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.

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.

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.

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.

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.