Motorcycle Alarms

Getting an Alarm system for chirssy... The thing is tho, im not too sure on
letting the guys at a car audio shop (who sell this alarm system) install
the thing. I mean, they would basically just be winging it when taking the
fairings and stuff off. Im tending to buy the alarm and take it to a
workshop for fitting...or even fit it myself.

Suggestions??

Josh - ZX9R

 

They're winging it (read: butchering it) when they do that
to cars, much less their first motorcycle installation. In my
book, the *only* way to fit stuff like that, to anything, is
DIY. Too many fully trade qualified butchers working in the
alarm/stereo installation game for some reason!

Where are you? I'm in Sydney. I'm clued at this sort of thing.
If you supervise taking fairings and stuff off, I'll supervise
electrickery.

G

 

Thanks GB,
Unfortunately im in Qld....Southport to be exact. The downside, for me,
is that i dont have the workshop manual and this is a new bike for me. Other
then that, im pretty confident with my work on bikes and have done a few
electronics soldering courses.
If i go DIY ill have to get a workshop manual so i have wiring diagrams
and step by step instructions for removing the fairings... Last thing i
wanna do is scratch or break something.

Josh - 98 ZX9R

They're winging it (read: butchering it) when they do that
to cars, much less their first motorcycle installation. In my
book, the *only* way to fit stuff like that, to anything, is
DIY. Too many fully trade qualified butchers working in the
alarm/stereo installation game for some reason!

Where are you? I'm in Sydney. I'm clued at this sort of thing.
If you supervise taking fairings and stuff off, I'll supervise
electrickery.

G

 

Hint: The car stero shop doesn't have a wiring diagram. Nuff said.

-----sharks

 

Im more worried about my fairings being scratched or broken. They wont take
blame for it.

Josh - ZX9R

Hint: The car stero shop doesn't have a wiring diagram. Nuff said.

-----sharks

 

Do it yourself, it's not that hard. Just make sure you have the wiring diagram for your bike (and a multimeter would be
handy too!), and if you take your time and check everything thoroughly before cutting anything, you should be fine. I
fitted an alarm to the CBR without any great dramas - had to redo it a couple of times to get the wiring to my liking
(which is where taking a bit more time and checking a bit more thoroughly would have helped!), but that was just a
cosmetic issue. Count on around 3 - 4 hours, and you're done! If I can do, anyone can.

Damien
GPX250 (stolen) -> CBR600

 

Just out of interest -- how does the bike alarm work anyway ?
Is it just a motion sensor ?

 

I have a mongoose striker alarm and yes it works off a motion sensor. It has
6 sensitivity settings from "look at it sideways it shall go off" to you
need to be sitting on the bike before it goes of. Also incorperates an
engine immobiliser and remote start. I think they also have some models
which activate if the clutch is pulled in.

Glen

TL1000Rw

 

KiwiRider wrote;

Remote start?!!?
What; it actually starts the engine from a remote?
What possible use is that? (Especially if you park in gear!!)
Clem

 

When the CB1100XX first came out, a regular SA rallygoer bought one of the
demo models which had been fitted with remote start.

At the Z-Owners Rally at at little one-pub town (whose name escapes me), he
had it parked on the centrestand outside the pub while he was over the road
enjoying the fire and refreshments. A crowd formed, as they weren't as
common as they are now, and when one bloke put his hand close to the bike to
point to something, the owner started it with the remote. Everyone near the
bike leapt back as if a grenade had just gone off in the middle of them.

One day a stray signal started it in an underground carpark in Adelaide.
When he arrived it was spewing fluids and smelling fairly scorched. He got
the remote-start disconnected.

Conehead

 

Josh,
I wouldn't be soldering any wires, reasons
1/ It doesn't look professional, with all the tape over the joints,
2/The wires you want are sure not to be on the outside of the loom
3/Soldered joints are always suspect, if anything goes wrong,you will wonder
about each joint
4/The heat hardens the insulation, and starts the wire fraying inside, with
the motor's vibration
5/If you make a balls up of the right wires, it looks very bad
6/It's not easy to disconnect connections in a hurry to fault find problems
that may develop
7/Flux has a habit of corroding copper wires, depending on the quality of
the solder.
8/Why does NO manufacturer, solder the loom.

Do visit an auto shop, like supercheap/repco/ auto sparky, and get research
the right connectors now, before Christmas, and you will be much happier
person (been there, done that, stuffed up too)

Rob.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 11 Dec 2003 03:52:43 GMT

Autoshops these days only have those horrible cheap hardplastic
insulation connectors. Ugly, and difficult to crimp on well.

If you want single connectors, then go to Dick Smith and get their crimp
on bullets with the separate slide on plastic sleeves, a much better
deal.

If you want multi connectors then Repco and Supercheap have reasonable
ones, but for single wires, Tricky Dick or Radio Spares.

(I buy spade connectors from Radio Spares, have to buy them in lots of
100 and the sleeves separately, but they are still pretty cheap, you'll
get 100 spades and sleeves for aboutut $12 or so. Meaning one buy will
do you and your mates for years!)

Zebee

www.rswww.com.au Radio Spares partnumbers:
male spade: 433-129 cover 534-799
female spade: 433-133 cover 534-783
crimp tool (essential): 531-903

www.dse.com.au Dick Smith partnumbers
(H5006) Male bullet terminals - pack of 10
(H5007) Male bullet cover to suit H 5006 - pack of 10
(H5008) Female bullet terminals
(H5009) Female bullet covers to suit H 5008 - pack of 10

 

Got it in one! I've got the same alarm, and just cut that wire off at the alarm - don't know why anyone in their right
mind would use it!

The motion sensor works quite well on the default setting - you can move the bike maybe a foot or two at most before it
goes off, and that is being very careful to not bump or shake it. It also works as an engine immobiliser when active.
The only problem I had with mine is that it will kill the battery within a few days if used regularly and you do lots of
short rides, without giving it a chance to charge properly.

It won't work if you park in gear! And even so, it is still bloody useless - before removing that wire, I jury rigged it
to see how well it worked, and it doesn't - if the bike doesn't start first time, the ignition circuit is activated, but
the button wont work if you press it again - you have to insert the key, turn the ignition on and then off to reset it,
and then try again. Much easier (and more sensible!) to do as I did and just cut the wire off, and use the key and
starter button like everyone else!

Damien
GPX250 (stolen) -> CBR600

 

Bah, fairings can get scratched any time. It's rare that a monkey
with a pair of wirecutters gets loose inside 'em ...

Unless you honestly reckon you're crapper than some apprentice
stereo salesman, you're better off DIYing it. What wiring does
it need, anyway?

-----sharks

 

if you do a shitty job , you should be using heat shrink

possibly not

shitloads better than those crappy clip on connectors

only if you do a crap job

IF you stuff it up,

remember the old saying measure twice , cut once

use the right products and you wont have these probs

no bike manufacturer makes looms, and they have crimp connectors because
they work
well when you use the right tools to fit them and they are cheap and quick
to make

 

Possibly the worst advice I've ever seen. You've been
trained to solder properly, so you know how to do it
without getting 'suspect' joints. Solder + heatshrink
is the tidiest and most reliable option available.

What you absolutely must not do under any circumstance
is use those silly plastic things that join wires by
putting a little spike through each wire. Notoriously
unreliable, and a bastard to troubleshoot later. Unlike
soldered connections, where you *know* they're all OK,
the little plastic/spike things are *all* suspect,
*all* of the time.

G

 

Chris Rogers, "Sound Off Mobile Installations" (or something like that)
is a bike rider and quality electrical / audio bloke. Works from the
northside of brissy, dunno if he'd go to southport though... get him on
0407102839
No idea what he knows about bikes, but it's gotta be better than a non
rider. Worth asking anyway.

Charlie

 

Might get him to install the CD Player and Amp in the sidecar.

Boxer

 

I've seen worse ... mostly about girls though.

Anyway, I solder-and-heatshrink everything. It's
very reliable if it's done right.

Crimps are also very reliable, when they're done
by a production-line robot. I've found them to
be much less so when done with a cheapo hand-held
crimp tool.

-----sharks

 

Hint: The car stero shop doesn't have a wiring diagram. Nuff said.

wellll now...wassat prove?
i spent 15 yrs putting alarms and accessories in cars and very rarely had a
wiring diagram
they probably cant do a good job anyway...unless you get a fitter with some
experience and pride in their work