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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Bill Squires’s GL1800

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.

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.

One switch panel bought, one hand made

Some accessories come with their own switch, some don’t.  Even switches which come with a kit may or may not be suitable to adorn a GoldWing, so for most GoldWing accessories and display lighting it will be necessary to choose and install your own switch or switches.

Although GoldWings are big bikes and most of them have large areas of dashboard available, installing switches tidily,  especially if they need to be in a location where they can be used conveniently and safely while riding, is not always straightforward.

Choosing the type and location of switches for your accessories is worth careful thought, especially if you might be installing more accessories requiring switches later.  In other words don’t plonk your first switch in the most obviously easy and/or attractive place on the bike, in case you regret it later.

We are all inclined, when we get a GoldWing which is new to us, whether or not it’s brand new, to give little or no thought to its resale value, even though in practice we are unlikely to keep it for ever.  So we should give at least a little thought to the implications of what we do for our bike’s resale value, especially if it cannot be removed without trace.

The options for choosing and locating switches for accessories boil down to:

1. Using GoldWing accessory switch sets – which are designed for GoldWings but limit you to small capacity, simple on/off switches and you may need other types of switches too.
2. Choosing from the much wider selection of switches which are available commercially but will need to be mounted in switch panels of your own manufacture, for which you will need the skills to make a presentable job.
3. Mounting suitable switches by drilling or cutting holes in the bike’s panels.
4. Combinations of the above.

Switches don’t stay reliable on a bike for ever and even “weather proof” switches won’t always stand up to motorcycling use.  Switches get damp and the internal contacts corrode and/or wear and your switches may therefore need replacement.  That’s even true of Honda switches, despite their efforts to make them weather-resistant and durable.  The less switches you install, especially if they cannot be removed without trace, the fewer the problems you can have with switches.

Dashboard vent turned into a switch panel location

Where on the bike?

Handlebar location of switches can be relatively straight forward to contrive and it does locate the switches where they can be reached while you are riding, so it’s the obvious first choice for many accessory switching installations.

But there is a limit to how many switches you can sensibly locate on the handlebars, not least because of the thickness of the wiring loom you will have to route around the steering head to make the necessary connections, so other locations should be considered too.

On ingenious solution resorted to by a Winger who had already installed lots of switches on his handlebars was to sacrifice his dashboard vents in order to replace them with specially fabricated panels of neat little switches.  If you locate your switches in a reasonably sheltered position like this you needn’t worry too much about sticking to weather-proof switches – although you will need to remember to avoid pointing the hose pipe at them when you are washing the bike.

Another option, for example for heated clothing, is to use an in-line switch on the garment’s power cord, which may even come supplied with it.  These can be fiddly to operate while wearing gloves but they have many advantages and are usually the best overall choice.

If you are unsure how far you will want to go installing accessories and lighting to your bike when you first start working on it, a sensible approach might be to install enough handlebar switches to leave you with one or two spares which already have their cables routed to the space under the glovebox with the rest where they are labelled as spares so you don’t lose track.   But don’t overdo it, lest you create unnecessary difficulties for yourself routing the wires around the steering head.

Switches doubling as a spacer for a GPS mount

Stock Switch Sets

Switches, or rather sets of three or four switches, have been supplied for GoldWings for many years and are still readily available for most models, including older ones.   They are designed to stack on top of the brake or clutch master cylinder under the normal lid (or a shiny replacement lid if you prefer) simply by using longer securing screws.  They are therefore designed to be installed on the handlebars, where they can easily be operated while riding.  They can also be stacked two or more high if necessary, although more than two sets high would probably look a bit odd.

These blocks of switches can also serve as rising spacers to help mount accessories like satellite navigation receivers.

Although the switches are all simple on/off types and of small capacity (5 amps or less) they can be used, together with relays as necessary, for operating the majority of accessories and display lighting circuits.  Only if you are installing horns or sirens, which require “momentary press” switches or accessories which require something more elaborate, such as a changeover switch, will you need to look elsewhere.

So if you plan your accessory circuits to keep the number of switches down to no more than a dozen, these off-the-shelf switch sets offer a neat and practical solution – which is of course why they are widely used.

Heated clothing controller

But they are not without limitations and for example they are supplied with cables attached but these are quite short lengths, intended to be just enough to allow routing along the handlebars to reach under the fairing, where connections are expected to be made.  If you want to make a proper job of routing and securing the cables down the handlebars and around the steering head without taking any short cuts, which is the ideal, then into the fairing space of your choice, you may need to extend the cables.

If you decide to extend the cables then you should consider making soldered butt joints with heat shrink tubing to provide insulation around them, to avoid the bulk of crimped joints.  More about how to do this and how to route your cables later.

You may also need to adapt the internal wiring of the switch set, depending on the use you want to make of them.  Some are supplied to switch power to three output cables from a single incoming power line, so four cables in total, others have separate pairs of cables for each switch, so a total of six.  The latter type are more versatile.

Having said all that many Wingers use these switch sets straight from the box with no adaptation at all and they are very useful accessories.

Beware Brake Fluid Spills

Installing switch sets on top of the brake and clutch master cylinders on the handlebars means taking their lids off and this presents a risk of spilling brake fluid on to your bike’s plastic panels, so great care is needed.

Brake and clutch fluid is extremely damaging to the plastic panels of a GoldWing; even one drop will almost inevitably leave a permanent mark, no matter how quickly you wipe it away and how thoroughly you clean it off.  You must take great care not to spill even a single drop on them while you are fitting these switch sets.

Take heart, the master cylinders are fitted with a rubber seal inside the lid and that can remain in place, so when you remove the lid and sit the switch set on top of the seal you may not spill a drop.  However elaborate precautions are called for in case of accidents as follows:

1. Do any preparatory work on the switches, such as extending the cables, before you fit them, so that you are not fitting and then removing them again unnecessarily.
2. But fit them securely in place before you start routing the cables so you minimise the time that brake fluid can be spilled.
3. Always put the bike on the centre stand and turn the handlebars so that the master cylinder you are working on is perfectly level, so that fluid won’t spill out when you take off the lid.
4. Cover the area below below the master cylinder with a plastic sheet and then an absorbent cloth on top of it, to make absolutely sure that if any fluid drips down it cannot reach your bike’s plastic panels.  It really is that important.
5. After you have secured the switch set in space, wipe down the outside and the outside of the master cylinder with brake cleaning fluid to remove any traces which have escaped.

"Momentary press" switch

Choosing switches for mounting on switch panels of your own

Making your own switch panels opens up a much wider choice of switch types and ratings.

Auto Accessory shops (like Halfords and Motorworld) only stock a tiny selection of switches and these are mostly if not all intended for internal use in cars, so they’re not really suitable for motorcycle use at all.  A much wider selection of switches is available from electrical component suppliers, especially from “trade” suppliers, which these days will also usually sell to retail customers, especially mail order.

I have often used a Company called CPC which happens to be local to me but also offers a very efficient mail order service too and they carry an enormous range.  Another Company with an extensive range of switches is RS Components.  Their on-line catalogues have search facilities and they include pictures and specifications of the items, which are extremely useful for learning about what’s available.

Toggle Switch

It helps when you are searching these catalogues to understand some of the jargon used to describe the various switch types.  “Momentary press”  switches as those which you hold down to keep on, so push buttons as used for horns.  “Single pole single throw”  is a technical way of describing a simple on/off switch whereas “double pole double throw” is effectively two switches in one and provides for a changeover arrangement.  It’s not difficult to get the hang of it and knowing what sorts of switches are available can help you decide what sort of accessory circuit you want to go for.

For example I once used a pair of miniature changeover switches to provide control over the heat output of my heated gloves and socks.  When these garments were connected to the supply in parallel they got the full 12 volts and therefore gave maximum heating.  But this was often too hot and switching on and off repeatedly doesn’t really provide the answer because it means the temperature is always in the process of getting too warm or too cold and switch on and off also gets to be a chore after a while.

Rocker Switch

The sensible solution might have been to but new kit which came with a heat controller but I didn’t want to waste what I had and it became a bit of a challenge to find a solution. By using three position changeover switches for each pair of garments I was able to contrive primitive but quite successful heat control.  Up was full heat, middle was off and down was half power.

It worked but the switches were prone to faults and fiddly to operate wearing the relatively thick heated gloves, so I didn’t bother transferring the idea to my next bike.  It’s possible to get a bit too carried away by over-engineering things and this was probably an example of that.  It pays to ask yourself, especially before you start any elaborate projects, whether you will really use the thing often enough to have the installation cluttering up your bike.

Preventative waggling

Ideally all switches on motorcycles are weather proof or at least weather resistant, and unfortunately it will not always be possible to find weather prof versions of the types and sizes of switches you might be looking for.  This isn’t the end of the world because good quality switches will often be suitable even if they are not said to be weather proof.

Few switches are truly weatherproof and nor will they last for ever; the surfaces of the contacts inside switches will (unless they are gold, which yours definitely won’t be) corrode and eventually develop resistance to the electrical current flowing through them and so stop working.Periodic and precise application of a judicious quantity of WD40 or similar to each switch combined with a good old waggling on and off of the switch to exercise the contacts (with the ignition off) won’t hurt at all.  Nor will it cost a fortune to replace a switch from time to time even if they do fail. The more sheltered the position on your bike the less important it is for switches to be genuinely weather proof.

Four switches and a Radio mounting clip

Manufacturing your own Mounting Panels

In order to mount the switches of your choice you will need to find somewhere to mount them.  A favourite place for mounting switches on the handlebars is by securing a switch panel (usually a shaped piece of polished sheet metal) using the bolts which secure the brake or clutch levers to the handlebars.

You will need to fit longer bolts and spacers (cut lengths of metal tubing) but as manufacturing your own parts goes this isn’t particularly hi-tech stuff.  If you can cut and file a piece of polished stainless steel sheeting nicely into shape and then drill a few holes in it accurately and neatly for the bolts and switches, this sort approach can prove extremely versatile.

The combination of two master cylinders tops and two sets of control lever mounting bolts at your disposal it is possible to mount quite a large number of switches of various types on the handlebars without making them look too cluttered or untidy.  You might then have trouble remembering what they all control but at least they won’t look too bad!

Switches installed in holes drilled neatly into a blanking panel

Exploiting spare panels on the bike

It’s not uncommon to see cheap-looking switches mounted in holes drilled in the fairing or dashboard of a GoldWing, especially the older ones, and they can look a real mess.  A GoldWing is an expensive bike and it’s worth taking considerable trouble to install extra switches which look the part and are in a location on the bike which is both functional and neat in appearance.  Mr Honda’s designers took a lot of trouble with the appearance of your GoldWing (even if they did choose some weird colours from time to time) so the least you can do is pause for a little thought about where and how you install additional switches.

However if your bike doesn’t have a full compliment of manufacturer’s accessories fitted to it there may be scope for using blanked off areas of the bike’s fairing or dashboard which are intended for such accessories and exploiting them for your own purposes.

This is what Honda designed the panel to be used for

For example the panel by the rider’s right knee on non-airbag model GL1800s presents a tempting space for a switch or switches as long as you have no plans to install the Hondaline Heated Grips which are designed to have their controller installed there.  It’s a place where you can reasonably safely reach down towards while riding and there is space behind the panel, which is also easy to take off for access, for the switches and for routing cables.  And at least if you subsequently get a bargain opportunity to buy a set of heated grips, you can always re-located your switches.

So there are places on a GoldWing where it isn’t necessarily silly to drill holes to install switches.  But think long and hard before you drill holes in any major panels; the consequences for resale value might be serious.

Small Switch, Small Current Capacity

Every time a switch opens or closes a small spark jumps across the contacts as they come close together and this causes wear on the contacts too, eventually causing them to fail.  The amount of damage done by sparking across the contacts depends on the current flowing through the switch and this is why small switches, such as you will want to use for neatness on a GoldWing, can only be used for small currents and therefore low power circuits, like LED lighting, and not higher power circuits like fog lamps and horns.  If you try to use small switches for higher power circuits they won’t last long, even if they cope initially.

Next Article

Part 3 of this Series deals with making reliable connections.

A list of  UK suppliers will be provided in the final part of the Series.

Fog light, Ring of Fire and lots of LEDs

Under the left glove box of many a GoldWing is a a tangle of unsecured electrical cables and dodgy connections. Wingers are better at some things than others and accessory wiring isn’t always one of them. This article provides some guidance on safe and tidy ways to add accessories and display lighting to your GoldWing’s electrics.

Connecting 12 volt accessories or lighting to a GoldWing is not especially dangerous or difficult and it’s well within the capacity of a reasonably practical individual to do it, and to do it without creating a “rats nest” of loose wires and dodgy connections.

It takes more care and trouble to do it properly and it helps if you have learned some of the basic do’s and dont’s of auto-electrical work, but it isn’t rocket science and any reasonably practical individual can make a decent enough job providing he (or she) takes the trouble to learn.

It is however worth mentioning that even though low voltage (only 12 volts) circuits on motorcycles cannot cause hazardous electrical shocks, short circuits and component failures can cause electrical fires unless circuits, especially accessory circuits which the owner is adding, are designed to prevent them.

GoldWing Fire Damage - Picture by Davolous

Fire Avoidance

The risk of fires is easily avoided by installing suitable fuses into your accessory wiring circuits but it is a real one; if wires connected to a 12 volt motorcycle battery get trapped and nipped (or a component they are connected to fails) causing a short circuit, very high currents will flow and the wires will almost instantly get very hot, melt their insulation and may even set fire to something – including petrol!

For this reason all wiring circuits on a bike should have a suitably sized fuse incorporated into it and the fuse should be as close as possible to the power source of the circuit.  So, never neglect to incorporate fuses into your circuits.  More about fuses and how to choose and install them later, for now it is enough to emphasise their importance.

Apart from this vital safety requirement, as long as you can work reasonably neatly and methodically there is no reason why any moderately practical individual cannot make up and install 12v power circuits for lighting and other accessories on a GoldWing.

A simple accessory circuit

12 volt Accessory Circuits are simple

Your GoldWing’s electrical system operates on 12 volts direct current (12v DC) so the electricity flows only one way.

Effectively each accessory on the bike which draws electrical power is connected into a circuit of cable which allows electricity to flow from one side of the bike’s battery to the other through that accessory, allowing the accessory to extract energy and make use of it.

A circuit therefore consists, as in this illustration,  of a cable connecting the positive side of the battery to a fuse, then to a switch, then to the accessory and finally back to the other side of the battery. The battery’s stored energy is used to push the electricity around the circuit and the energy flowing through the accessory is used to make it work – in the case of a lighting accessory it get s converted into the light which is emitted, in the case of a horn it becomes sound. Simple!

Of course it isn’t always that simple on a GoldWing and some of the 12v DC circuits which the manufacturer has incorporated into the GL1800 are far more complicated. But for purposes of adding lighting and other accessories to our bikes we needn’t worry about those complexities at all as long as we steer clear of them. We can use simple power circuits as described above, with only relatively minor variations, for all our practical needs.

Basic Principles

Making a safe. reliable and tidy job of accessory wiring should take account of the following:

• Work out what you could need in way of extra switches, fuses, relays and cables you would need to install all the accessories and extra lighting you might eventually want on your bike and plan your switch positions and accessory circuits accordingly, even if you then do the work in stages.
• Decide which types of switch you will need and which accessories you will need to be able to switch on or off while riding, then prioritise the switch locations.
• Use a consistent approach each time you create an accessory circuit; it will make it easier to diagnose faults.
• Always incorporate fuses in the accessory circuits you create.
• Use relays to control circuits which involve substantial electrical loads, such as fog lights, strobes or horns.
• Think long and hard before you interfere with any part of the bike’s ordinary wiring circuits.
• Work out what type of switches and what size of cable and fuse and whether to use a relay with reference to the current which will flow in each accessory circuit; don’t just guess.
• Ensure that all the connections you make are sound and durable, which usually means making proper crimped connections.
• Incorporate service connectors in your cable runs where necessary, to allow you to dismantle the bike without cutting any cables.
• Make diagrams and notes of what you have done and where you have put things on the bike, so you can refer to them when something stops working.

We’ll put some flesh on these bones in due course in this series of Articles but for now lets look at some easy options and also some pitfalls.

Big Bike Fog Light Kit

Plug and Play Kits

Some electrical accessories come as kits which are supplied with their own power leads, fuses and switches, so that they can simply be connected to the battery and used, simple as that.  Heated clothing usually fits into this category.

Other complete kits require installation but they simply plug into matching sockets which have been incorporated into the bike’s standard wiring loom, so there is no requirement for wiring up at all.  Fog light kits for US Specification GL1800s fall into his category – but not that the kits do need to be adapted and wired in for UK Specification bikes.

Accessories which are supplied with a power lead, fuse and an in-line switch,  such as heated clothing, do the job more or less perfectly and there would be no point in wiring up your own version.  You can connect them to your bike’s battery and use them during Winter and take them off  for storage during the Summer.

For example at Knutsford Honda’s Chrome Crazy Day recently a Winger who had endured a miserably cold ride over the Pennines to get there was able to buy a half price pair of heated gloves, attach the terminals of the wiring kit which came with them directly to his bike’s battery terminals using nothing more than a screwdriver and enjoy a much more comfortable ride home. And even as a Yorkshireman he thought they were a good buy at half price!

If you install an accessory kit of this sort as instructed and make sure the cables aren’t likely to get nipped anywhere or present a hazard by dangling untidily in a loop which could get snagged by something, this should be perfectly safe.

It isn’t good practice to install lots and lots of such kits directly to the battery (and especially not to the bike’s accessory terminals) because you will end up with quite an untidy tangle of cables and switching your accessories on and off might become a bit impractical, but in principle it will at least be safe and it will work.

Gerbring Heated Clothing

Some manufacturers of heated clothing offer garments which can be inter-connected so they can share the same power connection lead, which simplifies things – although you might want to check whether this arrangements means everything has to be either on or off at the same time, which might not be ideal.

An integrated approach of this sort can however provide a safe, sensible and durable installation without the need for any connection or alteration to the bike’s own electrical system – with the additional advantage that you can remove the whole set-up during the warmer months simply by disconnecting the single battery cable.

There are also plug-and-play kits available commercially which allow you to add LED lighting to trunk and saddlebag trims by connecting it (quite easily and safely) to the bike’s existing tail light wiring. Likewise there are kits for interior trunk lights and many other things.

Providing the kit you buy is suitable for your particular model of GoldWing (even among GL1800s there are differences) and you follow the instructions carefully, these ready-to-fit kits are a safe prospect.

Pitfalls

But there are pitfalls and it is important to check that the kit is suitable for your GoldWing, especially if it is designed for the US market, because not all kits for US GoldWings can be used (or at least used safely) on UK specification GoldWings.

Fog light kits are an example of the need to tread carefully. US specification GL1800 GoldWings have a wiring loom which includes plugs to which fog lights or driving lights as sold in kits can be connected directly, as well as a blanked-off hole to which the switch can be fitted and a nearby ready-made connection for it too. But there is a different fog light kit for an airbag model GL1800 because it has a different switch. Even if you own a US Specification GL1800 you have to take care that the kit you are buying wil fit your particular bike.

And fitting fog light kits to UK Specification GL1800s is even more challenging. The blanked off hole to mount the switch is provided but nothing else, so you will need to install suitable additional wiring yourself – and as the following cautionary tale indicates, this has to be done very carefully and without messing about with the bike’s existing wiring loom.

A Cautionary Tale

A GoldWing’s wiring loom is a complex and carefully designed whole and any attempt to add additional lights or accessories to it can cause serious problems, including an electrical fire. There are exceptions such as those described above, but let the following story serves as a warning to tread carefully, even with ready-to-fit kits.

As already mentioned, adding Fog Lights to a US spec GL1800 is relatively straight forward because the bike’s wiring loom has provision for them and the Fog light Kits are sold with matching plugs and switches. You can literally bolt them on, plug them in and install the switch in the blanked-off hole provided for it on the bike and away you go. The instructions are easy to follow too. It’s not difficult if you buy the correct kit for your model and follow the instructions.

One of the mechanics at a well known GoldWing Specialist Dealer decided to install a fog light kit his own way. He drew the power for the fog lights by splicing a cable into the bike’s dipped headlight circuit, presumably reasoning that it was desirable to allow the fog lights to work only when the headlights are switched on, as is conventional practice when installing fog lights on cars.

He spliced in his cable downstream of the relay which powers the dipped headlights at the relay box under the bike’s seat and routed it to the fog light switch and from the switch directly to the fog lamps.

Whether he read the fog light kit instructions or considered the capacity of the dipped headlight circuit (or of the fog light switch) to carry the load of two 35 watt fog lights is uncertain. The bike he was working on was a US Specification model, so it had provision in the wiring loom for the fog lights to be connected to plugs right by where they were to be installed, likewise the fog light switch (and the relay which comes with the kit) could have been simply plugged in. The mechanic chose to cut all these plugs off and run his own cables instead. The full load of the fog lights (35 watts each, so a total of at least 6 amps, probably rising to 7 or 8 amps at the alternator’s full working voltage of 14.3, was therefore passing through the fog lamp switch as well as being added to the dipped headlamp circuit and therefore overloading it.

Surprisingly the fog lights worked without blowing the dipped headlamp circuit’s fuse; fuse sizes go up in quantum leaps (5, 7.5, 10, 15 etc) and the headlamp fuse at 15 amps was just big enough to cope with the extra load. But after a while both the fog lights and the dipped headlights stopped working, even though the fuse hadn’t blown. It was quite a puzzle and it took two mechanics ten hours to find the cause.

Drawing this additional power from the headlamp circuit had caused knock-on effects elsewhere in the bike’s wiring loom. It had overloaded, and therefore overheated and eventually burnt out, a diode buried deep in the bikes wiring loom under the trunk. They found it because it had caused visible charring of the whole wiring loom within which it was contained.

This diode doesn’t feature in the wiring diagram in the bike’s service manual and its role in this remote part of the circuit is obscure. (For those of you who think you understand auto-electrics and like a puzzle, once the diode had failed and the bike’s dipped headlights had failed with it, the headlights came on again while reverse gear was engaged!

Even professional motorcycle mechanics, although perhaps in this case one who had limited auto-electrical knowledge and skill, can cause serious problems by breaking into a GoldWing’s standard wiring circuits to install accessories. So unless you really known what you’re doing and have calculated the impact of any additional load you will be imposing very carefully, don’t do it!

Overloaded switches can burn out

And the mechanic made two important mistakes in his approach to this installation, not one. Relatively high power devices like fog lamps will overload a relatively small capacity operating switch such as the one supplied as part of a fog lamp kit. Sooner or later the fog lamp switch would have burned out because it had been wired up to carry the full working load of the fog lamps rather than the much smaller current necessary to energise the relay with which the kit was supplied and the switch intended to operate.

The lessons of this story are compellingly clear:

1. If you are installing an accessory kit, make sure it’s the right one for the bike and then read the instructions and follow them.
2. If you need to adapt a kit to a non-standard use and therefore create your own accessory wiring circuit then don’t, repeat don’t, add substantial extra loads to the bike’s existing wiring circuits without carefully calculating the consequences.
3. Unless you really know what you are doing, it’s best not to interfere with the bike’s standard wiring loom, switches and circuits at all. Additional lighting and accessories are best installed using completely separate circuits, as described below.

Fog Light Switch in place

Fitting Fog Lights safely

The safe way to fit fog lights to a UK Specification GL1800 is to create a separately fused and switched circuit which incorporates a relay to handle the switching of the relatively high current which will flow when the lights are on.

The US Kit’s fog lights, mounting frames and the special switch can be used.  You may also use the relay which comes with the kit  but you may find it simpler install one of your own instead, grouped with other relays you may be installing nearer the battery, so under the seat.

The fog light switch should be connected (via a fuse, so from the bike’s Accessory Terminals) ) and then to the relay (which draws power separately via its own fused, heavier cable to the battery) which is then connected to the fog lamps themselves.  The return cable from the fog lamps to the bike’s frame (and therefore to the negative side of the battery) needs to be able to carry the full working load of the fog lamps, so it needs to be a heavier one too.

Using the bike’s Accessory Terminals to supply the fog light switch (but not the lamps themselves) ensures that the fog lights can’t be left on when the bike’s ignition is turned off. What you cannot do safely is power the fog lights entirely from the bike’s accessory terminals, because this would overload them and blow their fuse. You have to use a relay, i.e. an electrical switch which uses the energy in one circuit to switch on another, higher power, circuit to supply the lamps themselves.

Accessory Circuit using a Relay

Relays are really useful

This technique, of using a relay, an electrical switch which can deal with a heavy load, allows the use of small, neat switches, which can only carry small loads, to operate relatively high power accessories such as fog lights, heated clothing, horns and groups (i.e. lots of) display lights.

You don’t need to understand how a relay works to make use of the idea; all you need to know is which pair of terminals does the switching and which pair gets switched. Relays have numbered terminals, so it isn’t difficult to get this right.

But if you’re curious, and you can remember a little of what you were probably taught in science at school, a relay has a solenoid inside it and that’s what does the switching.  A small electrical current flows through a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet and this makes the magnet move.  When it moves the magnet closes a pair of electrical contacts which switches on the more powerful circuit, through which a bigger electrical current (eg enough to power the fog lights) can safely flow.  When the small electrical current to the relay is interrupted (when the manual control switch is turned off) the magnet springs back and the power to the fog lights is disconnected.

So fog lights are powered from a relay, which switches the power on and off in response to a separate, low-power circuit which incorporates the operating switch.  And this separate control circuit is powered from the bike’s Accessory Terminals, so the fog lights won’t work when the bike’s ignition key is taken out.   Simple!

Hitachi Connectors - from Electrical Connection

The Bike’s Accessory Terminals and Connector

All GoldWings are fitted, as standard, with a pair of terminal at the main fusebox which are designed to allow you to connect electrical accessories or extra lighting. They are only “live” when the ignition is on (or switched to “ACC”) so whatever you connect to these terminals will not work otherwise. This is very useful because it provides an easy way of ensuring that your accessories cannot be left switched on and therefore cannot drain the battery.

However the Accessory Terminals are fused at 5 amps, which limits what you can connect to them. For example they wouldn’t cope with a pair of fog lights, which draw at least 6 amps; they would blow the 5 amp fuse. Likewise heated bike clothing will often draw more than 5 amps, which is why that comes with a power lead (which incorporates its own fuse) for connection directly to the bike’s battery.

The Accessory Terminals will however cope with low power devices like a Satellite Navigator or a speed camera detector, so these can be powered directly from the Accessory Terminals. And these devices have an on/off switch built into them (as many do) and they come with their own power lead which incorporates an in-line fuse, a direct connection can be made without any other provision. You may find that the power lead which is supplied is too short to allow you to mount the device where you would like to on your GoldWing but it should be possible to extend it if necessary.

The GL1800 comes with a built-in accessory power socket in the space below the left glovebox; it is protected by the same 5 amp fuse as the Accessory Terminals on the fusebox, so anything you connect to it contributes to the total of 5 amps which this circuit can supply.

You can purchase the Hitachi-type connectors which are necessary to plug into this power source and you can connect one or more low power accessories to it, just as you can to to the Accessory Terminals themselves.  The total load (of both together) must not exceed 5 amps otherwise the bike’s Accessory Fuse (on the main fuse board) will blow.

Note however that if your low power device doesn’t come with it’s own internal or in-line fuse you should consider adding an in-line fuse yourself. This is because your device may draw only a very small current (less than one amp) and therefore be supplied with a relatively thin power cable.

The Owner plans to replace this temporary switch panel

Don’t get carried away, think Resale Value

You should also think about the implications of switch and accessory location for the resale value of your bike.

In general don’t drill holes or install switches anywhere which is easily visible on the bike if they cannot easily be removed without trace.  Same applies to locating display lighting too; better to tuck it away so that illuminates the bike in darkness but doesn’t substantially alter its appearance in daylight.

If you sell your bike privately your accessories and wiring might be seen by the buyer to have value and therefore help to sell it and perhaps add to its value.  Alternatively if you’ve stuck an ugly or cheap-looking switch in a conspicuous place it will be to the bike’s detriment.

Dealers tend not to trust DIY accessory wiring on any GoldWing which they take in part exchange; they haven’t done it themselves and they don’t want to have to fix any faults which might arise under the guarantee they will offer with your bike when they sell it on.  This is partly because they would have to ferret around to do the fault finding; there is no standard system for accessory wiring and few if any owners will hand on a diagram of what has been done which the fault-finder could work from.

Dealers may therefore rip out all DIY electrical accessories and associated wiring as a matter of routine, no matter whether it is currently working and how well it might appear to have been installed before putting any used bike up for sale.  (They might even remove any non-electrical accessories which won’t leave conspicuous holes, so they can sell the new owner new ones!)

Having seen the tangled mess which some DIY wiring on GoldWings can be, this “scorched earth” policy makes some sense, even though it will also appear to be potentially wasteful.

There is another side to this coin too because dealers who do this won’t necessarily return the bike to the manufacturer’s specification by replacing any damaged or dodgy parts.  So when you are thinking of buying a used GoldWing from a dealer, one of the things you should look carefully for is evidence of accessories having been removed leaving hole or other damage.

A recent example I came across involved rusting former mounting bolts being put back in place to fill in holes which the removal of a set of front fork lights would otherwise have left in the brake covers of a GL1800.  It wouldn’t have looked so bad if they had used new bolts.

Rusty bolts where lights were mounted

The need to look before you buy is especially true for newcomers to GoldWings, who may be less likely to know what might have been removed from where on a GoldWing and which panels are prone to damage from repeated removal and therefore where to look for evidence of unrepaired faults or bodging up.  At least if you spot something before you buy it will at least provide a basis for haggling for replacement accessories or something off the price.

Look on the Bright Side!

Having said all that, don’t be discouraged from buying and fitting electrical accessories and display lighting on your GoldWing because that’s an important part of the enjoyment of the bike for many UK owners.

The GoldWing Light Parade through Blackpool Illuminations started in 2002 and has become a really spectacular success, involving hundreds of brightly illuminated GoldWings riding past thousands of admiring spectators along the Promenade through the Town’s own famous Illuminations on the first weekend in September each year.

And other GoldWing Light Parades have started taking place in UK too in recent years as interest has grown in making GoldWings eye-catching by night as well as by day.  Quiet seaside Towns can’t provide quite the same setting for a Light Parade as Blackpool Illuminations and its crowds of visitors, but UK Wingers have come to enjoy showing off their display lights as well as their bikes any chance they get.

Next Article

Part 2 of this Series deals with choosing and locating switches.

A list of  UK suppliers will be provided in the final part of the Series.

Ian astride a 2001 GL1800 shod with early Bridgestones

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW

To put my experiences and views into context, I’ve ridden Goldwings continuously and exclusively since 1998 and I am now on my seventh. The first Wing was a GL1500SE but the rest have all been GL1800s, all US models and all with ABS – as of course do all UK model GL1800s.

I’ve ridden upwards of 160,000miles on a Wing, some of it in straight lines but as much as possible on non-motorway roads.  I enjoy exploiting the excellent handling of a GL1800 and I ride to make progress more often than I dawdle along.  So my tyres are sometimes working hard for their living.

I have used tyres from four different manufacturers including two different designs of tyre from two of them, so six different GL1800 tyres altogether.

Side view of the current Bridgestone

It’s important to mention that I check my tyres regularly (at least twice a week)  for pressure and damage.  Tyres need to be checked in this way to allow them to perform reliably and well.  I know how important tyre pressures are and what a big influence they have on tyre wear and performance from my Kart racing days – so I check my tyre pressures almost every time I take the bike out.

Sticking to this routine of frequent tyre checks has helped to ensure that when I compare tyres I am always running them as they are designed to be run and so I am giving them all their best shot to impress.

I also always use proper, genuine Ultraseal tyre treatment in both tyres.  Manufacturers are not all that keen of this stuff but I think it helps to reduce risk (of a rapid deflation and loss of control after a puncture) and I have had no experience of it having any adverse effect of any kind on tyres or handling.

Original (2001) Bridgestones

My first set of GL1800 tyres were the original Bridgestones fitted to the 2001 Wing when it was built.  They were a disaster.

They had a double drain groove that ran all around the circumference of the tyre and they flatted really badly in the centre.   If you click on the picture of me sitting on a red bike to get an enlarged view, you will be able to see the double grooves which these tyres had around their centreline. After just 1900miles Honda agreed to fit a new front tyre free of charge because of this flatting but the same thing happened with the replacement.

Modified (current) Bridgestone tread has a single drain groove

This time I had a home visit from a Bridgestone technician who was quite shocked when he saw the wear on the front tyre.  He checked my tyre pressures and asked me how often I checked them.  The pressures were fine and he found no damage, just the spectacular flatting.

Bottom line was that he authorised another replacement front tyre and a while after that Bridgestone changed the design of the tyre to a single drain groove, which they still have on their current tyre.

Current Bridgestones

I’ve since tried this modified design (the current Bridgestone G704/703 tyres) and found them to be quite grippy with good short term handling performance BUT they are made of quite a soft rubber and they still flatten in the centre after only 2-3,000 miles.

Centreline Flatting and Handling

Centreline flatting has a dramatic affect on the tyres handling.  It causes the tyre to ‘track’ along tarmac joints and along white line road markings.  For this reason the Bridgestone is not a tyre I would choose to use or recommend.

Flatting of the front tyre bad enough to have an effect on handling can develop when you won’t be able to see it.  At these early stages you can however feel it.  If you run your fingers across the tyre you will notice a slight rounding about half an inch or so either side of the centreline.  You are feeling the edge either side of the flatting on which the tyre runs as you corner, hence the effect on handling in the wet or on white lines.

I do quite a lot of servicing of GL1800′s for friends and I have seen Bridgestone tyres on their bikes which have done 8-9,000miles.  Wheels with these tyres on them can be stood upright when you take them off the bike, such is the flatting which occurs on Bridgestones by the time they have done these mileages.

Another effect of this flatting is that the tyre can be very noisy when the rider leans into bends. Wingers have asked me to the check wheel bearings on their bikes because they “can hear a funny whining noise when I’m in a  bend”.  This is because of the flatting and the bike riding on an edge in the bend; it causes a ‘cupping’ distortion of the tyre profile.

Dunlop D250

If your overriding requirement is a tyre that gives top mileage then the Dunlop D250 is a good choice.

I have had several sets of these tyres and they last well.  One friend loves them and he regularly gets over 11,000miles from a set.

But personally I don’t like how the D250 performs in the wet.  Its really skittish and doesn’t offer very good grip when compared to other tyres.

I suppose if the tyre is made of a harder rubber compound (to give higher mileage) this might explain why it doesn’t seem to perform quite as well in the wet.

Every set of Dunlop D250 that I’ve had were replaced at round about 8,000miles when they too started to develop a bit of a flatting spot and their performance deteriorated on white lines etc.

Dunlop Elite 3

I also tried the Dunlop Elite 3.  I bought them in Florida a few years ago (before they were available in the UK) and fitted them for a trip we were doing to Vienna, Austria.

Unfortunately after only 500ish miles the front wheel started to develop a marked wobble.  It got so bad that that I had to divert to find a Honda dealer and have the tyre replaced!  Incidentally I got great service from Tyrol Sud Honda, a GoldWing specialist. Unfortunately the only tyre they had in stock was a Bridgestone, but even a Bridegstone was better than that wobbly Elite3.

I understand that Dunlop have since developed the E3 design further and have cured the wobble problem.  I  recently organised a pair of these to be fitted to a friend’s bike, so he will keep me posted on how they perform.

Large Wingers

Incidentally if you happen to be a rider of large stature Elite3 might be your tyre of choice.  They have the highest load rating of all the tyres that are available for the Wing. Big riders and passengers can overload the tyres of a GL1800; the weight limits in the GL1800 handbook and on the tyres are not there for fun.

Metzeller ME880

I also tried Metzellers.  These were fine until the front wheel developed a serious wobble, just like the Dunlop Elite 3 had done.

I had the front tyre removed and sent back to Metzeller for testing and I guess they agreed with me because they gave me a credit for the front tyre.

I don’t think this problem I had was a fluke.  I have heard of some other Wingers experiencing the same problem too.

Because of this experience I haven’t tried Metzeller tyres myself since then.  I haven’t heard that Metzeller have done anything to modify  their tyre design either, so I probably won’t.

Venom Radial - correct for a GL1800 but now supercede by the Cobra

Avon Venom

At the moment my favourite make of tyre is Avon.

I started with Avon Venoms, which I thought were a great tyre for me but when Avon announced the new Cobra I had a pair fitted to try and it’s been my tyre of choice ever since.

However I did have another set of Venoms fitted recently when Cobras were temporarily out of stock.  Unfortunately, unnoticed by me at the time they were a mismatched pair – a radial on the back and a cross-ply on the front.  The handling (admittedly compared with the previous tyre, which were Cobras) felt very odd.  I started checking for suspension faults before I noticed that the front tyre was a cross ply.

Venom Radial tread pattern

As Stuart has reported elsewhere on this Blog, the combination of a cross ply on the front and a radial on the back might not be illegal but by my standards it’s not remotely acceptable.  The Supplier replaced the mismatched Venoms for me when I raised the problem with him and I am back on Cobras.

I have nothing against Venoms as long as they are a properly matched pair of radials but I understand that radial venoms are no longer made, so effectively they are, as far as the GL1800 is concerned, history.

Cobra has a snakeskin sidewall finish

Avon Cobra

I am now on my 4th set of Cobra’s and I think they are the best tyre I’ve had on the Wing.

I like the handling in dry and wet conditions, they’re really grippy in both situations, and they give good mileage too.

The last set of Cobras that I removed from my bike had done 9260 miles.  They were worn right down to the wear marker and still handled well.  They hadn’t developed any flatting as far as I could tell and I hadn’t noticed any tendency to track on joints or white lines.

Cobra tread pattern - no circumferential groove

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Avon Cobras to anyone who asked for my opinion.

These are just my own experiences and thoughts.  I hope you find them useful.  I am no tyre specialist or trained tyre technician, but I do ride quite a few miles per annum on my Wing.

Editor’s Postscript: These are Ian’s personal experiences and views and while he makes no claim to be a tyre expert, he makes good sense to me.  This is a very informative Article and I am most grateful to Ian for sharing his experiences.

Ian bought his first GL1800 as soon as they became available and has ridden more miles on a GL1800 on twisty roads than anyone else I know.  He therefore comes in very useful, discovering problems well in time to warn the rest of us.  He is therefore (among many other things) my Tyre Guru, which is why I went to him.

He is an exceptionally skilled and perceptive motorcyclist who really understands how to handle a GL1800 and how to tell when something isn’t right.   He is an IAM Senior Observer and he has also passed a ROSPA advanced riding test at the highest (Gold) level.  He has a racing background and he was also one of the Founding Members of Elite Wings.  Incidentally he has his own very interesting Winginit website, which you might like to visit.

If you have any questions please use the Comment facilities of this Blog and I will try to get Ian to answer them. Tyre manufacturers are also welcome to respond if they wish.

Correct size marking for a GL1800 front tyre. Click on the picture for a larger image

A GL1800 was fitted with Avon Venoms recently because there was a temporary stock shortage of Avon Cobras, which are now the preferred fit for a GL1800.

The owner noticed a significant deterioration in handling compared with his previous tyres, which had been Cobras.  This led to discovery that a cross ply (official terminology “bias belted”) front tyre had inadvertently been fitted while the rear one was a radial.  The tyre suppler replaced both tyres with Cobras as soon as the error was discovered.

Avon Venoms used to be made in both cross ply (for the GL1500) and radial (for the GL1800) versions.  Confusion can arise because although the rear wheels are different sizes, both bikes have the same size front tyre.

Cross ply Venoms are still made for the GL1500 but production of the radial versions stopped when the Avon Cobra was launched for the GL1800.  Any radial Venom rear tyres for GL1800s are left over stock and there are probably no Venom radial front tyres left at all.  Hence the danger of a GL1800 being re-shod with the undesirable mixture  of a Venom cross ply on the front and a Venom radial on the back.

It’s not illegal to run a cross ply tyre on the front and a radial on the rear, but it is not recommended.  It is illegal (and potentially dangerous) to run a radial front tyre with a cross ply on the rear.

The understandable mixture of venoms on a GL1800 is not likely to have happened commonly and probably not until recently, when stock of radial venoms started running out.  However if you are running a GL1800 with Venoms, it is worth checking that you have a radial front tyre.

To do this look for the size marking on the front tyre.  A radial Venom tyre will show 130/70R-18 63H, a cross ply will show 130/70B-18 63H.

So look for the letter R (rather than a B) in the size labelling.  That’s how you tell most easily that your tyre is a radial.  There will also be a “radial” marked somewhere on the tyre but this is more difficult to find.

If you find you have a cross ply Venom front tyre and you had it fitted recently as a replacement pair of tyres, contact your supplier to discuss replacing them.

The official response to my enquiries of Avon about this problem from their UK Tyre Sales Manager Graham Matcham reads as follows:

I can confirm our recommended fitments for Honda Goldwings as follows.

GL1500

Front       130/70B18 69H Venom AM41

Rear        160/80B16 81H Venom AM42

Please note that with the inclusion of the letter B in the size description these tyres are of Bias Belted construction.

GL1800

Front      130/70R18 63H Cobra AV71

Rear       180/60R16 74H Cobra AV72

Please note that with the letter R in the size description these tyres are of radial construction.

Cobra tyres have replaced the following paring of tyres which were also recommended for fitment to Honda Goldwing 1800.

Front      130/70R18 63H Venom R AM41

Rear       180/60R16 74H Venom R AM42

Although not illegal, the fitment of a Bias belted 130/70B18 to the front of a GL1800 is not recommended.

Graham Matcham

Postscript:

Last Sunday, August 23rd, our Club gathered for a ride out and we did a bit of tyre checking.  We found one pair of Venoms on a GL1800 which were a crossply/radial mix but the owner, Pete, reported no significant handling problems and was very happy with them.

The Winger who told me about this problem in the first place is an exceptionally experienced rider who has a racing background and he rides his bike hard at times – he has sufficient knowledge and experience to spot a difference in handling when other Wingers might not.

So I suppose the answer is check your tyres if they are Venoms but if you turn out to have a mismatched pair don’t panic and don’t automatically replace them; just be aware of what you are riding on and don’t ride near to any limits.  Hopefully not many of us do that anyway.

Incidentally the mismatched pair of Venoms we found had come to their owner, Pete, via a complex sequence of wheel swaps so there was no prospect of going back to the supplier to ask for a tyre change.  It all started when Frank bought a bike privately with this pair on it (almost unused) but his wife didn’t like the gold coloured powder coated wheels, indeed it was a condition of him buying the bike that he got rid of them.  He hadn’t noticed any handling problems but then he’d just switched from a GL1500 to a GL1800 so he wouldn’t have the GL1800 experience to notice any difference.

So to save Frank from the grief he was getting I swapped his gold wheels for my spare pair of standard UK wheels which still  had  decent tyres on them.  Frank was happy, so was I.  He was now running on newish matched Venoms, i.e. both were now radials.

But then another Club Member, Pete, took a fancy to the gold wheels because he was running on newish Metzlers which seemed to be causing a front wheel shimmy and his wheels were “difficult to clean”.

In a weak moment (an offer of a bottle of malt whiskey was involved ) I swapped the gold wheels for his seriously pitted, non-UK (so non-laquered) wheels and wobbly Metzlers, mainly because I was planning to get my spare set powder coated in smokey chrome anyway,  at which point they were re-shod with Avon Cobras, even though the Metzlers weren’t worn out.

So the gold wheels with the mismatched Venoms cured Pete’s front wheel wobble,  Frank’s Wife was happy withthe appearance of the standard UK wheels and Frank didn’t notice any difference switching from mismatched to matched Venoms.  Frank’s ears have also recovered and I enjoyed the whiskey.

And if anyone is looking for a slightly worn set of Metzlers which might (or might not) be the cause of a front wheel shimmy, all it would take is an offer of another bottle of Lagavulin.

Choosing and using tyres on a motorcycle is far from straightforward.

On the right is a 2008 Pearl White US model, with chrome extras, and on the left an absolutely unique colour called "Last Week's Papal Robes"

A white GL1800 is to be sold officially in UK for the first time – but not just yet.

As I forecast in an earlier article on this Blog, included in HondaUK’s stockpile of GL1800s there are colours not previously seen in UK except personally imported US-spec bikes.  It now appears there were two such colours – and at long last this includes white.

White has always been a very popular colour for GoldWings and many have been imported from the US.  With a bit of extra chrome here and there it looks really good.  Indeed so committed was my friend Bill to having a white bike that when he replaced his white GL1500 and couldn’t buy a white one, he bought a blue one, stripped it of all painted parts before it turned a wheel and had them resprayed in pearlescent white.  The colour he chose has a golden sheen to it.  (Don’t tell him I said so but it’s really stunning.)

So at last, and it’s official, HondaUK will be selling a white GL1800.  Officially the new colour will be called Glacier Pearl White but it’s probably exactly the same as the 2008 Pearl White colour (or rather color) sold to the US market.  Honda are not above calling the same paint scheme different names in different markets – remember Candy Red (UK) and Durango Red (US) which were identical?

Glacier Pearl White is being held back in UK for the 2010 model year, so you can’t have one yet.  No information is available about the number of white bikes which HondaUK have up their sleeve but it is likely to be small, maybe fifty or so at most.

Monterey Blue - already released for UK

Another new UK colour, Monterey Blue, has been already released and can be ordered now, but if you want a white one, you’ll have to wait.

The 2010 model colours have already been released in the US, so maybe it won’t be all that long before Glacier Pearl White is released here.

Pity we never got Pearl Yellow in UK, a colour which was extremely popular in the US.  It was so sought after when it first appeared in 2001 that Appleyards had a batch of six UK GL1800s re-sprayed in that colour to meet demand. Pearl Yellow has been re-introduced as a US colour for 2010 but it is extremely unlikely that you could persuade Appleyards to paint any more bikes yellow; if you want a new Pearl Yellow GL1800 you will have to resort to a personal import; this is now the only way to get a new or second hand US model GoldWing into the UK, the Dealers cannot risk doing it.

All GL1800s sold in UK since 2007 differ only in colour and there are unlikely to be any technical changes until the new model appears. The TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) fitted to 2009 and 2010 US model GoldWings will not appear on UK GoldWings at all.   It’s quite likely that all the remaining UK GL1800s were manufactured during the 2008 model year run or earlier.

Navi System will get no map updates

One thing is for sure, the new GoldWing will have a completely different satnav system. Garmin, who supply the electronic brains behind Honda’s Navi system on the GL1800, have announced that they will not be supporting older units (like their own Street Pilot 2610) with new map releases beyond the current version, which is 2009.

Their newer units, including the latest for motorcycles, the Zumo 660, all use the City Navigator NT series of maps. So City Navigator Europe 2009 is to be the last non-NT version ever.

This is probably an expedient commercial decision by Garmin rather than an insurmountable technical barrier but one of the considerations will have been the impracticability of squeezing every larger map data files into units  designed with limited memory and processing capacity.  The Navi system can handle less than 2GB of  map data.  After version 8, City Navigator Europe exceeds this for the whole European mapset.

The remaining stocks of GL1800s which HondaUK are holding all have City Navigator Europe Version 8 – which is two versions older than the latest one, and no option to update these maps is available through official Honda channels.  The Navi system on the GL1800 was never very impressive as a motorcycle system anyway (because you can’t download routes onto it) but it’s now become clear that it’s also a dead end as far as map updates are concerned.

If you want maps to cover the whole of Europe with City Navigator Europe Version 2009 you have to resort to splitting them between two memory cards.  So you would have to swap cards when you reach the limits of your home card’s coverage, as we used to have to do with the original, small capacity, Street Pilot III.

This need for two cards may be partly why Honda haven’t offered any map update options for the Navi system, although there are also issues of having to create update cards indiviudually for a particular bike.  There is no option for Honda to sell an update card which would work on any bike.

While there is nothing wrong with the remaining GL1800s which HondaUK are selling – the GL1800 is now a fully developed and extremely capable grand tourer – except that you will not get up to date satnav maps with it.  They will be over four years old.

So if you buy a new (or should I say “unused”) GL1800 in UK during the next two years or so, you can at least lean on the Dealer to supply it with 2009 maps.  There is an unofficial (but perfectly legitimate) fix available to install 2009 maps and if any UK Honda Dealer needs information about how to get this done they are most welcome to contact me and I will point them in the right direction. Pity Honda aren’t supplying it officially but then it would probably cost a lot more.

Latest information about the new GoldWing model

It is of course an open secret that a new GoldWing model is on the way.  The GL1800 was launched in 2000 in the US (2001 in UK) and so it will have had a reasonably long run by the time it is replaced (probably for 2011 in the US) it will have almost equalled the incredibly long-running GL1500.

Production of GL1800s stopped when the Maryville Factory closed in March this year but a stockpile of extra GL1800s were built prior to that closure to cater for the 2010 model year.  Most of these are being held in Honda’s Distribution Warehouse in Chicago but HondaUK were reported to have a stock of 220 bikes already in UK, enough to see them through until the new GoldWing model is released.  HondaUK have been selling only around 120 GL1800s per year.

Nothing official of course but I heard via an official source, unofficially, that the next GoldWing will have an overall look not which is not dissimilar to the GL1800 but with larger panniers, a 2.2 litre engine, an automatic/selectable gearbox similar to that of the DN01 and loads of electronic gadgets.

The article in last weeks MCN about the new replacement for the Pan European may give some indication of what else in the way of new technology could feature. The dynamic microphones and helmet intercom leads used with current GoldWings are pretty old technology, so there’s a likelihood that these will disappear in favour of wireless technology such as Bluetooth.  CB radio is pretty ancient technology too of course, but it’s still in such widespread use that it might be considered necessary to continue to offer it in the US.   But my bet would be on a more modern, UHF-type bike-to-bike radio system, in which case we can hope that UK models would get it too.  No need for a big whip aerial with UHF radiops but would we al want them anyway, for appearance?

Overnight Stop in France

Why on earth would anyone want to tow a GoldWing on a trailer? Surely the whole point of owning a GoldWing is to ride it?
Quite so – but when you want to ride your Wing on the biking roads you can only find in places which are far from home, like the Alps, and you also value sleeping in your own bed every night, towing the Wing behind a motorhome to make the transit journey to a decent biking area becomes an attractive option.

When I bought my first GoldWing, a 1984 GL1200 Interstate, I was coming back to biking after a break of quite a few years.  As I kitted myself out with riding gear, for I had long since disposed of the Belstaff jacket I had last used when riding a long gone 1961 Matchless 350, I suppose I had a fanciful notion of recovering a bit of lost youth. So as well as a riding jacket I also bought myself a little gas stove and a set of billycans.

I never quite got as far as buying a tent and the gas stove and the billycans are still languishing unused in a cupboard. Somewhere along the way my appetite for combining motorcycling with camping had evaporated – not least because Management, as she is referred to in our household, made it very clear when I bought the stove that there was no way she was going to sleep in a tent.  We had owned a motorhome for a few years by then, so her idea of touring was already very much geared to a comfortable motorhome, failing which it would have to be a hotel or at least a decent B&B. She was right too; it didn’t take too much further thought for me to realise that sleeping in a tent, however romantic the idea might be, even in ideal weather, was for younger and less corpulent people than me.

Box Van Trailer

We already had experience of combining two wheels with four, in that we also already owned a Honda C90 which we used to hang on the back of our motorhome to use as auxiliary transport. (Switching from riding a C90 to a GL1200 was quite a learning curve too, but that’s another story.)  Many people do hang scooters and small motorcycles on racks on the back of motorhomes and many modern motorhomes have “garages” under the back bedroom which will take one, but these arrangements are strictly for lightweight motorcycles.  Only in the US can you buy an RV, as they call their motorhomes, which is capable of carrying a big bike (or even two) on board.

With European motorhomes, even the big ones, carrying even a medium size motorcycle on the back presents serious weight limitation difficulties.  Even if the weight of the motorcycle is within the motorhome’s safe payload, the rearward weight transfer which hanging a bike on the very rear of the vehicle involves will almost inevitably overload the back axle – and might also reduce the front axle loading sufficiently to cause serious handling problems too.  Except for the larger US RV’s, hanging anything except a light motorcycle on the back, like a Honda C90 or a small scooter, is a non-starter.  Even if you could solve all the weight problems, a GoldWing is too long to be slung across the back of an RV in Europe because the maximum permissible width is 2.55 meters and a Wing is longer than this.  So hanging a GoldWing on the back of a motorhome is not a viable arrangement.  I therefore had to think in terms of towing the GoldWing on a trailer.

The practicalities of choosing and using a trailer are quite important, because I had quite a few hairy moments and I dropped the bike several times unloading from the trailer before I achieved a combination of trailer and method which I felt was both safe and reliable.

For our first venture I hired a box trailer which was big enough to hold the GL1200, hitched it to the back of the motorhome and loaded the bike by using a set of three skids, one for the bike’s wheels and one each for my feet.  I forgot all about the bike’s radio aerial, so that caught the roller rear door of the trailer with a big twang and barely escaped permanent damage.  Not knowing any better, I also put the bike on its centre stand and tied it to the trailer’s wall rails, because there were no tie down rings on the floor.  Off we went to Suffolk, to visit relatives and as luck would have it the bike stayed more or less in the same position in the trailer and suffered no damage.  We parked the motorhome in grassy side area of Shawsgate Vineyard, a small family business, and their very reasonable camping fee included freedom to wander around among the vines with no obligation to buy any wine, although of course we did, and very good it was too.

I unhitched the trailer in order to park both it and the motorhome more tidily, so we could use the space to best advantage.  I then unloaded the bike, carefully and having folded remembered to fold the aerial down, only to discover that as I rolled the bike down the skid the front of the trailer tipped up. Another learning curve item ticked off – if your trailer hasn’t got rear steadies, leave it attached to the motorhome to do your unloading.

Off we went on the bike to visit our relatives on the Wing; we got invited to stay for tea and so by the time we got back to our campsite it was dark, very dark in fact, because there was no lighting on the site at all.  A Wing’s headlight is very good of course, so we had plenty of illumination from that, so I was not deterred from putting the bike away in the trailer overnight.  I remembered the tipping up experience getting it out, so I asked Management to stand on the drawbar at the front of the trailer to weigh it down.  I was able to ride up the skid and into the trailer without difficulty and I even remembered to lower the aerial. As I switched the bike off it was suddenly pitch dark and I could hear plaintiff cries from the drawbar asking if it was safe to get down.  “Oh no, not yet” I said, as I crept up behind her in the dark to catch her unawares with an intimate gesture of affection.  “You can weigh your own blooming trailer down next time!” she said unappreciatively.

A comfortable way to make the long haul South

However we had satisfied ourselves that the idea of towing a GoldWing behind a motorhome in a trailer works in principle, because apart from slowing us down on hills and having to change gear a bit more often, towing the box trailer was completely painless and the bike was undamaged in transit, even if the tie down arrangements were far from ideal.  As things turned out we decided to sell the motorhome not long after this, because I was still working full time we were not getting enough use out of it.  So we had a phase of doing hotel-based touring for two or three years (with Elite Wings) including a couple of European tours on the GL1800 we had acquired by then.

By 2005 however Management had lost the appetite for long trips on the bike and I was getting keen on doing more adventurous European tours, having sampled the Alps on a guided tour I did in 2004, so I did a few more one week tours riding solo while Management spent time visiting granddaughter and getting retail therapy, which worked out quite well despite the potential costs of letting her loose in this way.  And I gained valuable riding experience, so it suited us both.

It's not all hard work!

But over the winter of 2005-2006 we talked about the likelihood that we would want to go back to motorhoming sooner or later, because we had both enjoyed it and I would not be biking forever.  We came to the view that we could combine the two hobbies for a few years, even if doing so meant we would be extracting maximum benefit from either.  So we bought another motorhome and I started researching and shopping around for a suitable trailer.

Most of the advice available on the internet was of North American origin but some of it translated to UK and European application – for example the clear warnings that you should never risk putting a cover on a motorcycle while towing it, because the inevitable flapping of the cover against the bike would do serious damage to the paintwork, especially in dry conditions when any dust which got on inside the cover would turn it into the equivalent of sandpaper, taking the paint off in no time.

I came across what seemed to be a strongly built, purpose made Kliponoff bike trailer which could handle a Wing; it was second hand and probably six or seven years old (so were the tyres) and I paid £900 for it.  It had an all up weight limit if 750kg (which avoids driving licence limitations if you passed your test after 1997 and don’t have the “+E” endorsement which is necessary for towing heavier trailers) yet it had enough payload to carry a GoldWing.  Incidentally if you ever need to discover the actual weight of a vehicle: your Wing, your motorhome or an unloaded or loaded trailer, you can find a weighbridge near you on the internet or from the local Council, ring up to check when they’re open and drive over there.  It cost me less than £5 to find out everything I needed to know.

The Kliponoff trailer had only one axle, which makes a trailer much easier to manoeuvre by hand, and it had a long loading skid, which helped to ensure the Wing would not ground on the hump at the top of the skid during loading.  It also had a shorter but useful rear ramp made of heavy grade wire mesh, so strong enough to put your foot down on to if necessary during loading and unloading, but not so much wind resistance as a solid one while towing.  I used this trailer for over a year and took it to the French Alps and back; it towed extremely well and the bike was always very securely held in place.

Tying a GoldWing down for transportation can be done in various ways and there are conflicting views on the subject.  Sometimes you will be limited in what you can do by where tie-downs can be attached to the trailer.  One secure method is to use a bike chock (i.e. a specially made device which is bolted to the trailer floor and which holds the front wheel firmly) coupled with a ratchet tie-down over each side of the lower fork brace to pull the front suspension down and secure the front wheel into the chock, then further tie downs to stop the back end wandering sideways.  Providing you ensure that the tie downs are clear of any paintwork (which they will otherwise rub off) this method is reliable.  Ideally you should budget for a tie-down working lose by adding extra restraint as a safeguard; I use a special sling on the handlebars which allows an extra pair of tie-downs to be attached to the handlebar ends – but I only take up the slack on these, to avoid bending the handlebars.

But a Wing on an open trailer gets absolutely filthy when it rains, especially from the spray on UK motorways which gets everywhere on and under the bike, far filthier than the bike would get riding it in the same conditions.  I also found the long skid too hazardous during unloading.  Unloading on flat ground and in dry conditions wasn’t bad at all but I dropped the bike twice when unloading on sloping ground.  The skid was a ten foot length of eight inches wide steel channel with two inch upstanding sides; the bike’s front brake does not work well when rolling backwards down a slope, especially on a damp steel surface.  Relying on the back brake and therefore having to balance the bike in order to be able to use it was quite a challenge because there was a point on the descent when your legs weren’t quite long enough to touch down if necessary, so it was a question of balancing the bike at that point and then letting it roll off all in one go.

Using reverse gear to roll the bike down the steel skid didn’t work either, partly for the same reason but the bike would also too quickly in reverse on a steeply sloping skid.  The final straw was when on one occasion I lost the straight path down the centreline and the front wheel caught the side wall of the skid and threw me off balance, resulting in quite a spectacular fall which cost me a replacement mirror. I really did not feel confident about continuing to use this trailer because of that.  So I sold it to a friend.

In retrospect my own unloading technique was probably the main culprit (the friend who took this trailer over from me did a few modifications and has found it perfectly satisfactory and other friends have bought similar trailers since) but the bike was getting filthy on an open trailer anyway, so I wanted something enclosed. My friend Bill Squires, with whom we went to the French Alps, had a box trailer and it was useful to carry all sorts of things as well as the bike.  A wide loading ramp makes for much easier and safer unloading too; I now roll the bike down the ramp very slowly, controlling movement with the back brake alone, leaning the bike to the left slightly and using my left leg to control balance.  I feel safe and in control doing it that way, even when I have to make a steep descent because of sloping ground.

The 2006 British Treffen at Wincanton provided an excellent opportunity to see how other people towed a Wing and there was quite a range of ideas, including several variants on the Kliponoff design of an open trailer using skids.  There were two very elegant, purpose-built enclosed bike trailers each costing £5,000 or more. There was also a neat adaptation of a box van trailer with an extra side door to allow access and a very clever folding trailer which was nevertheless strong enough to carry a Wing.  It became clear that apart from home made bike trailers or cheap adaptations of old car trailers, it would be necessary to pay at least £1,200 for a new open trailer to carry a Wing and well over £3,000 for any new enclosed trailer – and as much as £6,000 for the most elegant solution.

So I experimented, in partnership with the owner of Kliponoff, with a beaver tail trailer design, which would therefore have a loading ramp rather than a skid, and would also be fitted with a folding cover.  As a prototype it had potential but it was never quite finished off, and I also discovered that making a one-off trailer was very expensive.  Trailer components (towing hitch and suspension units) are not cheap, even if steel fabrication and galvanising are less costly.  It became clear that buying a standard production line trailer was a far more cost-effective solution. The owner of the Ifor Williams trailer factory is reputed to have said that he doesn’t mind anyone trying to copy his designs, because he knows that the scale and efficiency of his manufacturing process and his bulk buying power for components makes it impossible for anyone else to match his trailers for the money.

In the end I decided that elegance was not required and I settled for a used Ifor Williams BV105 Box Trailer, similar to the one I had originally hired, but this time with opening rear doors which could also be dropped down together to form a large and strong loading ramp.  The price of new ones had just jumped to well over £4,000 but I found a good used one for £2,200.  Bill helped me to fit it out with a front wheel chock and tie down rings recessed into the floor and, apart from drilling a spectacularly deep hole into his thigh in the process when his drill suddenly slipped (missing his femoral artery by less than an inch!) it turned out to be a very successful project.

By the way I discovered that there is even more risk and skulduggery in buying used trailers than used cars, so there is a lot to be said for paying a little more and buying from a proper trailer dealer unless you really can be sure of what you are buying privately.  Ifor Williams trailers are made in huge numbers and in a wide range of types and sizes; even if you also wish to consider other manufacturers, studying the Ifor Williams range and specifications is a useful way to start your search.  If you are anywhere near the North West of England you could do no better than visit Barlow Trailers, at Ulnes Walton near Leyland – this is a family firm with a farming background who carry a huge stock of Ifor Williams and other trailers of all shapes and sizes.

And so the outfit on which we have settled and used for a couple of seasons very satisfactorily is an Ifor Williams BV105 box van trailer, which is 10 feet long internally plus about another 18 inches or so into the angled front end, and five feet wide – which is enough to allow even a fat guy like me to ride in, get off the Wing, reach all the tie downs and exit without difficulty.  There is plenty of spare room in the trailer to carry things like riding gear and motorhome accessories (e.g. a waste water carrier) and even a couple of gazebos.  A biggish box van trailer like this one is also an extremely useful general load carrier and ours has been used to carry all sorts of things.

Of course the motorhome has to be capable of towing the trailer safely (and legally) so a few words about UK trailer law, which is extremely complex, might be helpful.  A purpose-built motorhome has a maximum towing capacity determined by the manufacturer at the design stage and there is nothing much that can be done by an owner to change that, not least because it will often be limited by chassis strength.  Motorhomes often have a specially extended chassis to which even attaching a tow bar may be unsafe, so check before you buy.  Likewise a motorhome which has been adapted from a van or bus will also have a safe towing limit.  The vehicle’s towing capacity should be stated in the owner’s handbook if there is one, but failing that it can be deduced from the information on vehicle’s weight plate, which will be welded or riveted somewhere on the chassis.

This plate should have four figures on it and in descending order of magnitude they will be the Gross Train Weight (GTW, the maximum permitted weight of loaded vehicle plus trailer) the Maximum Allowable Mass (MAM, which means the heaviest the motorhome itself is allowed to be, fully loaded) and two other figures, which give the maximum permitted loading of the front and rear axles – and the sum of these should be the same as the MAM.  Subtracting the MAM from the GTW gives you the maximum loaded weight of trailer you can tow – which in my case is 1,600 kg.

Haynes - The Trailer Manual

Now an Ifor Williams BV105 box van trailer weighs about 800kg and can be loaded to a maximum weight of 2,700kg, so it has a potential payload of 1,900kg, which, if you could get them in, would be enough to carry four GoldWings plus spares, so no problem there.  But my motorhome can tow only 1,600kg, so in order to use it to tow the BV105, the trailer has to be re-plated to show a maximum permitted weight of 1,600kg.  This is simply a matter of altering the relevant figure on the trailer’s plate to 1,600kg, which you can do yourself.  I used a labelling machine to create a stick-on strip showing the new figure and stuck it over the old one, which I was told should be perfectly acceptable to a Traffic Officer if you get stopped.  Providing you can explain that you have done your homework and how you are operating within the safe limits for your towing vehicle and its trailer you should be OK.  Note that if a trailer is un-plated, which some smaller trailers are, a Traffic Officer is entitled to look at the weight limit which will be stamped on or moulded into key trailer components like the towing hitch.  These limits may be considerably higher than the those of the overall trailer – and could therefore trigger a prosecution.  (I told you towing law was complex; there is an excellent Haynes Book called The Trailer Manual which is well worth consulting and is essential reading if you are thinking of building or adapting a trailer yourself.)

Consulting my own trailer’s excellent user manual I discovered that when running lightly loaded (as I would be at less than 1,600 kg) I should reduce the trailer’s tyre pressure from 65 psi to 50 psi to reduce bouncing, which I did.  Since the trailer weighs about 800kg empty, a 1,600kg loaded limit still gives me 800kg payload which is more than enough for the Wing and the other stuff I wanted to carry in it.  (If I ever want to carry more in the trailer I can always remove the down-sizing label and pump the tyres up again, providing of course I have a vehicle which is capable of towing it.)

By the way it could easily be a mistake to buy an unnecessarily large trailer to tow a GoldWing, even if your motorhome could tow it safely.  For example the Ifor Williams BV106 model, which is six feet wide rather than five, is rated at 3,500kg and is equipped with more heavily rated and much stiffer suspension – which would bounce far too much running lightly loaded with only a GoldWing and a few accessories, even with reduced tyre pressures.

Treales Foldaway 500kg payload

At the other end of the trailer spectrum there is a folding bike trailer made in UK by Treales Trailers which is capable of carrying a GoldWing.  It would be capable of being towed by almost any motorhome, no matter how small and I have heard excellent reports of how well it tows with a GoldWing on board.  Although fairly expensive this is a very well engineered product and a perfectly safe way to load and transport a GoldWing for those who have either a small towing vehicle or very limited storage space for a trailer.  This design uses a front wheel chock on a sliding mechanism, so the bike is winched onto the trailer with the front wheel held firmly in the chock.

We have done two European holidays in motorhomes and towing the bikes; one in the French Alps and the other in Northern Italy.  Both were extremely enjoyable.  Bill and I rode the twisties to our hearts content and our ladies did some sunbathing and retail therapy – which worked out very well for all concerned.  The outfits have also been used on many weekend outings in UK, including exhibiting the bikes for charity at various Shows, where the motorhome provides a very comfortable way of spending a weekend in a field among friends.  My trailer has enough storage capacity for all sorts of extra equipment for camping/barbeque weekends such as extra seats and gazebos and has proved to be extremely useful.

Is all this cost and trouble worthwhile when the simpler alternative is to ride the Wing to where you want to go and then sleep in a hotel or B&B or a tent?  Well that is obviously a matter of personal choice.