Side-stand disconect

[ABSDoug <absdoug@xxxxxxxxx>]

I REALLY don't like the idea of safety disconnects failing & leaving you stuck on the side of the road. Early on I closed the circuit for the clutch disconnect when that switch failed. Still that leaves a lot of wire running through the bike, more on that later. On to the side-stand disconnect; I had a problem with the plug on the wire-harness side which inspired me to undertake another project; sounding the horn rather then killing the engine. I tied the wires together that were on the side stand-switch plug. Again, more later on all that wire going through the bike. Anyway, the way I figure, if any part of the new side-stand alarm failed, at least the bike does not stop running.

You can't just run power through the side stand switch since the circuit is closed when the side-stand is up. I used a relay and connected power to it and the side-stand switch was the ground supplied. Power sent  from the relay to a flasher relay to the horn relay. When the side stand switch circuit is open, the horn cycles on & off. I wanted to get a bit fancy & have the neutral indicator close the circuit & keep the horn quite, but quit a bit of smoke came out of my head for this one. I did learn a lot!

I easily rigged up another relay to do what I wanted, but there was a problem; the neutral indicator light on the dash would stay on with the side-stand up & the bike in gear. The ground from the side-stand switch feed back & grounded the neutral indicator light. I now FINALLY understand relays, why there are so many used & how cool they are! The second and third are OEM BMW relays. The third relay had power into it, the ground to close the circuit came off the second relay. Activating the third relay closed the circuit that operated the neutral indicator light. Since a relay is two 
totally separate circuits, everything works great!

The horn gets you attention if you forget to put up the side-stand while also in gear, even with insert ear buds & music at full blast! I ended up using a fancy after-market relay that had two circuits & allowed you to to do two separate functions for the first relay (The other two are the OEM BMW black relay). I'm also thinking of hooking up a safe light which would work off the second half of the first relay as extra precaution. Trying to find something that illuminates and then goes out after a minute or two until the circuit is opened & closed again. Any suggestions?  Looks like more complicated wires & gizmos, but none of them keep the bike from going down the road.

Next project is moving the ground supplied to/from relays via the old safety disconnects close to where the action starts/ends. Right handlebar, green w/ yellow wire grounded right at the handlebar is a start. This  preserves the kill switch. That green w/ yellow wire would go to the side-stand switch, then to the fuel pump relay on terminal 86. The Motronic relay terminal 86 also uses the green w/yellow wire, don't know why that color, but it looks like grounding all these spots close to the source eliminates a looooong wire going around the whole bike that could break & stop the 
bike from running. Comments, critiques?

Oh & something else... how do you know which side to hook positive & negative to activate a relay? That isn't exactly clear to me.

One last thought... what happened to an old fashion spring picking up the stand when the bike is uprighted? Hmmmm.
   
   


Doug Saylor
Tampa FL
727.831.3111

Heavily medicated for your protection!

Things to live for: 

- -alt.binaries.howard-stern

- -iPod shuffle (loaded with Howard Stern)

- -1995 BMW R1100R... >110K, runs great AND is an award winning bike! (Rat Bike @ the 2004 Poverty Riders Rally)
 Got holiday prints? See all the ways to get quality prints in your hands ASAP.

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End of oilheads-digest V3 #9
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