which is capable of towing the bike on a trailer (avoiding any which have any signs of dampness and therefore hidden rot) and do it up.  Cheap insurance and depreciation will be low – might even gain value if you improve it by refurbishment.
6. Buy a more modern caravan for much better comfort (wife still has to do the towing unless you also have a big van).  Depreciation becomes a significant factor.
7. Buy a better/bigger/newer motorhome, enjoy both travelling together as a couple and real comfort.  Buy a box van for your bike to keep it clean on the journey.  Depreciation of the motorhome (but not the trailer) inevitably becomes a significant factor.
8. Win the Lottery, buy a luxury RV and hire a driver to pre-position it at the venue for you while you take the scenic route on your lightly loaded bike – now that really would beat sleeping in a tent!

Related Articles

Motorhome on a Budget

Towing a GoldWing on a Trailer

Refurbished and ready to tow a GoldWing

Editor’s Introduction: John Gratton is a long time member of GWOCGB and the Regional Rep for Staffordshire Wings.  He wanted to continue taking his GoldWing to camping events without having to pitch and sleep in a tent and this is the story of his search for an affordable alternative.

It was last August I decided that my old bones had started to tell me that my days of camping under canvas were drawing to a close. I considered buying a caravan, a lot more ‘bang for the buck’ basically and I could take my little dog Pip, with me, the downside of that option being that I could not take my beloved Wing with me so that option was quickly dismissed.

The only other option was purchasing a motorhome, so I started my research (well I logged on to Ebay) to look  for a motorhome within my budget of  about £10k.  I didn‘t know how I would take to motorhoming so I wanted something I could re-sell without taking a big financial hit if I wasn‘t fond of it. I needn’t have worried, I took to it like a duck to water.

I quickly realised I wasn’t going to get a lot for my kind of money.  Most of those in my price range were in need of some serious bodywork – something which was going to cost serious money to fix.

In this budget range you will almost certainly be looking at a motorhome based on a Fiat Ducato, Talbot Express or Citroen C25.  All are basically the same vehicle, sharing many common components; these are all tough little vehicles being intended for the abuse they receive by the ‘white van man’ worldwide. You might find one based on a Volkswagen Transporter I dismissed this as having operated one in my company,  I had found the price of spares very expensive, however they are very, very reliable vehicles.

You pays your money etc.  There is an expansive range out there so I decided to make a list of my requirements and preferences, viz:

1. Ducato/Express/C25 based
2. Minimum 4 berth
3. Bed over cab (you will be no doubt be familiar with the shape having an extended body above the cab)
4. In good bodywork condition with no rot
5. In good mechanical order
6. Dry (i.e. not damp) in the habitation area
7. Preferably low mileage
8. Under £10k

Inspect carefully before you buy

If you don’t know much about vehicle mechanics and/or motorhomes take someone with you who does, generally these are the things I always do:

1. Take overalls and a torch so you can scrawl around underneath and have a good look for rot / damage, also take a magnet to check for filler, look for signs of recent ‘overspray’ and or new/recent paint.
2. Take a fully charged 12v battery with you, so you can check lights, fridges etc. work
3. Take a bottle of gas and regulator to check if the fridge, heater and water boiler work
4. When contacting the vendor, tell him you’re ringing about the motorhome, don’t be specific, if they ask which one they’re probably dealers, not a bad thing in it’s self just so long as you know
5. Ask them not to start the engine before you get there, and when you do arrive lift the bonnet and check the block is cold, some worn engines only smoke when they’re cold.
6. Have a test drive (of a reasonable distance 5/10 miles, put a gallon of fuel in if necessary) to make sure the gearbox, engine, cooling system, power steering (if fitted) all works OK. When you get back to the vendors park it on a clean area and check under later for oil leaks
7. Have a good look at the tyres, they aren’t cheap
8. When you get in the habitation area open all the drawers / cupboards and have a good sniff for the tell-tale smell of damp/mould, be suspicious if it has a lot of air fresheners or it’s just been ‘Fabreezed’
9. Be prepared to spend some time when inspecting, it’s a good investment.
10. Petrol or Diesel ? Mines petrol and does very acceptable mpg, diesels of this era were not particularly efficient, according to my Ducato handbook it says 30mpg for petrol and 32mpg for diesel, you’ll have to make your own mind up on this.

By no means an extensive list, you’ll probably think of more things to check.

There are plenty of places to search for a motor home of this type, the internet being invaluable, I recommend you trawl through ebay, there is (usually) a huge selection from complete knackers to £90k plus luxury motor homes on ebay.  Also look on a website/forum called Motorhome Facts, it almost certain that any questions you may have can be answered there.

I looked at a number of suitable vehicles but dismissed them as they had issues, mainly rot.  Eventually I spotted one on Ebay which seemed to conform to my requirements and was described as in ‘amazing’ condition (for the year, manufactured in 1989), it was only 30 miles from home so I telephoned and made an appointment to view the following day at Walsall.  On arrival I was surprised that it was as described: the bodywork in absolutely fine condition.   (Have a good look look underneath as well when you are inspecting, my chassis was like new.)

The owner (it’s first and only) had kept meticulous records every MOT from the first to present, all the handbooks, all the servicing and any repairs receipts (down to receipts from Halfords for spare bulbs !!!!), from the MOT’s I could see that the mileage of 27k miles was correct, this is it I thought, just the job, ticks all the boxes, the vendor was honest and told me that the fridge didn’t work on gas, there was a fault with the water heater and a minor problem with the taps, all I thought easily fixable.  After some negotiations on price (I may be English, but I don’t have an overdeveloped ‘cringe’ gland as the advert says) I was the proud owner of a 1989 Swift Capri (Ducato based) motor home.

I left a deposit and arranged to collect it a few days later. I arranged to have it inspected and serviced by a mechanic mate as soon as I got it home, duly checked and serviced everything was found to be OK apart from the exhaust which had been patched up with exhaust bandage.

The Restoration – Interior & Habitation area

I use the term restoration very loosely it wasn’t my intention to turn it into a ‘concours’ vehicle rather to tidy it up to an acceptable and good level, first an exhaust wont cost much I thought, rang the local exhaust place and was told it was about £250, ashen faced I put the phone down, and picked the keyboard up, on the internet and ten minutes later had a complete brand new exhaust with a five year warranty on the way for the princely sum of about £70 including the carriage, it arrived the next day and was fitted by lunch time.

Spent a few hours with a bucket and sponge inside the vehicle and cleaned everything, curtains down and in the washer, got the Bissell carpet cleaner out, which has an upholstery cleaning attachment and cleaned all the upholstery, came up like new, didn’t bother with the carpet which I had decided to renew anyway with vinyl cushion floor, re-hung the curtains and notice the dry-clean only label, ah well too late now, but they were fine anyway.

Next I thought check the 240v mains electrics, there had been a few mods over the years, some I wasn’t to happy with so I replaced all the 240 volt mains wiring and installed a new consumer unit with an RCD (Residual Current Device a safety feature which must be fitted) and new MCB’s, that done an additional 13A socket was fitted where the TV was going to be fitted, also fitted a couple of 12v cigarette lighter type sockets each side of the upper lockers one external and one internal in both sides for the TV and satellite system (Aldi £60 on offer, works perfectly more of this later). The internal 12v sockets allow the charging of mobile phones, camera and video batteries out of the way of prying eyes.  A further 12v socket was fitted in the dash for DAB radio and/or Sat Nav.

The taps on my motorhome were not working properly, on a unit of this age you’ll probably find the ‘Comet’ taps which have a micro switch fitted, the first few degrees of rotation of the tap knob engages the micro switch and turns on the pump, one of mine had failed on the kitchen sink , I found it more convenient to fit a complete tap assembly, at the same time the steel enamelled sink was found to be rotted around the waste outlet (it’s very common so check it when you are inspecting).

The sink was replaced with a stainless steel one  which fitted perfectly. I now had all the taps working fine except for one of the shower taps, the fault was traced to a tiny piece of plastic being broke on the inside of the knob, soon cured by replacing with one off the old redundant kitchen tap, I didn’t have a great deal of confidence in the current handling properties of these micro switches so I made up a relay unit which was fitted in adjacent to the water heater now the micro switches just operate the relay coil literally milliamps so the micro switches should last forever.

The fridge fault turned out to be an incorrect knob having been fitted and holding the safety gas valve shut, easily fixed, I removed the water heater (a Cascade Mk2), it looked in pretty good order but as the season was fast approaching I decided to ’bite the bullet’ and have it professionally overhauled, a good decision it turned out, took it to Arc Systems in Nottingham who specialise in these devices, all repaired serviced and put back in for the princely sum of £115, and worth every penny, Gary of Arc Systems knows these units inside out and is fully equipped to overhaul them as I watched him I realised you need specialist jigs and equipment, not a DIY job by any means.

Checked the onboard battery charger unit and found it had no output (it charges the leisure batteries and provides 12vdc if you’re on a mains hook up), so that was whipped out and a replacement was planned until I found out the price of a new unit, bugger that I thought and stripped the casing off and spent a couple of evenings drawing out the charger circuit, incidentally the charger has a ‘soft-start’ feature built in, I assume to protect the alternator diodes (tip, you should never charge a vehicle battery, with a mains charger, when the battery is still connected to the vehicle, it can and often does damage the diodes, alternators generate AC the diodes rectify this to DC – simples !!), interestingly the output of the onboard charger is only about 13.8 vdc, the vehicles alternator regulates at 14.4 vdc (approx), simply this means the on board charger will never charge the batteries to full capacity, probably another diode saving feature, checking through the circuit board a few electronic components were found to be defunct, parts ordered from Farnell Electronic Components for the princely sum of about £2.50, soldered in tested, refitted (this time in the correct orientation so the controls could be accessed), another job done. Because where the charger is fitted in the lower half of the wardrobe I had to rig up a work light so when I’d finished the charger I added a 12v fluorescent  light in the wardrobe, this has been invaluable since proving illumination in quite a dark area. I also fitted a couple of spot fittings under the top lockers for reading etc.

Finally in the interior I removed all the cupboard doors and drawer fronts and re-varnished them, they look like brand spanking new now.

Exterior

That’s just about it for the interior, now for the exterior, the transfers had gone a bit tatty and were letting the van down on appearance so I decided to remove them, I started on one of the hottest days of the year, hairdryer and fingernails ready I started, 14 hours later I’d got them off, not an easy job but well worth it the motorhome started to shed it’s years (in appearance). The front bumper and grille/headlight surrounds looked a bit shabby so removed them and resprayed them to match the bodywork( I‘ve got my own spray gun and compressor). Paintwork I thought could do with a polish, now I’m a bit of a ’tool junkie’ so I brought a polishing machine from Machine Mart, the sort as used in professional body shops and set to with the job 4 hours later all the body work done, a coat of Mer and boy was it shining, incidentally  a body shop quoted me £150 to do it the machine cost about £70 and I’ve got it for future use, still toying with the idea of replacing the graphics as I’ve a friend with a sign writing business who owes me a favour and would make and fit for free, and you can’t get much cheaper than that. (My mother was a Yorkshire woman and it shows up in me from time to time.)

Vehicle Electrics

I had a few problems with intermittent faults on the vehicle electrics, all of a sudden the vehicle refused to start, and the indicators stopped working, finally traced it to the absolutely rubbish connectors used to provide the earths to various components, in this case the electronic ignition module and indicator system, just age and corrosion really, there’s one on each side of the inner wings, these were removed and replaced with more substantially units from the local auto electrical factors, they have proper plated screw fittings these were installed and coated with silicon grease (from Maplins) and new terminals fitted to all the earth cables (and silicon greased) all fitted and tightened up and all the intermittent faults disappeared and the vehicle now started first time, even if you haven’t got these problems I advise you to change to these terminal blocks and use the silicon grease it’s brilliant at stopping electrical corrosion, most vehicle electrical problems are caused by poor earths so it’s well worth doing. New horns were fitted, as well as ‘Audi’ style daytime running lights at the front, had them hanging round the garage brought for the Wing but couldn’t find any where suitable to put them on it.

Extra Space

If you want extra space you will need an awning if the motorhome hasn’t got an awning rail then you will have to fit one, really easy took about an hour, got my awning off ebay £75 technically second hand when it arrived it was still sealed in it’s original plastic bag completely unused, I also purchased a sun canopy which also fits in the awning rail (http://www.riverswayleisure.co.uk/acatalog/info_190020.html) not tried that yet but it looks to be just the job, would have liked one of the Fiamma roll out ones but they’re hundreds of pounds, this one should do the same job for £40

Towbar

If the vehicle doesn’t have a towbar fitted, then obviously you are going to have to get one if you are intending to take the Wing with you. Towbar can be very expensive, one quote I had was over £500, finally tracked one down from a company called Watling Towbars, in St Albans, very helpful people who told me that although they didn’t do one specifically’ for my motorhome they did make one which would fit with some minor mods, as I have my own welders, grinders etc. it wasn’t a problem ordered it complete with electrics, etc for about £150, and fitted it myself in about 3 hours, job done.

The last jobs I did was to have new vinyl cushion floor fitted as I am completely hopeless at carpet fitting I had it done by a mate who does it for a living, cost a few pints and looks great, easy to clean and durable.

TV & Satellite systems

I looked at 12vdc/240vac TV’s from the camping & caravanning shops, they are expensive, too expensive for my tastes, the object after all was to do this on a budget, finally sourced one at Tesco (although the newer models are different and not suitable) which was a 15.6” flat panel with built in DVD and Freeview for about £116, importantly the TV has an external power supply which converts 240vac to 12vdc, the 12vdc plugs in the side of the TV, hence it is usable on the vehicle electrics, you might want to run it through a regulator (about £20, that’s roughly half price of most sites)  to prevent damage through transient voltage spikes available here.

The TV was mounted on a ‘swing & tilt’ bracket from Asda (about £15.00) and a quick release bracket was fitted which allows fitting and removal in seconds (about £12.00) I thoroughly recommend this type, available from here.   As mentioned before a 12vdc/ 240vac satellite system was purchased from Aldi and is found to be perfect, mounted mine on a Konig tripod from Amazon.

I had to turn an adaptor from a piece of billet aluminium which was araldite into the tripods top section works perfectly firm, strong and secure. I added a dual satellite / aerial external socket so that I didn’t need to run co-axials through the window or doors widely available and have both a co-ax and f-plug connectors built in.

Conclusion

What’s it like to drive? Well it’s no sports car, but it will happily cruise all day long towing the Wing at 60mph, fuel economy is very reasonable (for this type of vehicle) returning on average about 30mpg, there’s no power steering but I haven’t found that to be a problem at all, on the whole it’s a very pleasant vehicle to drive. Air conditioning, dream on !!!

So what did I get for my money?  In total it’s cost less than £7k and a considerable amount of elbow grease  and that includes everything including the TV/satellite system.  I’ve since had it independently valued at £10k for insurance purposes.

I’ve done about six trips in it to various Goldwing events and covered about 2000 trouble free miles, apart from having a puncture on the trailer, that’s nothing to do with the motorhome.  It’s warm and dry at night and cool in the heat of the day, comfortable and reliable, can’t really see me ever returning to a tent, its completely self contained with it’s own shower, WC, cooker, hob, water storage (24 gallons) on board and hot water on demand, in practical terms I wouldn’t have got anything else if I had brought one costing far, far more.

Editor’s Postscript: If you are choosing a motorhome to tow a GoldWing, the payload and towing capacity of the motorhome are very important considerations.  Motorhomes often have very limited towing capacity and some cannot take a towbar at all, so check this carefully before you buy.

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Towing a GoldWing on a Trailer

Alternatives to Tents

Graham and his Custom GL1100

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE FOR AN ENLARGEMENT

This Custom GoldWing is unique as well as exceptional in terms of finish and presentation because its owner, Graham Whittaker, designed and constructed it himself to create a radically modified bike; it’s fundamentally still a GL1100 but this is no ordinary GL1100.

As one of the professionals we used as judges at last year’s GoldWing Light Parade said, you can recognise some of the parts as coming from other GoldWing models and some which clearly don’t, but you can’t see the joins. The parts have been assimilated into an impressive whole and the bike looks like it was factory designed and built.  And indeed it was professionally designed and constructed; Graham is after all a very talented and experienced motorcycle mechanic and his knowledge of GoldWings, especially Classic GoldWings, is unmatched.

The actual building of the bike took less than a year but as Graham says, the thinking about how it could be done took more like four.  Its creation and its relatively rapid construction was provoked by his wife’s enthusiasm at a winter social gathering for a European Tour they were invited to join.  Graham’s objections that he didn’t have a suitable bike were swept aside: “You’ve got all this bits in the garage, there’s plenty of time for you to put them together”.  So he did, and the following Summer the bike, already radically modified from it original design, successfully completed a 3,000 mile tour.

Could you identify this bike as a GoldWing from the front?

Graham is a working man himself and he has strong views about a working man’s entitlement to affordable motorcycling – and that by making GoldWing models which are more and more complex and more and more expensive, there is scope for the manufacture of something much simpler and cheaper which can still fit into the GoldWing family of models.

His Custom GL1100 is therefore a concept bike for a new design of GoldWing; Graham would dearly love to see it manufactured in quantity and sold at an affordable price.

His starting point was a GL1100 frame and engine, to which he attached an extended (by 4 inches) rear frame and swinging arm in order to fit the rear wheel, suspension and final drive from a GL1500.  The front forks and wheel from a GL1500 were also used, complete with rotor cover.  A hydraulic clutch was contrived to replace the GL1100′s original cable clutch, using a clever adaptation of a car components to create the necessary slave cylinder.

Clutch slave cylider

So far Graham had been covering familiar ground in that he modified a GL1200 Limited Edition by extending the rear frame and swinging arm to install a GL1500 rear wheel and final drive, likewise GL1500 front forks and wheel and a GL1500 trunk.  But that bike had retained its original front fairing and saddlebags and despite the GL1500 seat it still looked basically like a fairly heavily accessorised GL1200 with an unusual colour scheme and unusual bodywork features.

Fog light housing is hand made GRP moulding

Graham had also gathered experience of modifying the rear of a friend’s GoldWing trike to accommodate some stylish lighting units from a car by remodelling the fibreglass moulding.   Graham had acquired the skills to incorporate more radical and more stylish bodywork changes into his GL1100 project.

The original GL1100 Aspencade front fairing, tank top and cockpit were retained, although substantially refurbished to give a fresh and modern appearance – for example the original round headlight was replaced by a more modern design liberated from a Yamaha Fazer.  The way in which Graham managed to incorporate a radically different shape of headlight into the original fairing and make it look like it really belongs is very impressive.

Clever integration of GL1500 and GL1800 rear lights

A GL1500 trunk replaced the original, boxy-looking equivalent and it was in this form, still with the original GL1100 saddlebags, that the bike did its first Tour.  But  Graham was by no means finished yet.  When he got home from the Tour work continued with the seeming impossible challenge of replacing the saddlebags with a pair from a GL1800.  How on earth could components from such disparate designs, indeed from completely different motorcycling eras, be made to fit together in harmony?

As you can see from the pictures, Graham managed to do this wonderfully.  The GL1800 saddlebags needed considerable modification on the inside, to accommodate the GL1500 suspension, and this was achieved by extensive re-shaping by means of plastic welding.  And in order to make the lights on the GL1800 saddlebags look compatible with the very different style of the GL1500 trunk lights, Graham modified both sets to produce his own unique lighting style – using diffusers from domestic ceiling lights!  Graham also modified the lower part of the front fairing to add stylish lower lights.

GL1800 seat looks like it belongs

The seat is from a GL1800 and this required cutting down the middle and rejoining to reduce its width as well as refashioning of the passenger backrest.  The Cockpit was also completely refurbished and new glovebox lids were made to cover the GL1200 Panasonic radio/tape unit and on the other side a CB radio.

Cockpit is impeccably finished

A power-operated windscreen wiper has been installed (by adapting a Volvo headlamp wiper) which is controlled by a push button on the handlebars.  The exhaust uses silencers from an FJR1300.

Modifed rear lighting

The standard of overall finish which Graham has achieved is remarkable.  The frame, engine and ancillaries are all powder coated in shiny black and the paintwork is a two tone combination in the manner of a GL1500SE.  Perhaps the cleverest and neatest bits of customisation are the panels which Graham has made (from fibreglass) to join the major components – these really look the part.

Powder coated engine

How does it handle?  Graham’s very happy with the bike’s handling and performance generally – and the bike was reliable on its maiden European Tour.  And the new owner of Graham’s Customised GL1200 Ltd is very happy with his bike too.

GL1500 trunk and seat on a GL1200 - Graham's first project

There can be no doubt that Graham’s Customised GL1100 is a great success as a project.  It’s pleasing on the eye and it works as a grand touring bike in the GoldWing style.  And apart from Graham’s stylish one-off glass fibre joining panels, it’s been made from parts which are widely available from broken bikes and are relatively inexpensive to buy.  All you need is Graham’s skills and application (and maybe a very tolerant as well as encouraging wife) and you too could create an Exceptional GoldWing!

Graham  is a Member of GoldWing Misfits, a group which enjoys biking rallies and camping events but prefers to steer clear of club meetings and politics.  He works as a mechanic at Chorley Yamaha, which despite being a Yamaha Dealer also services GoldWings and often has used stock.

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Tempting but increasingly tight for a GoldWing?

I have referred to a helpful internet article written by Biker/Solicitor John Measures of Barratts Solicitors previously and this Article was provoked by another one of his.  Filtering past or through standing or slow moving traffic is common practice in UK but is it safe and is it legal?

With our busy and often traffic-clogged roads, the option to filter through standing or slow moving traffic is a potentially valuable aspect of life on two wheels, providing you have the confidence to do it and the perceptiveness to appreciate when it’s a bit too risky.

Not all GoldWing riders are confident enough to take their big bike into the relatively narrow gaps which filtering often involves but plenty are.  When I get the chance to make progress while cars and trucks are stuck in traffic I do so, with contentment which sometimes verges on smugness at my good fortune at being a motorcyclist.  Not only am I riding my wonderful bike but I’m not stuck in traffic like the drivers I’m riding past either – so aren’t I the luc

An inviting gap, but always check for obstructive lane dividers across the junction

ky one?

So eat your hearts out you unfortunate German and US riders, in your Countries (or at least in many US States) it’s illegal to filter.  But in UK we may do so if we wish, or at least it’s not something which UK bikers will ordinarily get pulled up by the police for doing.

Nor is it particularly likely to provoke, at least not so far in UK, angry or obstructive reactions from other road users, although occasionally a car or van driver will try to manoeuvre to obstruct a filtering motorcyclist.  On the relatively rare occasions when I have seen this happen for some reason it’s usually been someone driving a fairly old car that is behaving selfishly in this way and I wondered why?

I once spoke to a driver of an old Volvo who had tried to deliberately pull out on me in a dangerous way and he eventually admitted it was because he was envious of my grand and expensive bike.  Another driver who objected very strongly after I had overtaken him into a gap behind the lorry he was following (by undertaking me and then deliberately forcing me out into the path of oncoming traffic until I dropped back behind him again,which of course I did in order to stay alive) was a shaven headed thug (again in an old car) who would clearly stop at nothing to keep his place at the head of the queue to overtake that lorry, even though he was extremely unlikely (on that road) to get an opportunity.

It's illegal to cross or straddle solid white line lane dividers on motorway slip roads

However that sort of thing really is very rare and indeed was a complete one-off in my experience but it does illustrate that filtering needs to be done with alertness to the responses which other roads users may make.  In that particular case I did probably take Mr Skull a bit by surprise by overtaking him when he was fairly close behind that lorry, causing him to have to back off a little initially, and I could probably have picked a better and less surprising moment to put myself in front of him.  Keeping yourself out of trouble on a motorcycle nearly always boils down to good observation, so that you have time to make sensible decisions, indeed that’s what advanced motorcycling is all based on.

But taken as a whole in UK, I have found filtering both on motorways and in towns to be safe and worthwhile as long as it’s done carefully and with reasonable consideration to other road users.  Indeed I rather enjoy it as a way of exercising motorcycling skill.  I very rarely encounter adverse reaction of any kind from other road users and it allows me to make progress through congested traffic which would otherwise involve considerable delay.

But don’t try filtering, especially between lanes of traffic, when you’re on holiday in Florida.  You will get pulled by the Sheriff or the State Trooper if he sees you and you might very well have a car door deliberately opened in your path or even a gun pulled on you by an angry driver who disapproves of you jumping the queue he’s stuck in.  In Florida motorcyclists are expected to wait their turn in traffic the same as everyone else.

Filtering is not without its hazards in UK either, including attempts by other road users to be deliberately obstructive, and it should therefore be done with due care or not at all.  In order to filter between lanes of standing traffic on a UK motorway, which is unfortunately all too common these days, you require confident slow speed handling of the bike, including coping with riding along rows of cat’s eyes or along banding of the tarmac.

It takes a bit of getting used to, especially for pillion passengers, for whom it may sometimes hold particular terrors.  But once you have got the hang of it you will find you can relax into steady control of the bike’s line and you will gain confidence to keep rolling even through narrow gaps; a GoldWing is only 1 metre wide between the mirrors and gaps between traffic lanes are not usually narrower than unless the lanes have been narrowed, for example within road works.

Gaps in lines of standing traffic mean potential danger - look carefully for emerging cross traffic

Likewise filtering past standing traffic in towns can be very productive and satisfying – and all it takes is decent forward observation, to spot where you can safely overtake without getting marooned on the wrong side of the road in the face of oncoming traffic.

But is filtering risky in the legal sense – or for that matter in the insurance sense?  Where do you stand if a collision occurs?

John Measures answers these questions very helpfully in his article on the subject and he seems to be pretty confident as well as clear about what he says.  John is a biker who likes to filter through traffic himself when the need arises but he’s also a lawyer, and lawyers don’t offer assurances on the legality of things lightly.  Happily John thinks it is legal to filter past and through traffic and his Article explains why.  There is nothing illegal per se about taking advantage of the relatively modest width of a motorcycle to make progress when other road users cannot do so because of traffic congestion.

Being on the wrong side of double white lines can be an offence of course and so can riding the wrong way along a designated one-way street, but there is nothing illegal per se about riding on the off side half of the road or between lanes of traffic.  A motorcyclist can often overtake standing traffic by using the off-side carriageway when it is clear because he can make use of smaller spaces in or alongside standing traffic than four wheel vehicles require.

It’s a curiosity of English Law that there is no specific legal requirement to drive on the left – although it doesn’t follow that riding unnecessarily or persistently on the right hand side of the road to the alarm of other road users wouldn’t attract police attention.  And of course a motorcyclist can be considered by a police officer to be riding without dangerously or due without due care or due consideration for other road users (depending on the way the motorcyclist goes about his riding) no matter which side of the road he is on and whether or not he is passing other traffic.

Hatched dividing zones can be used unless they are marked for use by turning traffic

So while filtering past standing traffic is not illegal per se, there are plenty of ways of going about it which could be considered illegal.  So it needs to be done sensibly and considerately, that’s the thing.

And if other road users don’t want to move over to let you squeeze through gaps when you are filtering between lines of traffic on motorways you have to accept that and wait patiently until there is room to do so; kicking at the side of a car or at its door mirrors might be tempting if a driver is deliberately being a pain but if you really wind him up he might retaliate physically with his car or van or lorry and at the end of the day he’s inside a steel protective cage and you’re not.

So as long as you are not see by a police officer (or a video camera) to be riding dangerously or carelessly or inconsiderately, and as long as you don’t end up colliding with anything, filtering is not illegal and you are unlikely to be taken to task.  The worst thing that is likely to happen is a toot of the horn or a gesture of frustration from a road user who can’t follow you but if that happens you’ll already be past him (or her) and on your way.

But what if you collide with another vehicle, then what’s the insurance and legal position?  As with any road traffic collision, the police might get involved and might consider whether any offence has been committed and if so deal with it.  Apart from that it will be a matter of how the insurance companies view what has happened and if it comes to it, what the civil Courts decide about whose is to blame.

Tempting but tight

Therein lies the risk to motorcyclists of being hard done by because there is a tendency for both insurance companies and the Courts to think that whenever a motorcycle is involved in a collision it will be at least partly the motorcyclist’s fault.   Rightly or wrongly, and of course we would say wrongly, motorcyclists are regarded as prone to riding faster that is entirely safe and to overtake riskily.  Civil cases are decided on the balance of probability and blame is often apportioned, so even when a motorcyclist is the injured party, it is not uncommon for damage awards to be reduced to reflect the extent to which the motorcyclist is considered to have brought the situation upon himself.

For example collisions often happen at junctions.  A motorcycle is overtaking standing or very slow moving traffic along a main road towards a junction on the left from which a vehicle is trying to exit and turn right.  A considerate car or lorry driver on the main road stops to create a gap and maybe also waves the vehicle out, just as the motorcycle is approaching.  The rider may not have seen the hazard sign for the junction (because the standing traffic has obscured it) and may therefore, unless road markings give a clue, that there is a junction.  The rider doesn’t see the vehicle either creeping or  accelerating briskly out of the gap in the line of traffic until too late and a collision occurs, maybe quite a nasty one.

Courts have been known in such circumstances to regard the biker as partly or even entirely to blame for this type of collision, depending on the particular circumstances – to the extent that persuading the Court that a rider is entirely blameless is quite a challenge of advocacy for even a skilled and experienced lawyer.  This is when bikers need lawyers like John Measures representing them; it can make a big difference.

Approaching a roundabout often presents opportunities but take extra care if you plan to turn left

Better of course to have avoided the collision in the first place and there will nearly always have been indications of a hazard to which the biker could have reacted, if only a hint, if he was looking for it, that there was a potentially hazardous gap in the line of standing traffic coming up.  An observant rider would be alert to the hazards of left side junctions with minor roads and will be looking out for them as he overtakes standing traffic, likewise any gap in the line of traffic which might indicate that a vehicle is about to emerge from an unmarked junction such as a driveway or a gateway from a field.

Even this sort of vigilance while filtering isn’t foolproof because there a possibility that pedestrians or bicycles or motorcycles will suddenly emerge from the smallest of gaps between standing traffic.  Overtaking standing traffic on both urban and country roads requires continuing vigilance and considerable caution.  Any rider who overtakes standing traffic at speed or without due caution at marked junctions and when approaching conspicuous gaps in the line of traffic is likely to to be held substantially at fault if a collision occurs.

Filtering between lines of standing or slow moving traffic on motorways is potentially less hazardous because the risk of vehicles emerging from the left to turn right (i.e. against the traffic flow) is not there, but there are still risks of vehicles on either side suddenly swapping lanes across the bike’s path or, especially when traffic has been stopped for a while, suddenly opening a door.

In my experience only a tiny minority of motorists pay enough attention to their door mirrors, especially their left side door mirror, to be likely top see an approaching motorcycle before it’s upon them.  Safety requires that the motorcyclist assumes that all drivers will not see him and might wander or lurch or even swerve suddenly into his path unless there are indications otherwise.  Encouraging indications to the biker include vehicles in front maintaining a steady line over a period of time as he approaches them, vehicles making a conspicuous move to clear a path for the approaching motorcycle (which does sometimes happen) and in stationary traffic, occupants who are not moving about.  These give no guarantee that obstacles will not suddenly appear in the biker’s path but they will reduce some of the risk.

It helps of course to make yourself as conspicuous as possible when you are filtering so having your dipped headlights on is an absolute must.  Wearing Hi Viz clothing is useful too, especially if it’s a full yellow jacket and you’re wearing a white helmet and riding a white GoldWing, as I do. This is one of thsoe situations when being mistaken at first glance for a police motorcyclist works in your favour.

Cones often herald narrowing lanes

The more lights you can show to make yourself conspicuous to the drivers’ peripheral vision through their door mirrors as you approach the better chance they will spot you coming and most drivers will avoid turning into your path even if they don’t move away from it.

Legal ways to make yourself conspicuous include flashing your main beam headlights regularly and on a GL1800 this is very conspicuous and relatively easy to do; pressing the rear end of your headlight dipping switch works as a momentary press flashing switch (i.e. press on and release off) and you can do this with your left thumb.  Fog lights aren’t illegal either these days, or at least they are not likely to attract police attention, so if you have those and/or any driving lights you have fitted, it’s worth switching those on too.

Other conspicuous lights such as strobe lights are illegal and could get you in trouble if you happen to be filtering past a police car, but they are very effective.  They do capture the attention of a fair proportion of drivers and many of them do then move away from your line of approach.

Lane dividers marked for use by turning traffic are not available for filtering

Filtering between lines of traffic on a motorway while riding a GoldWing requires confident slow speed handling to maintain your own chosen line, sometimes along beading lines on the tarmac, which can feel a bit tottery until you get used to it, and lines of prominent cat’s eyes which feel even worse.  Fortunately your |GoldWing is better at this than you will be to start with, so as long as you keep looking up and ahead, make your decisions about whether the gap you’re approaching is big enough well before you get there and avoid panicky glances downwards or sideways you’ll either get the hang of it fairly quickly or equally quickly abandon the idea for ever.  Filtering between lines of traffic is like Marmite; you either relish doing it and grab every opportunity or hate it and avoid it like the plague.

Filtering through motorway traffic which is moving steadily forward, even if only at 20 mph or so, carries an increasing risk of difficulties as the speed of traffic increases because if a collision occurs it is increasingly likely to be a spectacular one in which you could end up dead or seriously injured.  If you ride the M25 you will often see motorcycles weaving through traffic which is moving at 60 mph or even faster.  This can provide interesting spectator sport while they’re in view but it is really is very risky to follow their example.

John Measures doesn’t cite any cases of collisions while filtering on motorways in his Article but clearly if the motorcycle is the only vehicle which was moving the rider will get all the credit for causing the collision and even if another driver moves into his path or opens a door on him, the motorcyclist will be at substantial risk of being regarded as partly at fault, especially if he has been filtering at considerable speed.

When traffic engineers have squeezed in extra lanes the options for filtering are reduced

In summary filtering past or through traffic on a motorcycle is not illegal per se but it is a risky activity and the motorcyclist is likely to get blamed at least to some extent if anything goes wrong.  By all means overtake standing traffic in towns and on main roads when it’s safe to do so but keep a special eye out for left side junctions and gaps in the traffic from which something could suddenly emerge.  Likewise filter between lines of traffic on motorways when you feel confident that you can ride steadily through narrow gaps without clenching your buttocks and getting into a state.

But and don’t complain if it all goes suddenly and terribly wrong; your insurance company is not likely to be very sympathetic or supportive if you collide with something while filtering, even if the police aren’t particularly likely to take issue.

More detailed discussions of filtering risks and methods is available on the Advanced Driving Forum by Clicking Here.  A well written briefing on filtering skills is available on the In Gear Rider Training website by clicking Here.

And finally, filtering can be a particularly terrifying pastime for pillion passengers, so bear that in mind too.  If you get too cavalier about filtering with the wife on the back seat you might get a buzz from the progress you make and enjoy the moment while it lasts but you might never hear the last of it either.

Postscript (July 14th)

In response to this Article I have had an email from a serving Traffic Police Officer who rides a Wing himself.  He doesn’t want to be named but here’s what he says:

“Whilst I am not speaking for the police, my take on your article about filtering is much as yours, and I feel that most of my colleagues share that view point.  If your actions are deemed dangerous or inconsiderate, then fair do’s you will get nicked.  Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that should an accident happen, the filtering by a bike would be a major factor when it comes to any charge.  Me personally, I do it all the time – but safely and with my highway pegs tucked in.  I and most of my colleagues see GoldWing riders as more mature, considerate and safe than other bikers, so they don’t often get tarred by the same brush.”

Selection on offer in Kissimmee

Yesterday was for hanging around, waiting for family to join us here in Central Florida from Gatwick, which fortunately was free from volcanic ash, albeit not entirely from its knock-on effects.  Fortunately their flight was delayed by only 3 hours but it did mean that a visit to Powersports of Kissimmee, a Honda, Can-Am and Suzuki Dealer, could be taken in without Grandmotherly impatience being provoked.

I’ve been under caution about visiting motorcycle dealers while on holiday in the US ever since I photographed Management alongside a new GoldWing colour a few years ago and emailed the picture home to a biker friend – who promptly posted it on the internet with the caption “Get the knobbly knees” or some such.  She was furious, so bikes only in the pictures this time.

This Dealer had four new (or at least un-registered) GL1800s in stock ranging from a 2010 model (which is unchanged in the US except for colour from 2009) in a metallic charcoal grey which is offered at list price – and the list price of GoldWings went up in the US last year by about the same amount as it did in UK.  So with the Dollar having strengthened considerably against the GB Pound during the past couple of years too, a personal import of a current year GoldWing from the States doesn’t strike me as an attractive prospect at the moment.

Still available in the US and my personal favourite GL1800 of all of them

As in UK however, HondaUSA has left-over previous years models of GoldWings to clear and is selling them to dealers at a discount,  which the dealers can therefore pass on.  So for example the black GL1800 in the picture is a 2008 Airbag Model and it was being offered for just over $21,000 (before haggling) so a good deal compared with the current list prices.  A 2010 top-of-the-range airbag GL1800 is listed at over $27,000 and the only differences from the 2008 model specification for 2009 and 2010 (which are identical) were an XM (i.e. satellite) radio reception, which is irrelevant for use in UK) and tyre pressure monitoring.   So at $21,000 plus about £4,000 in shipping, insurance and taxes to get it to UK, a personal import of a 2008 Airbag GL1800 from America is perhaps worth considering, even with a weak GB Pound to contend with.

The GoldWing production line at Maryville Ohio closed in March 2009 so as with all so-called 2010 models in UK, these bikes were all built prior to the factory closure and the 2012 Model GoldWing (the first from the new factory, as already announced to US Dealers if not publicly) will be imported into the US from Japan.

A helmet statement may be the alternative to carrying a gun on the bike

The closure of the US Factory has caused at least some American Wingers, or rather those who could afford to do so in the economic recession, to change their bikes ahead of this major change, to grab their last chance to have a replacement American-built GoldWing.  Nevertheless American Wingers, who unlike the European GoldWing market, are offered a range of several different GoldWing specifications, still haven’t really taken to the Airbag model, hence there are still some 2008 Airbag Model bikes unsold.

I didn’t get a chance to chat to the owner of this dealership and the Sales Lady was not very forthcoming about volumes and trends but I’ll make further enquiries and report again if I discover more.  They didn’t seem to have any used GoldWings in stock at all although there was a very neglected-looking champagne-coloured GL1800 out in the yard.  Its seat was very badly ripped and the plastic surfaces of the instrument and LCD display panels appeared to have been deliberately and very badly scratched, to the extent that the whole module would need replacing, as would the seat need recovering.  I guessed it might have have been bought cheaply by the dealer as a recovered stolen bike or a deliberately trashed repo bike because it’s difficult to see how any owner of a GoldWing would allow that sort of damage to develop in normal circumstances; I’ve never seen one as bad as that before. There are three very large auction sites in the Southern US at which re-possessed GoldWings are recycled into the trade so maybe it came from one of those.  Until HondaUK’s clampdown a few years ago UK dealers used an agent to buy whole container loads of GoldWings from this source for resale in UK.

John Measures, Solicitor, 0800 021 3065 or 0115 931 5167

I came across an interesting internet article  on this subject by John Measures, who is both an enthusiastic biker and a solicitor. Barratts, where he works, is a firm of East Midlands Solicitors who specialise in personal injury claims for motorcyclists.

A biker who was leading a small group of bikes was prosecuted for speeding, as were his riding mates.  They were all caught riding at speeds considerably in excess of the prevailing 60 mph limit, especially the following riders who were riding even faster that the leading bike.  In deciding the sentence to impose on the leading rider the Court took into account that as leader he was setting the pace for the group of bikes and by speeding himself when leading a group he had therefore aggravated his own speeding offence.  On this basis he was given stiffer punishment than he would otherwise have got.

In his Article John Measures considers the implications for other bikers who act as Group Ride Leaders, for both criminal prosecutions and civil liability.

John makes it clear that there is no need to be panicked into refusing to lead rides; ride leaders are not suddenly at such extra risk of prosecution or extra penalties that they should give it all up.  If they are not speeding themselves they are unlikely to get prosecuted for speeding even if one or more of their following riders are caught speeding.  As long as a Ride Leader rides in accordance with the law himself, and as long as he hasn’t actively encouraged others to break the law in some way, he is not likely to be taken to task.  Note however that a group leader who briefs other riders to block traffic illegally at junctions or roundabouts could, for example, be regarded as being involved in committing an offence and therefore prosecuted for it.

John rides a Suzuki Hayabusa, so he's not your typical solicitor

Solicitor John does however raise the issue of the accountability which a group rider may have under civil law, should any of his following riders be involved in an accident in which the group leader’s acts or omissions (as a group leader)  are considered to have contributed to the cause.  He describes a case in which damages were awarded against a ride leader to a following rider who was following him and suffered injury when they both went off the road.

The “compensation culture” may be a relatively recent phenomenon but a leading rider’s responsibilities to his followers is not; the case John cites of a leader having to pay damages dates from 1938!

The practical advice which John offers to ride leaders, about preparing properly and for conducting a group ride is of course soundly based in legal terms but he does perhaps assume that group rides are all of one kind and are therefore best led in the same way, which my experience suggests is too simplistic.

The principles behind John’s recommendations, if not the precise methods he suggests should be adopted, will apply generally of course.  These are to make adequate preparations for acting as ride leader before doing so and then ride in accordance with the law yourself – and in a way which does not encourage others to break the law or take undue risk.

Damages which are awarded to those who suffer serious motorcycle injuries are often very big sums of money these days because motorcycling accident injuries can be severely and permanently disabling – and they invariably are accompanied by big legal bills too.  Normal bike insurance may not cover a ride leader’s responsibilities as such and if you ask your insurers whether you are covered as a ride leader more likely than not they will either exclude it or impose extra premiums, such is the risk-aversion among insurers these days.  They seek to limit cover whenever possible to a finite set of risks and in the context of motorcycling they try to exclude as many potentially expensive ones as possible. That’s why you are asked whether you carry a pillion passenger these days.

Additional PLI cover (i.e. public liability, or more correctly these days civil liability insurance) is the way to be properly covered as a group ride leader.   Riders who lead club ride outs should check that they are covered by their Club’s PLI policy, since that should provide indemnity against any negligence claims they might otherwise find themselves facing all on their lonesome.

Ride Leaders are automatically covered for all club rides if their GoldWing Club is affiliated to the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs.  GWOCGB Regions may however need to seek formal Recognition by their Nation Committee in advance for each specific activity if they are to benefit from their Club’s scheme.  GoldWing clubs which are not part of either the federation or GWOCGB should consider taking out PLI cover for the benefit of their ride leaders; the cheapest way to do this is to affiliate either with the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs or with BMF.

You can read John Measures’s Article in full by Clicking Here.  Having spoken to John at some length about this subject I can recommend him as a solicitor who genuinely understands bikers and who tries to help them get back on the bike after an accident as well as get them their due.  Please note  that he does not deal with criminal law matters.

Not as chaotic as it looks!

The four basic accessory circuits which were described in Part 4 of this Series can be adapted to cover most requirements on a GoldWing, so there is little need for more examples of what would be relatively minor variations on these themes.   So this further Article is about integrating accessory circuits when the opportunity arises, to avoid unnecessary duplication when several circuits are being installed.  Likewise to minimise clutter.

It’s also a collection of examples of how I or other people have tackled particular jobs, to illustrate the things that need to be taken into account and that sometimes there is more than one perfectly valid way of going about things.

Lots of accessory circuits inevitably means lots of cables and connections, so that prime locations like under the seat and under the glove boxes can get very busy and crowded.  The first photo shows the numerous cables, connectors and (white tape) labels under my right hand glovebox or, since it’s an airbag model, non-glovebox because it’s just a space with a lid on it, quite a lot of which is already taken up with components.

Everything tucked away before the lid goes back on

There are service connections in here, notably of cables routed to this space from the handlebars (eg switch cables) en route to the space under the seat.  Other cables bring accessory power supplies from under the seat for two different display lighting circuits, so that groups of LED lighting units can be connected to them.  Finally another multicore cable terminates here, routed from under the seat, installed while the Top Shelter was off to provide spare capacity.

Each cable in this space, or at least each separate bundle of cables, is labelled with its role using a tag of white pvc insulation tape tape and a marker pen, as an aid to identification.  So things in that space are not as chaotic as first glance might suggest.  You will see from the second picture that everything can all be tucked away neatly before the lid goes back on.  Unless you are systematic about what you do and also pretty diligent about recording and labelling things as you go along, it can easily become difficult or even impossible to sort out what’s what.

Let’s start this collection of ideas and tips, for that’s effectively what is is, by explaining how it can help to share cables between circuits, especially around groups of relays.

A Common Ground Connection Loom

One easy way to apply a bit of joined up thinking to your accessory circuits is making up a Common Ground Connection Loom under the seat.

For technical reasons (which I don’t understand but seem to make practical sense by somehow reducing audio interference ) it is undesirable anyway to make the return connections from accessory circuits directly to the battery’s negative terminal.  And if you did try to connect all the return cables from your accessory circuits to the battery’s negative terminal you’re going to end up with a jumble of cables and ring terminals; even if you don’t run out of space to make enough connections your bike’s battery will look very cluttered.  Installing a Common Ground Connection Loom solves this problem and leaves your battery uncluttered and therefore much easier to remove if you need to.

Grounding to the Frame

“Ground”, in the context of motorcycle electrics, means the bike’s metal frame and the engine block, which are always very well connected, electrically speaking, with the negative terminal of the battery.  Honda installs a heavy duty cable connection between the battery’s negative terminal and the engine/frame, not least because the engine block carries the return current when the starter motor is working.  Honda also connects ground returns of the bike’s circuits (headlamps, horn etc) to this or other frame connections.  So the  engine block and frame are, electrically speaking, the equivalent of the battery’s negative terminal for purposes of returning accessory circuits too.

It is therefore possible (although not usually desirable) to connect the second terminal of almost any accessory to any nearby part of the engine or frame.  For example fog lights, which are installed low down and in front of the engine, can have their return connection made to one of the bolts on the engine nearby.  But it’s not really a good idea to do this and generally speaking Honda doesn’t do it all, preferring instead to run a return cable back thought the wiring loom to a central grounding point.

The main reason for this is reliability.  Multiple grounding connections all over the bike’s engine and frame is a recipe for multiple poor earthing problems – and poor earthing problems can be a nuisance to diagnose and fix.  Better therefore that your accessory circuits have reliable connections to ground.

Grounding connection points elsewhere on the frame may be in exposed positions and so prone to corrosion; the engine or frame bolts you fancy using may be doing a critically important job of their own and really shouldn’t be disturbed – or the engine or frame bolt which you choose might provide a relatively poor electrical connection anyway because of non-conducting gaskets or bushes built into the attachment.

Better therefore, generally speaking, to copy Honda’s approach to circuit design by using return cable from accessories back to a central, reliable grounding connection point.  And since the cable runs for many of your accessory circuits are likely to start off under the seat, where there is space to install connectors and relays, the obvious place to establish your common grounding connection point is under the seat too.  Fortunately on a GL1800 the attachment bolts which fasten the rear sub frame (which supports the trunk and saddlebags) to the main frame are under the seat and they provide a convenient and reliable place to connect to ground.

The first photograph in this Section shows a black 35 amp cable connected (as a common grounding point) by means of a yellow crimp terminal with an 8 mm ring to the right rear frame bolt of a GL1800 under the seat.  The grounding cable is then routed forwards under the seat to the area between the relay box and the fuel tank sender, where Honda has kindly left space suitable for installing accessory relays and making circuit connections.

This common grounding cable can then provide a return connection point for all the bike’s accessory circuits and for your relay energising circuits.  The cable must of course be able to carry the full current load of all the accessory circuits using it simultaneously so it needs to be quite a thick one.  Likewise each branch of this cable needs to be able to carry the full load of all the circuits connected to it.

Branching a thicker shared cable, in this case with a ring terminal for frame connection, to allow multiple connections

In practice you will know (by the number and size of fuses you have incorporated into your accessory circuits roughly how much they will draw in total, which will provide a useful starting point.  Unless you have an exceptionally large number of power-hungry accessories, a cable rated at 30 amps or above is likely to be more than sufficient.  If you haven’t got any 30 amp cable you could use equivalent multiples of thinner cable, say two 16.5 amp cables or three 11 amp cables.  If in doubt overdo it!

At its other end, in the area under the seat where you will be making your accessory circuit connections, you can use thinner cables and butt crimp connectors to branch out so that returning accessory circuits can be grounded by connecting to it.   You can also use it for other connections you will need to make to ground, such as the returns from relay activation circuits.

Sharing Power Feeds to Relays

A similar approach, branching a thick cable into thinner ones, can be used to connect the 12 volt power supply to each Terminal 30 (power input) of a group of relays or directly (i.e without relays, although via fuses of course) to accessory circuits.

On my own bike I have installed a row of four relays, taped together for tidiness and labelling, under the seat.  An in-line fuse (rated at 30 amps) is connected to the battery’s positive terminal and then to a heavy cable (over 30 amps) which connects in “daisy chain” fashion to the Terminal 30 (power input) of each relay in turn.  You will need to use large (yellow) female push-on crimp terminals to make up this type of daisy chain.  It may be necessary to trim out a few strands of cable and to chamfer the insulation as two cables come together to enter the crimp tube in order to get them in but with care it can be done.

Start by taping the relays together, to give your self a stable set of blades to work with, having oriented them so that they all face the same way.  Then measure how much cable you will need for each cut the loops and cut them to exactly the same length before you start; this will give you a neater final result.

Branching power outlet cables from relays

Sometimes one relay can serve several circuits.  For example on my bike Relay Number One  (which like them all has a full 30 amp input to its Terminal 30) and is energised by the Accessory Terminals (so its output Terminal 87  goes live when the ignition is on, branches into four fuse-holders which connect to four different sub-circuits.  It doesn’t matter than some (the low power ones) are switched and some aren’t, or that they vary considerably in the potential current draw because they are individually fused to suit.

Each relay’s Terminal 87 (power output) is connected to the circuit’s (or circuits’) own in-line fuse(s), rated for the appropriate load and hence cable size.  These sub-circuits can also be branched out into subdivisions too if necessary, as long as they are all fused to suit their load and cable size.  So one relay can cater for a large number of sub circuits, far more than I have used.

These are of course merely examples, chosen to suit my particular range of accessories.  My bike is a US Specification GL1800, so a fog light circuit was built into the bike’s wiring loom by Honda, but I’ve included a fictitious fifth relay, which I would have installed for a fog light circuit it was a UK Spec bike.  Power circuits which need to be switched separately, such as  fog lights, need their own relay.

Note that Relay Number 1 is energised by the bike’s Accessory Terminals rather by an operating switch, which means that its sub-circuits go live as soon as the ignition is on.  The cable connected to the power output terminal of this relay therefore branches immediately into four in-line fuse holders for the four sub-circuits, each of has a fuse rated according to that circuit’s load (and of course it’s cable size).

Shared Grounding of the relay energising circuits

A similar “daisy chain” approach can be taken with the cables connecting Terminal 85 of each relay, the ground return of the energising circuits, which can then be connected to the Common Ground Loom which you have also created.

Note that because relay energising circuits draw only tiny currents (less that 0.2 amps each) you can use thin cable for this daisy chain because (assuming 5 relays) the total current on all four will not exceed 1 amp.  You can therefore safely connect this daisy chain of Terminal 85 cables to a thin cable branch of your Common Ground Loom.

Sub-circuits and fuses for your Display Lighting Circuits

While some accessories, such as fog lights and powerful strobe lights need their own accessory circuit and relay, display lighting units, which are usually low power devices, can profitably be grouped together.  Of course if your display lighting includes something really powerful and spectacular it might warrant its own relay circuit (or in the case of PapaJoe’s Blackpool Tower Trailer it’s own mobile Power Station!) but for individual LED lights and LED light strips and arrays, grouping together makes excellent sense.

One fused relay output cable branching into three fused sub circuits

Because the cable supplied with LED lights is usually very thin, the circuit to which it is connected needs to be fused accordingly.  So your shouldn’t, for example,  group lots of LED lights and other lights and then fuse the whole lot with one 7.5. amp fuse.  If a short occurs in the thin power lead of one of your LED strips it would burn up before your 7.5 amp fuse blows.

Even fairly long strips of LED display lighting draw a relatively low current, so you can illuminate a sizeable chunk of a GoldWing with a current draw of 2 amps or less.

I decided to establish three connection “hubs” for each of two colours of display lights for display lights on my bike, one under each glovebox and one under the rear of the seat.  These locations would be reachable by the power leads supplied with the LED strips and lights from the positions on the bike where I was planning to install them, so three “hubs” would be enough.  Since I wanted to be able to switch between two colour schemes of display lights I would need one set of three hubs for each colour.

It can be difficult to calculate the precise current draw of a group of LED strips without resorting to actually measuring it, which I decided would be possible but fiddly and was probably unnecessary.  LED lights draw tiny amounts of electricity and even a long strip of LED lights is unlikely to draw more than 1 amp.  Instead I decided to fuse the power cable of each “hub” at 2 amps (the lowest size of blade fuse available) on the basis that a short of 2 amps, even in a thin LED strip power cable, would not be a serious fire risk.

If I find that as I add more LED lights to a hub its 2 amp fuse blows, I will have to consider establishing sub-circuits downstream of the hub and fusing those at 2 amps.  If all the sub-circuits are separately fused, which they should be because it should be all or none, the hub’s fuse (back under the seat) could be increased substantially, indeed to as much as the cable supplying power to the hub is rated to carry.   (It would not be unreasonable to try increasing the hub’s fuse to 3 amps before resorting to creating fused sub-circuits downstream to see if that solves the problem.  But it would not be safe to increase the hub’s fuse much higher than that without creating sub-circuits and certainly not to match the capacity of its cable.)

Branching Relay Power Output Cables

Providing there is no requirement for separate operating switches (or providing the sub-circuits you will be creating can be switched at their full power levels) you can branch the power output from a relay.  Providing the cable feeding power to a relay can handle the total current you will draw from it, you can branch its output up to the capacity of the relay if necessary, which will be 30 if not 40 amps.  Relays are specifically designed to switch high current loads.

For example on my bike the relay power output connection (Terminal 87) for each of my two display colours has a main circuit fuse (in this case 7.5. amps) and then the cable branches into three, each of which has a further  in-line fuse (the individual hub fuses) rated at 2 amps.   I then use twin core (red/black) automotive cable to feed power from these sub-circuit fuses to “hubs”.

The black cores of these hub-feeder cables are connected at their origins under the seat to the Common Ground Loom. Two colours, three hubs each, so on my bike there are six hubs in total, so six return cables to be connected to ground.  You will begin to understand how cluttered the battery’s negative terminal would be getting by now if a Common Ground Loom wasn’t being used!

Power distribution “hubs”

At the other end of each of these three twin core red/black feeder cables are branched to provide for multiple connections.  Both red and black cores are branched equally and sufficiently to allow for some spare capacity.  As LED lights and strips are added to the bike, their power leads can then be connected, in groups when the opportunity arises,  to one or other of the branches, positive to red, negative to black.

The branching “hub” pictured here was constructed by squeezing as many cables as would go into the crimp tubes.  The total number of branches created turned out to be seven (so seven reds and seven blacks) each of which terminated in a red-size crimp tube with an open end, ready to accept an LED power lead.  Because the end of each branch is an insulated crimp tube it is safe to be left open until it’s needed.

Bearing in mind that on my bike each hub location has two of these “hubs”, one for each display colour, and that each red-size crimp tube will take several LED power leads (because their cable is so thin) you are pretty unlikely to need seven branches.  Except perhaps for the hub under the seat, where there is more space available so less of a need to avoid overkill, a smaller number of branches will almost certainly suffice.

Crimping in confined spaces like under the glove boxes can be awkward and although you don’t want to end up with too  much cable to be able to tuck away, you need to allow for lifting your “hub” out of its hole sufficiently to crimp the joints when it’s time to make them.

For this reason it makes good practical sense to construct the branching hub end of the feeder cable on the bench before installation and to route the un-branched end towards the area under the seat rather than the other way around, for example by drawing the plain end backwards from the glovebox under the Top Shelter rather than the branched end forwards.  More about how to do that without taking the Top Shelter off in a later Article.

LEDs are polarity sensitive

LED lights and strips will only work if they are corrected the right way around.  LEDs are light emitting diodes and diodes are devices which will only conduct electricity in one direction.

Connecting a packaged LED lighting unit (eg a strip or a set of LEDs) which is designed to work at 12 volts the wrong way around (i.e. the positive to negative and vice versa) will not normally damage it, it just won’t work that way around.  Testing for the correct way to make the connection is therefore simply a matter of trial and error – but check the instructions which come with it before you do so, in case the set you’ve bought is unusually sensitive.

Note however that this is not normally true for single LEDs, indeed usually it isn’t – but they’re not usually designed to cope with a forward voltage of 12 volts per LED either and a resistor has to be used in series with it to drop the voltage.  Installing individual LEDs, either singly or in combination, calls for enough skill to calculate the size of resistor to use to ensure the correct forward voltage is applied to each LED.

The power leads of LED lighting units are sometimes, but not always, marked positive and negative in some way but doubt can arise.  If in doubt make a temporary test connection (for example to a spare 12 volt battery on the bench) before crimping up connections on the bike.  If an LED light unit has a power cable which is unmarked or ambiguous, I test before installation and mark the positive cables by tying a knot in them.

Sub-Circuits from the Accessory Socket(s)

The GL1800′s Accessory Socket is under the left glovebox inside a rubber hood and it can be difficult to get to.  On early GL1800s (or at least on US models) there is also an Accessory Socket under the right glovebox too.

The Accessory Socket provides a useful source of power for low power devices which are likely to be installed nearby such as an MP3 player which can live in the glovebox and also make use of the auxiliary audio connector which is under there too.  Other accessories which have their own operating switches like satnav and speed camera detectors/warning devices, which are likely to be installed on the handlebars or the dash.

The accessory Socket is a three way Hitachi-type socket, although only two contacts are installed in it.  Not least because the Socket is buried too deeply inside it’s rubber boot to allow to the cut it off and replace it with standard connectors, to connect anything to it you will need a three way Hitachi plug and two 2.8mm crimp blade terminals.  These are available as kits of plug housing plus three blades from Kojaycat Ltd.

If you are planning to connect more than one device to the Accessory Socket you will need to branch the cables from your Hitachi plug.  It is fiddly and unreliable to branch cables directly from a 2.8mm blade crimp terminal so better to attach a short length of cable to the plug and branch from there.  You can do the branching using standard butt crimp joints instead of more Hitachi connectors.

Bear in mind that the Accessory Socket is protected by the bike’s 5 amp Accessory Fuse and the total permissible load on the Accessory Terminals and Accessory Socket(s) combined is only 5 amps – so this is no place to be trying to draw power for heated gloves for example.  Each branch you create at the Accessory Socket will form a sub-circuit and should therefore have its own fuse, especially if the devices to be powered from it consume only a very small current (less than 1 amp) in which case they are likely to have pretty thin power leads.  Glass tube fuses may be better suited to this role than blade fuses, since they are available in ratings below 2 amps. Using 2 amp blade fuses wouldn’t be unreasonable either.

Advantages of Bullet Connectors for “Hubs”

Bullet crimp terminals used for a service connection

Butt crimp connectors are not expensive and so replacing them as a way of re-making a joint isn’t a big deal providing you have left a little bit of spare cable length.  But a pair of bullet crimp connectors (one make, one female) provide an attractive alternative because they can be disconnected and re-connected at will and without tools, so they also constitute a service connection.  They take up a bit a tiny bit more space than a butt connector, they are less secure in that they can be pulled apart and using a pair of bullet terminals costs more than one butt connector.  And because any male bullet (of the same colour) will fit any female bullet, they are not as foolproof for purposes of service connections when there are multiple circuits passing through, but nevertheless I find them very useful and now routinely use them for display lighting hubs, primarily because they allow the various branches of a hub to be disconnected in turn to aid fault-finding if the hub fuse does blow.

In order to be able to leave spare hub branches unconnected safely (and to help avoid mistakes when reconnecting) it’s important to use female bullet connectors for the upstream (i.e. potentially “live”) 12 volt positive supply cables and male bullet terminals for the (lifeless) circuit return cables.  It doesn’t mater if a circuit return cable end contacts the bike’s frame or another return cable, so it doesn’t have to be insulated before the ends are tucked  away.

a black (return, ground) hub cable can touch anything when it’s tucked away. (The power leads for your LED lights therefore have male bullets on the positive cables and females on the negative ones, so they connect the right way around.)

A weighty investment

Service Manual and Wiring Diagrams

Interfering with your bike’s wiring loom in any way without access to (and being able to understand) your bike’s wiring diagram is like flying blind; you really shouldn’t do it.  Classic GoldWings has much simpler electrical systems than the later ones and Honda does use a consistent colour scheme for its wiring looms, so with older bikes it’s maybe not so critical.  But tinkering with the wiring loom of a GL1800 without a wiring diagram to refer to is asking for trouble and in the case of an Airbag Model it could get very exiting indeed.

Honda Service Manuals for current models can be purchased and these include wiring diagrams but it is important to understand that wiring diagrams can vary considerably between model years and for different markets.  So for example there have been several editions of the Service manual for a GL1800 since it’s first introduction and the wiring loom on a UK specification GL1800 is significantly different from that of a US specification bike of the same model year, especially the lighting circuits.  UK bikes have front “side” lights, US bikes don’t; US bikes are pre-wired fro fog lights, UK bikes aren’t; UK bikes have two tail lights, US bikes have four; US bikes have amber forward-facing running lights in the mirror housings which occult to indicate a turn, UK bikes have flashing amber direction indicators only.

The Honda Service Manuals you can buy in the States will not include wiring diagrams for UK specification bikes which can only be obtained through UK Honda Dealers.

Clymer and/or Haynes Manuals are available for GoldWings from 2005 and earlier and they include wiring diagrams but generally not those for UK specification bikes.  There is as yet no Clymer manual for 2006 onwards GL1800s.

Wiring diagrams for older model GoldWings are also problematic but (albeit currently under threat of being closed down by Honda’s lawyers) there is a useful Website called GoldWingDocs from which wiring diagrams cab be downloaded.  Kojaycat also supply their own wiring diagrams for some GoldWing models.

Altering your GoldWing’s Wiring Loom

Count the fuses? Lots and lots of fused sub-circuits. Somewhere underneath them are four accessory relays.

Honda did a careful and diligent job designing your bike’s wiring system and the Cautionary Tale in Part 1 of this Series should be a warning to all DIY auto-electricians to think long and hard before interfering with the bike’s own circuits.

It’s possible to end up doing this inadvertently and even without making any connections to the wiring loom, for example simply by routing your accessory cables alongside elements of the existing wiring loom you can cause audio interference or worse.  The golden rule when you engage in DIY wiring on a GoldWing, especially the later models like the Airbag GL1800 which has an elaborate wiring system some of which really must be left alone, is to proceed step by step and with caution, testing as you go to make sure you haven’t compromised any of the bike’s functionality.

On my own bike I have, with due caution, made three modifications to the manufacturer’s wiring system so far and thankfully they do work and haven’t so far compromised anything else, so I will describe them as illustrations of what can be done.  But don’t try this at home unless you are sure you are doing it safely and correctly; I studied the bike’s wiring diagram in some detail and checked and re-checked what I was about to do before cutting into the wiring loom.  I also made sure that I could completely reverse what I was doing before I did it by connecting the bike’s wiring loom back the way it was.

Cutting into Headlight cables to install a Modulator

As part of my quest to be conspicuous (for my own safety, honestly Your Honour!) I have installed a headlight modulator on my bike.  This is a device which causes the bike’s main beam headlights to pulse on and off in turn, like ambulance and police car headlights do.  (Headlight modulators are legal in many countries on motorcycles as a safety aid, as are flashing lights on pedal bicycles in UK.  But modulators are not legal for road use by motorcycles in UK, so be warned.  Nor of course are strobe lights or any flashing lights at all except lights reflected in a rotating road wheel.  For purposes of this Article it’s the installation of this device rather than its use or legality which we’re covering.)

Headlight Modulators are available commercially in the US but mine was made for me by a friend who has electronic skills.  For purposes of installation it’s simply a black box with cables coming out of it, four of which were for incoming and outgoing connections to the headlamps’ power cables.  The box also has cables for an operating switch and for an LED indicators light, to show when the black box was active.   I had taken care to emphasise to my firend when I got him to make it that the black box must be “fail safe” in the event of any type of failure – so that the power connections to the headlamps would be on, as the manufacturer intended.  Effectively therefore the two pairs of in/out headlamp power cables are internally connected unless the black box actively interrupts them.

Our concern here is the way these two pairs of black box power cables are connected into the bike’s headlamp circuit, so I will mention only in passing that I chose a momentary press switch (i.e. a push button) to operate the device, so I could not be inadvertently left on.

The GL1800 has two main headlamps and two dipped beam headlamps.  If you’ve been followed on the road by a GL1800 you will know that the dipped beam lights don’t alway both show up; it depends on the angle of view.   I would therefore be installing my modulator on the main beam lamps rather than the dipped ones.

On studying the wiring diagram the safe option was to intercept the main beam headlamp cables close to the lamps.  This is because a GL1800′s main beam head lamps are (at least on my US Spec GL1800A8) supplied quite separately, one from the power output of a dedicated relay but the other one directly from that relay’s energising circuit.  The headlamp dipping switch also has a cable connection to the bike’s starter switch, so that when the starter motor is turning the headlamps are turned off temporarily.  One way and other it was going to be far simpler  and safer to interrupt the power supply to each headlamp close to the bulb holders.  And fortunately the main beam (outer pair) lamp units on a GL1800 are reasonably accessible from behind the dashboard.  So that’s where I chose to tackle them.

Four fused branches from one relay, two to clothing power leads and two spares

Having checked several times that I had identified the correct cable on each side, I cut them, bared the ends and connected lengths of suitably rated cable to each one, so four cables in total, which were then routed to the location where the black box was to be installed.   The headlamps are 55 watts each, so a nominal 4.5 amps each, so up to 6 amps at 14.3 volts, so I used 11 amp cable to allow plenty of spare capacity.

I also used different colours of cable to help avoid getting them mixed up; it was important to connect the bike’s two headlamp power source cables to the black box’s two input cables and then the black box’s output cables to the two headlamps.   To provide a service connection which would be reliable for purposes of connecting these cable in the correct permutation I used a four way multipin connector.  I installed a four way socket on bike’s side and plug on the black box side.

Using a multipin connector also allowed me, by making up a spare four way plug with short loops of cable which, when inserted instead of the black box plug, would restore the normal cable pathways to the headlamps.  This spare plug was attached to the cable run close to the connector using a cable tie, so it would always be handy, just in case.

The installation worked and there were no unforeseen consequences for the working of the headlamps or anything else on the bike.  It would have been challenging (because of awkward access) to re-connect the original headlamp cables precisely where I had cut them but replacing the black box with the spare plug would have the same effect.  The installation was therefore easily reversible.

Before undertaking this installation I took particular care to:

1. Study the bike’s wiring diagram to ensure I was cutting into the bike’s wiring in a safe place  (if I had cut into the headlamp cables near the headlamp relay under the seat it could have got very complicated).
2. Cut the3 cables in a place where I could if necessary (albeit by taking the fairing off to get access) rejoin the cut cables in precisely the original configuration
3. Make provision to restore normal connections anyway (by using the spare multipin plug) so even if my new gadget self-destructed completely I could easily restore normal function.
4. Do the job in a way which would allow the whole installation to be completely reversed almost without trace.

And these are perhaps the golden rules of what you should aim for if you decide to cut into the bike’s wiring loom in any way.

And the fifth rule, perhaps the most important of all, is that before you start you should weigh carefully whether what you are doing has sufficient value to be worth the interference with the wiring loom you are going to inflict.  I envisaged that my headlamp modulator would be valuable when I was filtering through traffic on motorways, to get the attention of the drivers  I was filtering past, so they would at least know I was coming and might even move over a little.  In practice I have almost never used them and if I was starting again I definitely wouldn’t bother.  (Strobe lights are much effective!)

Switching off Headlamps and Tail Lights

Another modification to my bike involves interrupting the power supply to the dipped headlights and tail lights with switches, so they can be turned off.  Only early UK model GL1800s were equipped with a lighting switch  by Honda so mine doesn’t have one.  Normally I would always ride with headlamps on anyway, for safety reasons but in order to use colour-themed display lighting, I wanted to be able to switch them off sometimes.

Changeover Relay - SPDT

One option would be to use a changeover relay to switch each set of lights off, which would have been even safer because the switch position which kept these lights on would be “normally closed” and only when the relay was energised by the operating switch would the power circuit to the relevant set of lights be disconnected.  In this scenario if either the operating switch or the changeover relay failed the head and tail lights of the bike would work normally.

A changeover relay has five blade connectors rather than four, the fifth one being Terminal 87a which is “normally closed” in relation to Terminal 30.  Terminal 87 is “normally open” in relation to Terminal 30 and this pair are therefore used for power circuits as described in the previous Article in this Series.  Hence they are  called changeover relays because the connection from Terminal 30 will be changed from Terminal 87a to Terminal 87 whenever the relay is energised.  By connecting the power cable of the relevant lighting circuit into Terminal 30 and out of Terminal 87a the relay will disconnect the power when it’s energised.

But where in the wiring loom would it be safe and practicable to interrupt the headlamp and tail lamp circuits safely?  That was the question.

Isolating the Tail Lights was not as difficult as I anticipated.  The tail lamp circuit also powers other lights, for example the front “side” lights on UK models and on US models the riding lights in the mirror housings, which on my bike powered the rear-facing, red mirror edge LED lights, which I wanted to leave on for safety reasons.   Fortunately the wiring diagram (for my bike at least) shows a multipin connector located under the seat beyond which the power cable (and there’s only one for all tail lights at this point) is connected only to the bike’s red rear lighting and number plate light, all of which I wanted to be able to switch off.  This power supply is also used (downstream of this connector) for the red saddlebag and trunk trim lights, so they would also be extinguished at the same time, also what I wanted to happen.

From the wiring diagram and the component location list which the Honda Service Manual also lists, I was able to identify the colour, size and location of the relevant connector and the colour of the cable I needed to cut.  Even with these strong clues it was quite a search.  The relevant connector, not normally requiring access, was tucked well away out of sight. Without the help of the component location list in the Service Manual I would probably still be hunting for it.

Although it was not difficult to ease out of its protective rubber boot and disconnect, there was only one side of the connector with enough slack available to break into the loom and I had to cut back quite a long length of wrapping tape and open up some of the loom’s pvc sleeving to gain sufficient access to the cable I was aiming to interrupt.

Having found it and freed it for cutting, I checked and re-checked before cutting it far enough away from the connector to retain a tail long enough to connect to – and if necessary to cut again to reconnect to if I had got it wrong after all.  Before doing anything else I checked that the tail lights no longer worked.  So far so good; I had chosen the correct cable to cut.

I then bared the cut ends and attached different coloured cables to each one, to help distinguish upstream from downstream.  I chose 8 amp cable, my garage stock size, as sufficient, on the basis that my bike had four 5 watt tail lights plus a 5 watt number plate lights, so a total of 25 watts and therefore a total of 2.5 amps at most, plus the LED trunk and saddlebag trim lights and a trunk spoiler led light, so maybe another 1 amp.

Opposite combinations of male/female bullet crimp connectors were used to make these joints, so that the normal circuit could be restored simply by connecting the cut ends together again if necessary.  (A pair of bullet connectors will, if necessary, allow you to reconnect a cut cable even if you have inadvertently shortened it slightly.)  I also took care to use a female bullet connector on the power side of the cut, so even if it became disconnected there would be no risk of it shorting to the frame.

I then led the pair of “extension” cables forward under the seat to where further connections would be made to complete the job.  More of that later.

Headlamp Circuit interruption was more problematic and also involved careful study of the wiring diagram.  The dipped headlamps (unlike the main beams) are both supplied by a power circuit from a dedicated relay.  I therefore could choose whether to cut the energising supply to the relay or the power supply coming from it.

No contest here, the low current energising cable was the obvious one to interrupt; no point introducing another switch to a power circuit which was already being switched by a dedicated relay, much better to go for its controlling cable instead, even if I was going to use a changeover relay to do the switching.

So I checked and rechecked the wiring diagram, freed up the relay box under the seat and exposed the wiring loom serving it, identified the dipped headlamp relay and then (by colour coding) the energising cable leading to it.  And then I cut the cable, tested that the headlamps no longer worked, then bared the ends and attached different coloured extension cables, as with the tail tight interruption.  Since I was interrupting the energising circuit rather than the power circuit the current involved would be less than 1 amp but to be on the ultra-safe side I used 11 amp cable, as with the tail light supply interruption.

Changeover relay or direct switching, which was it to be? Bearing in mind that the current draw on the headlight circuit I was interrupting was less than 1 amp and the tail light circuit was no more than 3.5 amps, these currents were both within the safe capacity of the handlebar accessory lights I was thinking of using.  Was it really necessary to incorporate changeover relays?

And was it necessary to use handlebar mounted switches anyway?  These light would normally be left on, so why no use a switch located somewhere else, perhaps somewhere in a more sheltered location?

I thought long and hard about whether I could trust a handlebar accessory switches with my bike’s essential riding lights but eventually I decided that switches on the handlebars, where I could see them and use them easily and so check their functionality easily and see at a glance whether the switches were in the “on” position would be best.  I was also satisfied, since the biggest current involved was 3.5 amps, I could dispense with the idea of using changeover relays in favour of direct switching.

However the standard handlebar accessory switch set, designed to distribute power from a single input cable to three output cables, one for each switch, so a total of four cable, could not be used for this purpose.  I therefore modified my switch set internally so that each switch has its own pair of cables, so six cables in total, with no internal bridging at all.  All six cables had been routed, via service connections under the glovebox, to the space under the seat.  All cables were rated for at least 5 amps.

I was therefore able to select two of these switches and to connect the extended headlamp and tail lamp interrupt cables for headlamps and tail lamps to them, again using opposing male/female bullet connectors to facilitation restoration of uninterrupted headlamp and tail lamp circuits at these connections under the seat if either switch failed open.

Next Article

The next Article in this Series will cover the routing and protection of cables and the location of display lighting units.

Installing display lighting and associated power leads inconspicuously so that the bike looks impressively lit in darkness but still looks like a bike in daylight (and not like it’s had a box full of stick on toys and fridge magnets thrown at it) calls for a combination of artistic flair and attention to considerable detail, especially when it come to hiding the power leads.  Routing cables from handlebars switches around the steering head also calls for care to avoid cables being stretched or nipped.  Thin-walled automotive cables and the very thin power leads of LED lighting units also frequently calls for careful securing and protection using sleeving and/or cable ties.

GL1800 Fuseboard with an in-line fused connection on the positive Accessory Terminal

In Part 1 of this Series the concept of an accessory electrical circuit was introduced; the idea that electricity flows around a circle from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative one, passing through an accessory or lighting to provide the energy for it to work.

In this Article we develop the idea further, to help you develop a practical grasp of how accessory circuits are created and connected.  We’ll use some examples of individual accessory circuits which are adaptable to various uses and, in the next Article, how they can be combined to form an integrated approach to a safe and reliable accessory wiring system on your GoldWing.

The circuits described in this Article are the building bricks you will need in order to create more and more complex circuits, which will be covered in the next Article in this Series.

Even a simple circuit needs to work reliably and to be safe and that’s essentially what this Article is all about: choosing the correct size of cable, the correct fuse or fuses and where to put them and deciding whether or not you need to use a relay to handle the power involved, as well as a manual operating switch.

In order to work effectively and safely an Accessory Circuit needs:

1. Cable which is thick enough to carry the intended load without overheating.
2. A fuse which is small enough to blow before the cable overheats.
3. An operating switch which can cope reliably with the electrical current it is stopping and starting.
4. And if the operating switch is not big enough to handle the full circuit load itself, you will need to incorporate a relay.

Selection of automotive cables from Kojaycat

Choosing Cable Sizes

The thicker the cable the higher the load it will carry but the overall thickness of a cable may be misleading; some cables have much thicker insulation that others.  It’s the thickness of the copper core inside the insulation which matters.

There is nothing wrong with using the thinnest cable which will carry the circuit load providing it can carry the load without overheating.  On the other hand choosing a cable which is too thin for the load (or just guessing that it will be OK) is not sensible because that could lead to overheating and even to an electrical fire.

Cable designed for auto-electrical work will often have relatively thin insulation because the voltage in the circuits is low and looms of cables on bikes (and cars) are usually enclosed in a separate outer pvc sheathing to provide any additional physical protection which may be required.  We’ll cover the subject of routing and protecting cable runs for accessory circuits in a later Part of this Series.

The thickness of the conducting core of a cable is quoted these days (in Europe anyway) as a measure of the cross sectional area of the cable in square millimetres (mm²).  Wire Gauge, which used to be dominant, is a measure of diameter which, while useful for single strand wire, doesn’t reflect a cable’s current carrying capacity anything like so accurately.  This is because cables which have lots of fine wires will be able to conduct more electricity than those which have a smaller number of thicker ones.  Confusingly there are also two wire gauge standards: SWG (Standard Wire Gauge) and AWG (American Wire Gauge).  What really matters is the current the cable is designed to cope with and that depends on the thickness of the insulation as well as what’s inside it.  And since current-carrying capacity is usually quoted when cable is offered for sale, that’s the number to go for.

There is no penalty (apart from carrying a little unnecessary weight on your bike) if you use unnecessarily thick cable in a circuit and indeed you will usually need to do so because cable is supplied in only a limited number of sizes.  You will, more often than not, need to round up the current capacity you choose to the next higher current capacity which is actually available.

Cable available from Halfords

It also OK to use a mixture of cable sizes in the same circuit as long as long as the thinnest cable in the circuit is up to the job of carrying the circuit load and providing you fuse the circuit accordingly.  In practice you will often need to do this.  For example LED display lighting units are often supplied with short leads made of extremely thin cable and even if you use the smallest size of automotive cable (you may find some which is rated at 8 amps) to feed power close enough to connect to it, there will still be a mismatch of cable sizes. Likewise the cable tails which are supplied with in line blade fuse holders are rated at either 20 or 30 amps, yet you will often use them with much smaller fuses and thinner cable in your circuit.

The current carrying capacities quoted in the following table are for the selection of thin walled low voltage automotive cable supplied by Kojaycat. This Company supplies cut lengths as well as whole reels in a wide variety of colours and therefore covers everything you are likely to need.  Current capacity for cables from other sources may vary slightly.

Much larger size cables are used for your bike’s main battery leads because they have to cope with the high current draw of the starter motor, but the cables in this table will provide a range of capacities which is more than enough for even the most demanding of accessory circuits.

Interestingly Halfords quotes significantly lower current ratings for their cables of equivalent cross sectional area as follows:

This difference in rating may reflect the thickness of the insulation (thicker insulation reduces a cable’s current capacity) or it may be that Halfords is being extra-cautious, or a bit of both.  Halfords supplies cable in small reels of between 2.5 and 7 meters; the thicker the cable the less you get on a reel.

Wiring Colour Code

Honda uses conventional wiring colours (called a Wiring Code) across its vehicle range; for example green cables are always ground connections.

There aren’t enough colours for all the different applications and so combinations of colours are also used, for example brown with a white stripe or white with a brown stripe, and this increases the available permutations considerably.  The particular colour of cable used for each cable run and circuit on the bike is shown on the wiring diagram in the Service Manual and this can be very helpful when you are troubleshooting.

Honda doesn’t publish it’s Wiring Code but a list of some of the colours they use, which you might find useful if you haven’t got a wiring diagram or if you want to install compatible cable colours for your accessory or repair wiring is available on the internet, for example by Clicking Here.

Looming cables together can affect the cable size you need

A cable’s current-carrying capacity varies with temperature and so strictly speaking if you intend to gather your cables together in looms (so they will warm each other up and lose heat less quickly) you might need a thicker cable than the nominal circuit lead would imply.  The designers of your GoldWing circuits will take this sort of thing into account in considerable detail but thankfully as long as you are not running your cables at their full rated capacity and looming them up with lots of other cables, you are unlikely to need to worry about this.

Automotive Blade Fuse

Fuses

In order to prevent overheating of cables in the event of a short circuit all accessory circuits need to have a fuse incorporated into them, sometimes more than one.

A fuse is a short length of electrical conductor which will self-destruct safely (i.e. it will “blow”) if the current flowing through it exceeds the design limit. When a fuse “blows” it disconnects the circuit and prevents further damage.

Fuses of various types are available but for GoldWings only two need be considered:

1                    Automotive “blade” fuses consisting of two connector blades held together by a plastic bridge inside which is the fuse itself, a zig-zag piece of wire.

2                    A glass tube fuse which has a length of thin fusible wire inside with a metal cap either end.

Blade fuses are now the industry standard in auto-electrics and they are used by Honda in the manufacture of your GoldWing.  All GoldWings have these plastic-covered “blade” fuses, differing only in physical dimensions; the GL1800 has more compact “mini” fuses than earlier models.

Blade-type In Line Fuseholder with cable tails

On the photo of a GL1800 fuse box which heads this Article you can see the rows of coloured plastic fuse heads.  The lid of the fuse box is labelled with what they all do.  Note that there are differences between some model years of GL1800 and if you ever need to replace the fuse box lid you need to be sure to get the correct one.  The “A8” top right on this fuse box lid indicates the model year.

The colour of a blade fuse indicates the fuse’s rating, i.e. the maximum current it will tolerate before blowing. The number of amps is also printed on it.

The fuse itself is the zigzag of wire inside the plastic bridge section which connects the two blades. The plastic is transparent, which allows you to see whether the fuse is intact.  If you can’t see the zigzag the fuse has blown. Blade fuses are all the same shape and physical size so they are potentially interchangeable – which is why you should always double check before replacing a blown fuse.  Never replace a blown fuse with a bigger one unless you really know what you are doing.

The fuses which Honda design into your GoldWing’s electrics are arranged on a fuseboard. This is a sensible way to arrange things when a substantial number of fuses are required, as of course is the case on a complex bike like a GoldWing.  The fuses are all in one place and they can be identified easily from the diagram on the lid if you need to check any of them when you are trying to diagnose a fault.

Supplementary Accessory Fuseboard on a GL1500

A similar approach can be taken with accessory circuits if you wish.  A specially designed supplementary fuse board is available from Electrical Connections for both the GL1800 and GL1500, to be installed near the Battery.  They provide fuse protection for up to six accessory circuits.  While is a neat way of providing fuses for accessory circuits and they ensure that the fuses are where they should be, as close as possible to the battery, they may not provide a complete solution to your accessory needs, especially if you wish to incorporate relays into your circuits.  Some accessories may need in line fuses anyway.

The alternative to a supplementary fuse board is to use in-line fuse holders for all your accessory circuits.  These are available for the same type of blade fuse which your GoldWing uses and there are both open fuse holders (allowing to see the fuse in place) and a splash-proof version, which are a better choice for a bike.

There are practical advantages (eg for carrying spare fuses) in sticking to the same type of fuse as the bike for your accessory circuits whenever you can.  But some accessories, such as satellite navigator receivers and speed camera detectors, may be supplied with their own built-in or in-line fuses, in which case of course you should normally make use of those.  They will often be tubular glass fuses rather than the blade type.

Automotive/Audio glass tube fuse

Although there are various sizes and types of glass tube or “cartridge” fuse available, for auto-electrical and car radio circuits a 1¼ inch by ¼ inch glass fuse is the norm and in-line fuse holders are readily available for them.  The fuses are available for capacities of 10 amps or more but for accessory circuits on a GoldWing you would normally use glass tube fuses in capacities of 2 amps or less.

Fuse Holders for glass tube fuses

In line fuse holders are usually supplied with short lengths of cable already attached and so the current rating of these cable tails can be a limiting factor.

For example the in line blade fuse holders supplied by CPC come in two different ratings, 20 amps and 30 amps.  If you plan to use a 30 amp fuse, for example in the cable connecting the positive side of the battery to a group of relays, you will need to make sure you have the right one.

In line fuse holders for glass tube fuses are designed for currents of 5 amps or less so don’t assume the cable tails are rated for any more than that.

Floorboard under-light by Big Bike Parts

A very simple accessory circuit

Let’s take the example of the installation of a pair of amber passenger footboard under-lights on a GL1800 to illustrate a very simple accessory circuit.

If you are content for these lights to be on all the time your bike is running, as your headlights and tail lights are on all recent GoldWings, you can install them without an operating switch, which makes life considerably easier.  Instead they can be controlled by using the bike’s Accessory Terminals, which are  whlive when the ignition is on (or switched to “Acc” but not otherwise.  By connecting the floorboard under-lights’ power leads directly to these Terminals they will come on and go off with the bike’s running lights.

These accessory lights are supplied with power leads which are long enough to reach the Accessory Terminals, so potentially you could simple connect the red and black power leads from both lights directly to the bike’s positive and negative Accessory Terminals respectively, simple as that.

You will have to take the bike’s seat off to route the power leads from the right hand footboard to the Accessory Terminals so potentially their installation couldn’t be simpler.  Each light will be connected by its own accessory circuit, i.e. its own power leads and nothing else.  The bike’s Accessory Terminals are protected by their own 5 amp fuse on the main fuseboard, so that’s all there is to it – or is it?

Not so fast.  Even if nothing else is connected to the Accessory Terminals (and the whole 5 amps is therefore available to them) you need to consider the load on the bike’s Accessory Socket under the left glovebox, since this is also protected by the bike’s 5 amp Accessory Fuse.  If you have, for example, an MP3 player in the glovebox which is powered from that socket, you need to add up the total load of what will be three accessory circuits (your MP3 player plus the two footboard lights) protected by a single 5 amp fuse.

In this particular example there is unlikely to be a problem of circuit overload because an MP3 player is likely to draw less than one amp and the floorboard lights will probably only draw about 0.5 amps each, so the combined load on the bike’s Accessory Fuse will be two or at most three amps.  So unless there are other accessories also connected to either the Accessory Terminals or the Accessory Socket, the bike’s Accessory Fuse is unlikely to blow.  End of problem – or is it?

Not quite.  The power leads supplied with the two footboard lights are really quite thin.  The lights they supply only draw 0.5 amps so are these cables capable of carrying the 5 amps  which the Accessory Fuse will allow to flow?  Does it matter if they aren’t?

Worst case scenario is for a short circuit to occur in one of the lights or in a power lead near the footboard, so that uncontrolled flow of electricity takes place unless and until the 5 amp Accessory Fuse blows, which of course it will if there is a short, fairly quickly too.   But will the thin cable of the power lead suffer heat damage by carrying up to 5 amps before this 5 amp fuse blows, which would damage the insulation around it and require the cable to be replaced?

Accessories connected directly to the bike's Accessory Terminals

The answer is no because the power leads supplied with these lights probably are capable of coping with 5 amps for the very short time before the bike’s Accessory Fuse blows.  But if the bike’s Accessory Fuse had been replaced by a higher capacity one, say 10 or 20 amps, for example because the 5 amp had blown and a spare wasn’t available, then it would be a different story; the footboard light power leads would seriously overheat and could well catch fire – under the seat and close to the fuel tank.

Ideally therefore, even if the correct 5 amp fuse is in place to protect the bike’s Accessory Terminals, the power leads for the pair of passenger footboard under-lights should have their own in-line fuse installed, rated just above the current they will draw.  Since each of the floorboard lights is connected by its own power leads, and therefore its own accessory circuit, each should have a 1 amp in-line fuse incorporated close to their connection with the positive Accessory Terminal.

Big Bike Parts Opera Lights

A professional auto-electrician would probably regard installing separate 1 amp in line fuses on each power lead of these small lights, although ideal, as a bit OTT.  Relying entirely on the 5 amp Accessory Fuse, so connecting the power leads directly to the positive Accessory Terminal, is not unreasonable.  What I did on my own bike was a compromise;  I connected the red cables from both footboard lights (together with the red cables from two LED Opera Light Bars which I was also installing at the same time) to a single 2 amp in line fuse, the other end of which I connected  to the positive Accessory Terminal. This way if a short occurs in any of these four light circuits their shared 2 amp fuse will blow instead of the 5 amp Accessory Fuse – and I won’t lose power to my satellite navigator, which is powered from the bike’s Accessory Socket.

The final consideration in the installation of the pair of floorboard under-lights is the protection of their thin, and therefore vulnerable, power leads as they are routed from the underside of the footboards, around the footboard hinges, past the hard edges of  the frame covers, up along the frame and across the space under the seat towards the Accessory Terminals.  We’ll deal with routing and protecting cable runs in a later Article but for now let’s just note that these thin power leads will need protecting, by sheathing and/or securing with cable ties.

Incorporating an Operating Switch

On my own bike I wanted to be able to switch off the amber footboard and opera lights when I was using display lighting of other colours, so the amber wouldn’t conflict.  I have also contrived to be able to switch off all white a red lighting for the same purpose too, but that’s another story for later.  For now let’s concentrate on the pair of footboard under-lights again, with or without Opera Lights and incorporating an operating switch.

Switches of various types are available and can be located in various places, as explained in Part 2 of this Series.  On my bike, on the right hand side of the handlebars on top of the brake master cylinder, I already had a row of three switches.  These were all in use but I managed to re-allocate one of the jobs they were doing and so free up one switch for use controlling my group of four amber Opera and foorboard underlights.

Switch added downstream of the circuit fuse

As supplied these switch pods have four cables one of which (very sensibly it’s the red one) is intended for connection to a positive 12 volt supply which is shared internally by all three switches, so that when each switch is closed, it connects this 12 volt supply to that switch’s own output cables.   So there are a total of four cables in the switch pod loom, one red and three other colours.

I had already carefully routed this loom of four cables (inside the pvc sheath which they come with) along the handlebar and then around the steering head and into space below the right hand glovebox where I connected each of them to another cable (i.e. I extended them all) to allow all four to be routed underneath the top shelter to the space under the seat.  More about how to do this later, for now let’s just assume that your switch cables are available under the bike’s seat, which is also where the power leads from the amber lights are too.

The red cable in the switch set of four, the shared 12 volt input for the switches, needs to be connected, via an in line fuse, to the bike’s positive Accessory Terminal.  A power supply of up to 5 amps, less whatever is also drawing power from these Terminals and the Accessory Socket, is now available through each of the three switches.

(There are other ways of connecting the switch pod’s red input cable to 12 volt supply in order to ease this constraint on 5 amps maximum, but remember that these are small switches, therefore of small capacity and they cannot be expected to handle large currents, such as those drawn by fog lamps.  Their capacity isn’t stated but they shouldn’t be expected to handle more than 5 amps each at most and I don’t like to put more than 2 amps through them.)

While you cannot safely connect high power accessories like fog lights this way, a pair of amber passenger footplate under-lights, even if you also add two Opera lights, is perfectly OK because the total current draw of all four lights will be less than 2 amps.  This simple arrangement of connecting one side of the operating switch to the positive Accessory Terminal is, providing there isn’t more than 5 amps in total being drawn from the bike’s Accessory Terminals and Socket, perfectly adequate.  The cables to and from the switches are good for at least 5 amps and the bike’s Accessory Fuse will prevent that total load on all three switches being exceeding 5 amps.

The output cable from the chosen switch, which has also been routed to the space under the seat, can therefore be connected to the red cables of the amber lights, i.e. the two power leads of the passenger footboard lights and the Opera Lights. Ideally this connection is made through and in-line fuseholder and a 2 amp fuse is inserted.  This will prevent  a short in any of the amber lights causing loss of power to whatever the other two switches are operating.)

To complete this accessory circuit, the black cables of the power leads need to be connected either to the negative Accessory Terminal or by some other means directly or indirectly to the battery’s negative terminal.  Instead of having four cables all connected to the bike’s negative Accessory Terminal it will be better to contrive a Common Ground Connection under the seat to which all your accessory circuit returns can be connected.  More about how to do that that later.

More power needed?  Incorporate a Relay

So now let’s consider an accessory circuit which can allow more current to be drawn, for example to power a pair of fog lights.

Small lights like the two passenger footboard under-lights we’ve been considering (and also LED display lighting) consume a relatively low levels of electrical power and so they can safely be connected in the way described above.  And if appropriately sized fuses are incorporated into the individual accessory circuits, failure of one circuit will not cause them all to lose power.

Standard autoelectrical 40 amp Relay

However accessories or combinations of accessories which draw more than 5 amps call for a different approach.  Power can still be drawn from the bike’s Accessory Terminals to control the more power-demanding accessory circuit but the circuit’s operating power must be connected to the bike’s Battery using a relay.

The essence of what a relay is and does was explained in Part 1 of this Series but it will bear repeating here. Relays are electrically controlled switches which can handle much higher currents (30 or 40 amps if necessary) than the small manual switches we install on our GoldWing’s handlebars which can handle a maximum of 5 amps. They use a very small electrical current (between 0.1 and 0.2 amps) which operates a solenoid which in turn closes the large electrical contacts which can safely handle the bigger current.

Relays therefore have four terminals, two for the controlling circuit (to operate the solenoid) and two for the power circuit, which connect the bike’s Battery to the accessory.  The relays used for autoelectrical work are small black boxes with 6.3 mm wide blade terminals.  They take push-on female connectors which are available in red, blue and yellow size crimp terminals; these were covered in Part 2.  (Changeover relays have five terminals but we’re ignoring those for now.)

For all practical purposes relays are merely black boxes with four (or five) blade terminals.  All you have to do is make the correct connection.  Fortunately the blades on relays are numbered and they often have a helpful little diagram printed on one side to remind you what they do.

So for purposes of installing our pair of fog lights we can still use a small switch such as we used for the passenger footboard under-lights.  But instead of connecting the switch’s output directly to the accessory we connect it to Terminal 86 of a relay.

In order for the relay to operate Terminal 85 must be connected to ground, i.e.directly or indirectly to the negative side of the Battery.  In practice, since we drew power for the operating switch from the positive Accessory Terminal we might as well connect to the negative Accessory Terminal.  (In general it is best to avoid connecting directly to the Battery’s negative terminal, not least to avoid clutter.)

Next we connect Terminal 30 of the relay to the power source which, when activated, it will connect to the fog lamps.  The power source has to be, because the bike’s Accessory Terminals can’t supply enough power for this task, the positive terminal of the bike’s Battery.  (If you have installed a supplementary fuseboard you can use that, but for the moment we’re assuming you haven’t.)

Fog Lamp Circuit - operating and power circuits

In Part 1 of this Series we calculated that the fog lamps will draw about 6 amps from the Battery but more, 7 or even 8 amps, when the bike’s engine is running and therefore there will be 14.3 volts rather than just 12 volts applied.  So for the power lead to the fog lamps we need a cable which can handle at least 8 amps with an in line fuse to match.

Automotive cable rated at 8 amps is available and so is a 7.5 amp blade fuse, so we could use those, just.  But that leaves little or no margin and I would be happier using cable rated at 10 amps or more which would allow the use of a 10 amp fuse.  Kojaycat’s smallest (0.5mm²) cable is rated at 11 amps, so that will do nicely and will allow the use of a 10 amp fuse.  The in line fuse holder should be at the Battery end and the cable is connected (assuming for now that only one relay is being installed) directly to the Battery’s positive terminal.

Next we connect the relay’s power output terminal, Terminal 87, to the fog lamps.  For this we must use cable which can handle at least what the power supply fuse will allow, so a minimum of 10 amps.  We could use a single core cable for this job but thinking ahead to the next task, providing a return connection from the fog lamps, it will be expedient to use twin core cable.  Assuming we choose twin core cable (of at least 10 amp capacity) it will probably turn out to have one red and one black cable inside it’s outer sheath.  Connect the red cable to Terminal 87 of the relay and route the cable to one of the fog lamps.  (More about routing cables around a GoldWing in a later Article in this series, for now let’s assume that’s it’s done.

Both fog lamps need to be connected to the relay, so as the red cable is being connected to the first fog lamp it reaches and additional length of the same red core of the same twin core cable (long enough to reach the second fog lamp) is connected as well.  (This is done by using a blue rather than a red crimp terminal connector; blue size crimps will accept two red-size cables at once.)  The second length of power cable is then routed to the second fog lamp where its red core is connected to the fog lamp in the same way as the first.

Finally, to complete the accessory power circuit, we need to connect the other terminal of each fog lamp to the battery’s negative terminal, i.e. “to ground”.   We say “to ground” because the negative terminal of the Battery on a bike is always connected electrically to the bike’s frame and engine block, an accessory circuit can if necessary be completed by connecting to the bike’s frame or engine.  Indeed for some accessory circuits it is better to connect the accessory’s return cable to the bikes frame rather than directly to the battery because it can help to reduce audio interference on the bike.

So in the case of fog lamps, which are installed low down in front of the engine, we could have chosen to use single core cable to connect the relay to the fog lamps and then more single core cable to connect the fog lamps’ other terminals to ground somewhere nearby, thereby saving on cable.

But Honda doesn’t often do this in its circuit design, preferring to incorporate a return cable run back to some central grounding point.  We’ll go into this idea of a central grounding point (rather than connecting directly tot he battery’s negative terminal, in the next Article.  For now let’s just say that we should use a return cable from our fog lights back to the part of the bike where the relay is installed, where it will then be connected, albeit indirectly, to the negative side of the battery.

Power Circuit without an Operating Switch

The final simple circuit we need to consider to complete our repertoire of circuit types is a power circuit (i.e. a circuit capable of taking more load than the bike’s Accessory Circuit can cope with) which does not need its own operating switch, yet which is better to be “live” only when the bike is running, for example a power lead for heated clothing.

Clothing Circuit - power circuit energised by Accessory Terminals

Your heated garment may have been supplied with its own built-in heat controller or switch and a dedicated power lead, intended for direct connection to the bike’s battery and incorporating its own in-line fuse.  That will work safely enough but the power lead will always be “live” when the bike is parked up and this might be undesirable if it has to be left dangling.

If the total current draw of your garment is no more tan 5 amps and you have nothing else connected to either the bike’s Accessory Terminals or the associated Accessory Socket, connecting the garment’s power lead directly to the Accessory Terminals will suffice.

In reality however your Accessory Terminals and/or Socket are likely to be needed for other things too, so it will be better to create an accessory circuit specially for the heated clothing.  You can do this by using power from the Accessory Terminals to energise a relay and using that to supply power to the garment’s power lead(s) – the advantage being that you won’t be restricted to 5 amps, so you can connect more or warmer garments if you wish.   (Any fool can be uncomfortable.  I have been known to wear a combination of heated socks, a heated waistcoat and heated gloves; I was roundly mocked for doing this as I met up with some other riders, including sports bike riders, for a winter ride.  Two hours later at the coffee stop I was mocking them and offering to share body heat, such was the contrast between my cosy comfort and their frozen agony.)

This circuit is identical to the fog lamp circuit described above except that the power supply to Terminal 86 of the relay is taken directly from the positive Accessory Terminal rather than via a switch.  This way the relay will be energised whenever the Accessory Terminal is live, so whenever the ignition key is turned on or to the “Acc” position.  Cable size isn’t an issue for the relay’s energising circuit and you can use the smallest cable you have to hand.  But ideally you would incorporate an in-line fuse because energising the relay will draw less than 0.2 amps, so a fuse rated at 0.5 amps would be better than relying on the bike’s 5 amp Accessory Fuse.

Next Article

Part 5 of this Series will cover branching accessory circuits, such as those for multiple LED display lighting units, and safe ways of operating and supplying power to multiple accessory circuits, which GoldWing owners often wish to do.

Fully synthetic Oil for £8.49

The Filling Stations at Morrisons Supermarkets are currently offering Havoline Oils in 5 litre containers at half price.

The offer covers fully synthetic, part-synthetic and mineral oils so there is plenty of choice.  The fully synthetic oil (pictured) is only £8.49, part-synthetic is £7.49 and mineral oil is £4.99.

You will need to check which specification of oil your bike or car takes but these are Havoline (i.e. Texaco) Oils and they should be decent stuff.

The synthetic SAE 5W-30 which I bought for my car meets ACEA: A1/B1, API SL/Energy Conserving (whatever they mean) and also Ford WSS-M2C913-B.

Thanks to John Taylor for tipping me off about this bargain, very helpful.  By the way John says he has used fully synthetic oil on his GoldWing and has had no clutch trouble.  (Fully synthetic oil has been said to be unsuitable for motorcycles which have wet clutches because they can cause clutch slip.)

To locate your nearest Morrisions Store visit their website by Clicking Here.  The search facility includes an option to check that the Store has a Filling Station; these Havoline Oils are on sale on in the Filling Station Kiosks.

Connectors and terminals - there's plenty of choice

Good electrical connections are an extremely important factor in the reliability and durability of accessory installations on motorcycles – and therefore connections are a common source of faults on GoldWings which have had them installed. The accessories or display lighting units themselves can of course be a source of unreliability too, but poor connections account for lots of failures.

The plugs and sockets which come with ready-to-use kits will usually, but not always, provide reliable connections but otherwise the installer has to make up the connections.  This Part of the Series tells you how best to do this.

Connections on a motorcycle are often exposed to fairly harsh environmental conditions and at the very least they are likely to get damp if not completely wet.  Motorcycle connections are also, even on a GoldWing, subject to vibration.

A wide variety of cable connectors and terminators are sold commercially, so there’s no shortage of choice.  Each different type of connector has special advantages of one sort or another, which is why there are so many different types sold.

Some are specially designed for quick and easy application, maybe even without tools, but they may not be suitable for the motorcycle environment and as a general rule the robustness and durability of crimped connectors is to be preferred.

Combination of multipins for a ten core service connection - note the colouring used for identification purposes

Making connection to switches usually involves soldering.  Since the switches are sometimes installed in an exposed position (eg on the handlebars) the connections often need protection, for example by enclosing in heat shrink sleeving.

Service connections are made in cable runs to allow disconnection when the bike is being dismantled for servicing or repair in order to avoid having to cut the cables.  Male/female multipin connectors are available in a wide range of types and sizes and can be suitable for this purpose, especially when there are several cables running together (i.e. a wiring loom) because they help to ensure the cables are reconnected again correctly.  That is of course why motorcycle manufacturers use them; GoldWings have lots of them. For a service connection in a single or two core run of cable a simpler approach is possible and “bullet” crimp connectors can be used.

If you are installing wiring looms for accessories and display lighting on a GoldWing you are more than likely to need service connections in your cable runs too.

Wires and cables, cables and looms

It’s worth explaining just a little bit of terminology, so we know what we’re talking about.

We all speak of “wiring up” accessories but strictly speaking we don’t use wires on a bike at all; they are, technically speaking, cables.

Wires are no good at all on bikes.  They are single strand electrical conductors, such as are commonly used in domestic “wiring” and also to make connections inside electronic devices, for example to make connections on a printed circuit board.   Wires, because they have only a single strand, are not very good at being flexible or tolerating being bent back and forth or vibrated, which will cause them to snap.  Hence they are no use at all on a bike.

Cables are made from multiple strands of fine wire, which makes them flexible and therefore better able to cope with vibration.  So we always use cables rather than single strand wire on motorcycles.  If “wiring” is mentioned anywhere in this Series of articles take it to mean cabling.

Asymetrical use of bullet connectors for a service connection - female used for the "live" positive side (left in this photo)

Cables for automotive use always have a sleeve of plastic insulation around them and sometimes two or more “cores” of cable are grouped together within another, outer layer of insulation – so called “multi-core” cables.

Looms are groups of cables held together.  It’s often necessary to group cables together as they are routed around a motorcycle and these groups are referred to as “wiring looms” or just “looms”.  They are held together as a loom in various ways:

1. Enclosing in tough plastic sleeving, as Honda does at manuafacture (the cables have to be threaded through it before terminals are attached).
2. Enclosing in Heat Shrink Tubing (as above but the sleeving can be shrunk to fit closely around the loom afterwards)
3. Binding with insulation tape (often done at each end of plastic sleeving too, for reinfoircement)
4. Binding in Spiral Wrap (cables don’t need threading through so it can be used anytime)
5. Held together (and maybe also to the bike’s structure) by cable ties

Butt Joints are end-to-end joints which join one cable to another.

Splice Joints are when one cable end is jointed to another cable somewhere along its length, i.e. to form a branch connection.

Terminal joints are made between the end of a cable and a metal fitting (of various types, eg a ring fitting or a 6.3mm female push-on connector) which can then be used to connect to another terminal fitting, such as the GoldWing’s Accessory Terminals or the 6.3mm blade connector on a relay.  (If you want to impress a professional Auto-Electrician with your knowledge, the proper name for a ring terminal fitting is a Ring Tong Tag!)

Service Connections are included in wiring looms to allow easy disconnection and reliable reconnection when the bike has to be dismantled for servicing or repair.

Precision wire strippers, cheap and easy to use

Baring cable ends for jointing

For standard crimp joints you will usually need to strip about 5mm of insulation from the end of the cable, but slightly more than this if you plan to insert two or more cables into the same crimp tube.  (You then twist them together and trim the bundle of bared ends to 5 mm.)

One professional Electrician I know pours scorn on the use of wire stripping tools and will use ever only side cutters to bare cable ends, but he’s an obsessional individual of an older generation.  Applying just the right amount squeeze to get side cutters to nip and weaken the insulation so you can pull the end bit off (without also damaging the cable) is a considerable knack.  I find it easier and much more reliable to use wire strippers; they are not expensive and they allow you to bare cable ends consistently and reliably – so why make life difficult?

Posh Wire Strippers

Simple wire stripping pliers such as those illustrated provide for various sizes of cable and the jaws are usually labelled with the sizes, so they can also act as a wire gauge. You will get the hang of the “feel” of correct stripping, when they cut far enough through the insulation to allow you to pull the insulation off with a sideways tug; don’t use jaws which are too small because you will damage the wires.  If in doubt try cutting jaws which are too large before resorting to smaller ones; you can’t do it the other way around.

Other types of wire strippers are available which are handy for removing the outer insulation of multicore cables without harming the inner layers of insulation, a task which is otherwise much more fiddly and time consuming to do with a knife.  However this type is expensive and for the DIY biker are perhaps an unnecessary extravagance because a knife will do the job perfectly satisfactorily.

Jointing Methods – Solder, crimp, screws or insulation-displacement?

The way in which a connector or terminal (or another cable) makes its electrical contact with a cable is important on motorcycles, because of the risk of dampness (and therefore corrosion) and vibration.

The options are soldering, crimping, screws which compress the cable and so-called quick splices, eg Scotchloks, which make a connection by displacing the insulation around a cable, i.e. a blade a bit like a guillotine with a slot in it makes a nick in the plastic covering of the cable.

It helps to have the proper kit

Soldering, if done  properly, provides a reliable electrical connection.

Solder is metal alloy (predominantly tin) which has a low melting point.  the type used for our purposes is flux-core solder, which is supplied in wire form and contains and inner core of flux (cleaning agent) which prepares the cable (and/or terminal fitting) to make a bond with the solder.

Insulated cable which is to be joined by soldering has to be “bared” at the end, i.e. to have a short length of insulation stripped from it.  Melted solder flows onto the heated cable end (or fitting) covering its surface intimately and, as soon as the heat source is removed, quickly solidifies to form a permanent covering.

Each item to be joined is first “tinned”by applying solder to it separately.  The two pieces which are to be joined are then brought together and joined by touching both of them with the soldering iron while, if necessary, applying more solder.

The key to successful soldering is to have the right amount of heat available for transfer when the hot soldering iron is touched against the work-piece, enough to allow it to melt the solder which i also being touched against it but not so much as, for example, to damage the insulation further along the cable.  This involves choosing the right size of tip for the soldering iron as well as heating the iron to the correct temperature.  For thin cable you need a small tip, for thicker cable a bigger one, the idea being that the tip is capable of transferring enough heat instantly it’s touched against the work-piece for the work-piece to become hot enough to melt the solder which is placed against it at the same time.  So it’s the heated work-piece which melts the solder on to itself rather than the soldering iron.

Flux core solder

There are limitations and disadvantages to soldering, not least that soldering joints take time and skill to make and they also need insulating afterwards, usually either by wrapping with insulation tape or by using heat shrink tubing.  (Heat shrink tubing is extremely useful when installing electrical accessories and display lighting, so more about that later.)  “Wicking” along the length of the cable is also to be guarded against; if too much solder is used and the cable is heated too much the molten solder will creep along the cable under the insulation by capillary action; this will stiffen the cable undesirably and may also damage its insulation.

Soldered joints are often necessary to attach cables to switches and they can also be useful for making butt joints (end-to-end cable joints) in confined spaces such as inside switch housings.  Also when it’s important to avoid increasing the thickness of the cable unnecessarily, for example when extending the length of a cable which has to be routed through narrow spaces or along a tortuous path, such as from the handlebars, around the steering head and inside the fairing.

Soldering carries risks of collateral damage or burning if it’s done on the bike because it involves a hot soldering iron.  But it isn’t all that difficult to get the hang of making simple soldered joints and you can always practise on the bench before trying anything closer to the bike.

As with most jobs it helps to have the proper tools.  Mains powered soldering irons are available which have various sizes of exchangeable tips  and also automatically heat the iron to the correct temperature and hold it there, which make life a lot easier.

You can, if necessary, take soldered joints apart and then re-make them without having to shorten the cable.

The three sizes of crimp butt joints and the cables they will accommodate

Crimped joints are made by inserting the bared end of a cable into a metal tube which is then deformed, i.e. crushed, around it to grip it firmly.  The metal used for these terminals (in the better ones it’s copper with tin plating) doesn’t spring back open, so once it’s crushed it’s crushed and the joint with the cable is permanent. For auto-electrical work, including on motorcycles, the metal tube is always supplied with a plastic sleeve around it which can stand up to being crimped and still provide effective insulation afterwards.

The plastic sleeves in three colours: red, blue and yellow which are small medium and large sizes of cable respectively.  You can crimp two or more small cables into a larger size connector if necessary to make splicing and branching connections.

Crimp tube are sold as straight lengths of tube (“butt” joints) into which cable can be inserted from both ends to make an end-to-end connection, and they are also sold as terminals, when the metal tube is attached to a fitting (such as a ring) which can be used to connect to screw terminals.  A wide range of these terminal crimp fittings is available.

Crimped joints are permanent and they cannot be opened up and and then remade.  To remake a crimped joint it is necessary to cut the cable and make a new joint with a new crimp tube and therefore the cable has to be shortened slightly, although usually only by 5 mm or so.  Some people try to re-open a crimped joint by squeezing the tube open with a pair of pliers but this is bad practice.  Even if you can release the pressure on the cable to get it out without cutting it, the cable is likely to have suffered damage and using it without cutting off the end and making another, replacement joint with a fresh fitting is to risk an unreliable connection.

Best avoided - terminal strip, the mark of the amateur!

Screw-fixed (Strip) connectors are metal tubes enclosed within nylon or PVC insulators, each tube having a pairs of screws threaded into their sides so that they can be tightened up to grip a bared cable which is inserted into it.

Each element of the strip is a separate connector, insulated from the next one and so several of them could be used to make a multi-core connection.  They can also be unscrewed, so joints can be undone and remade more or less without limitation.  You can also cut off as many or few connectors as you need from the strip with a knife.  These connectors are also cheap to buy.

However a long strip takes up a lot of space and above all they’re unreliable on a vibrating motorcycle and they tend to look a mess.

Don’t resort to this type of connector except maybe temporarily, as part of a test installation.

Quick Splice joints are best avoided on bikes

Insulation-displacement joints (eg Scotchloks) are made by inserting non-bared cable into a tubular space in a plastic hinged device which is then closed around it.  A metal slider, like a guillotine with a slot in it, can then be forced down on to the cable “displacing” insulation on either side of it so it makes electrical contact with the conductor inside.  It is not necessary to bare the cable end and indeed the device can be fitted around a cable anywhere along its length in order to make a connection with another cable inserted into another tube in the fitting. The “guillotine” makes the connection between the two cables when it is pushed down into position inside the plastic housing, where it remains.

Although on the face of it these connectors are potentially very useful in auto-electrical work, especially if you need to splice a cable into an existing cable run because they allow you to do so without actually cutting the existing cable.  Inside cars they may have a role but on motorcycles they are unreliable and should be avoided.

Some type of connectors are best avoided on motorcycles.  Strip connectors which use screws to secure cables and quick splice joints which use a slotted cutting blade to cut into the cable’s insulation layer to make electrical contact both have disadvantages for motorcycles – and they look a bit amateur too.

General Purpose Auto-Electrical Crimping Connectors & Terminals

Crimp Connectors and Terminals

The best type of connectors and terminals for general use on motorcycles, for overall reliability, versatility and economy, except when multipin connectors are needed, are insulated crimped connectors.  They are widely available and are easily recognised by the standard red, blue and yellow colours used to indicate the cable sizes they are designed to take.

The plastic sleeving around some crimp joints are transluscent and this indicates that the sleeves are heat shrikable after crimping which adds additional support and weatherproofing to the joint.  Heat shrinkable crimp connectors are significantly more expensive.

As well as cable-to-cable joints (“butt” joints and also “bullet” connectors) they are available as a wide range of terminals.  There are rings and fork terminals for connections to screw terminals (such as a GoldWing’s Accessory Terminals or battery) and there are “female push on” connectors to fit the standard sized blade connectors on relays and other components.

The colour of the plastic insulation sleeve, red, blue and yellow, indicate the increasing size of cable they are intended for.  The smaller, red, size is suitable for most motorcycle applications but blue and even yellow connectors may be needed occasionally to take larger cables or to crimp more than one cable into the same connector, which is a useful way to make a branching connection.

They are relatively inexpensive, although you will pay more for small packets from Car Accessory stores than you will if you buy from trade sources such as CPC.  Boxes which contain a selection of sizes and types are available and that’s a cost effective way of acquiring a small number of most types of terminal you might need.  It will however pay to buy the connectors you will use most often, for example the small size (red) butt connectors in trade packs of 100 which can cost less than £2.

Ratchet Crimping Tool - essential for reliable joints

Ratchet Crimping Pliers

The key to making reliable crimped joints is to use the right tool to do the crimping.  You need to apply just the right amount of deforming pressure, enough to grip the cable firmly but not enough to damage it.  This can only be done if you use the correct size connector for the cable and also use the correct type of ratchet-type crimping pliers.  These pliers automatically release once enough pressure has been applied, so you know when you have got it right.

They wont release until you have applied enough pressure either, so as long as you have chosen the right size connector for the cable and put it in the correct place in the correct pair of jaws (of which there are three, one for each colour/size) it’s quite difficult to get it wrong.

Jaws for pre-insulated crimps, note the colour coding

Ratchet crimping pliers will make two parallel crimps which look neat and provide a reliable and durable joint.

A cheaper but much less satisfactory alternative is a pair of manual crimping pliers.  These also have three colour coded jaws which helps to make a reasonably effective crimp but you have to judge the correct pressure yourself and this is much more demanding of strength as well as precise control of the force you apply.

Cheap pliers, best avoided

Except for emergency repairs if I had no alternative, I would not use manual crimping pliers.  A ratchet crimping tool is well worth buying if you are going to do any wiring work on your own bike; they cost more than the cheaper pliers-type but they are well worth paying for.  They cost up to £15 but you can sometimes get them significantly cheaper, perhaps as little as £10.  If you can’t afford a pair borrow some rather than bodge the job.

Different type of jaws for non-insulated crimp connectors

The cheaper pliers-type crimping tool is often sold as part of a kit containing a selection of crimp joints and terminals keep them with bike’s tool kit for emergency repairs but don’t use them unless you have to.

various types of multipin connector

Multipin Connectors

Multipin connectors are useful when you need to make a service joint in a group of two or more cables. Crimp pins and sockets are used to terminate the cables although soldered types are also available.  The cable terminals fit into specially shaped plastic plug and socket housings which can then be pressed together (and usually then click into place to be held together) to form a reliable electrical joint.  As long as the cables go into the correct place in the plastic housing when the joint is first assembled they will allow the joint to be disconnected and re-connected as necessary while mixing up the circuits.

Weatherproof Superseal connectors

A wide variety of types and sizes of multipin connectors are available including weatherproof and miniature ones. There are industry standards for pin spacings but the different connectors are not usually interchangeable, which is one of their advantages.  On your GoldWing you will find lots of different colours and shapes of multipin connectors, chosen to be different so they cannot be wrongly connected.

For making service joints in accessory wiring looms, which deal in the main with power distribution, so mostly pairs of cables, it should be possible to choose a single type of multipin connector which will serve all your needs, simply by using two, three, four or six way connector housings as necessary.  They will all take the same type of crimp pins and sockets so you will only need to buy one type and one pair of crimping pliers.

6.3mm blade multi connectors from kojaycat.com

Multipin connectors use non-insulated crimping pins and sockets, so you will need a different type of pliers from those described above for use with red/blue/yellow insulated fittings.  If you are only making up a small number of joints you may be able to solder or hand crimp the connections using ordinary pointed nose pliers to save this cost, but you will need to take care to achieve robust and reliable connections.

Multipin connectors are nearly always asymmetrical, so they will only mate in one way, to prevent the cables being connected up the wrong way. The type in the photograph uses chamfered edges to achieve this.

For service joints is looms which have only one pair of cables “bullet” crimp connectors provide an alternative which saves the cost and complication of  kitting yourself with multipin outfits.  Since bullet connectors have male and female versions you can force correct reconnection by using a conventional arrangement.  I use female bullets for live (i.e. upstream, positive) cable ends and males for the negative return.  The other side of the joint (which is dead when disconnected) is done the other way around.  This arrangement avoids any risk of a “live” uninsulated terminal end coming into contact with the bike’s frame.

Hitachi 3 way socket (left) and plug housings

Hitachi Connectors

Hitachi connectors, also known as 2.8mm mini latching connectors, 2.8 mm being the width of the pins, are a particular type of crimped multipin connector useful to Wingers because they are used by the manufacturer for some piurposes on GoldWings, for example the 3 way type matches the GL1800s Accessory  Connector which Honda provides under the left glovebox.

(This socket is powered from the same fuse which protects the bike’s Accessory Terminals in the main fuse box, so it’s only live when the ignition is on or switched to “Acc” and the total current drawn from both socket and terminals cannot exceed 5 amps.)

Hitachi or 2.8mm mini-latching connectors

Honda don’t supply a plug connector to fit this socket with the bike but they are available commercially.  A special crimping tool is need for these non-insulated crimping pins but you can probably manage to crimp with a pair of pointed nose pliers if you’re only doing the odd one.

Hitachi connectors are available in two, three four and six way variants in UK from Kojaycat.   The Honda GL1800 Accessory Socket under the glovebox takes a three pin plug housing – although only the outer two pins are used.

Matching Cable sizes with Connectors

The cable sizes needed for motorcycle accessory wiring vary from relatively heavy cable for battery leads to groups of relays to hair-thin cables which are often supplied with LED lighting.  Information about choosing which size (i.e.thickness) of cable you need to carry the electrical load in your accessory circuits will be provided is another article in this Series, when fuses are also covered, so for now we’re assuming you ae using the correct size of cable and so you need to match it with the connector.

Trace colour cable selection

It is possible to get all technical about measuring cable sizes because each type of connector will be specified somewhere as being suitable for cables from this size to that.  But in practice, certainly as far as standard auto-electrical crimp connectors are concerned, if the bared cable will go into the hole and won’t pull out once it’s been crimped using ratchet crimping pliers, it’s a reliable connection.  It’s a bit more challenging that that with non-insulated crimping joints but the same principles apply; if the tangs are properly wrapped around the cable and the insulator after crimping and the cable won’t pull out you’ve made a good connection.

So it ain’t complicated; you bare the cable (or combination of cables, then twist them together and trim to the right length) and select the correct connector to fit over them. If they are a sloppy fit going in the crimp joint is likely to pull apart easily, so you will need to use a smaller connector or thicken the cabl;e by baring it further and folding it back along its length.  If necessary, for example with the very thin cables which are supplied with LED accessory lights, you canb thicken the end of the cable by tinning with solder.

Sometimes you may need to connect a thick cable (or several cables as a bundle) to a thinner one.  If you are making a butt joint you may be able to balance things up either side of the connector but failing that choose the smallest connector which will take the thickest cable or bundle, then thicken up the thinner side by folding the end over or if necessary using solder.

With non-insulated crimp connectors you can sometimes accommodate a thin cable by trimming the length of the tangs with side cutters.

Further information about selecting cables will be provided in a later Article but to view the wide range of sizes and colours of automotive cable which are available, in cut lengths as well as complete reels, visit the Kojaycat Website.

Next Article

Part 4 in this series will deal with Circuits, Cable Sizes, Fuses and Relays.

A list of UK suppliers of components, cable and connectors will be provided with the final Article so please recommend your favourites in case I’ve not come across them.