Smoke&Ride

Have you ever been out a ride and been stranded with no directions because your phone or GPS died? Maybe you're on the way to a hiking spot where you plan to take a bunch of pictures with your iphone, or you simply need to get a little extra juice to make a call or upload to your Instagram. The real issue is that very few motorcycle manufacturers include this when they're designing their production street motorcycles. BMW is the only brand that comes to mind that has a charging port on every model, but unfortunately the port is a specialty size, only compatible with BMW accessories without an adapter. Guess what, BMW is the only one that sells the adapter too. Go figure. On a Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Triumph etc. you'll mostly only find a 12 volt outlet on their touring or sport/touring models. I'm not sure if other brands of motorcycles use the traditional 12 volt cigarette lighter configuration. But since all electronic accessories these days can be grouped into 2 or 3 different types of charging cables(usb, mini usb, or apple or some configuration of the 3), and they all have cigarette lighter mobile chargers. i figured i could hard wire one from the auto parts store relatively cheaply.

The story of frustration begins on an awesome day just like any other. I worked a half day on a Saturday and decided to head towards the beach on the bike once we quit for the day. I left around 12 noon from Camarillo, CA and headed towards PHC. Neptune's Net was the first stop for some calamari and a beer or two. (fuck it sometimes you have to treat yourself when you work overtime.) I lounged on my motorcycle in the lineup outside The Net and sent some snapchats and took some pictures of all the brands of bikes and eventually decided to make some calls and find out who was hanging out on this particular Saturday. I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with my partner in crime from San Diego, while sufficiently draining my Iphone battery. After a while a girl returns my call that recently moved down to Venice Beach into an appartment and we agreed that we would meet at her place and go to lunch. I input her address into my maps app on my phone and hit the road, south on PCH towards Venice.

About 35 minutes pass as i split lanes down PCH behind a guy on a big bagger Harley Davidson. Riding in a group is so much better than riding alone, even if its just one other person you don't know. As i passed underneath the I10 down there in Culver City, I snapped back to reality and realized i hadn't heard a direction in my ear buds for the last 15 minutes or so, and i was way past my turn off. Sure enough, phone's dead, and i start brainstorming options. Mcdonalds wouldn't let me charge my phone there and i tried a few other boutique restaurants that seemed cool but nobody would let me dock up my phone. Directly across the street from the Mcdonalds a red and white barbershop pole catches my eye. It seems like a hood, mexican barbershop from the graffiti style writing on the windows. I knew instantly that these guys are the homies and wouldn't care if i charge my phone as long as i bought a haircut and tipped. Being born and raised in southern California, i know my way around a hispanic neighborhood just fine. And as i walked into the shop i was greeted with a head-knod from 2 clean cut older mexican gentlemen and one homie with face tattoos. I knodded back and took a spot in the chair. I felt right at home.

Enough story time. This is where a 12 volt port on my motorcycle would have been handy. At the very least, I would have killed for an external battery pack like you see a businessman at an airport bar plugged into, but that's neither here nor there. I decided to go to Autozone the next day and see what i could find for 12 volt outlets. I came away with a plug for 6$, 2 rolls of 12ga wire, some heat shrink, a fuse holder, a switch and 2 eyelet connectors. The grand total for material was about 25$. 

I stripped the fairings from my rig and disconnected my battery, negative terminal first. I unspooled my wire and mapped the routing, seeing what zip-ties i could use to hold it in place. I was careful to leave a about 8 extra inches of wire, knowing that i would eventually fuck up a splice or a crimp. I crimped an eyelet to one end of each wire and zip tied them in place to reach the battery connectors, but didn't connect them. the fuse was placed in a convenient area of the positive wire where i could anchor the holder and that was crimped into place. Next was the switch. I had a switch but no real way of mounting it, as the switch just comes with the basic part (the switch itself) no housing or way to mount it. Eventually after brainstorming a while, i decided on a dank tank from a weed dispensary for the switch housing and sticky Velcro to mount it, as well as the 12 volt port itself. I configured the switch and the port itself under the seat in the empty space so i can access it with just a turn of the key and removing the seat.

*Keep in mind that if the bike isn't running and you're charging a device, you're killing your battery. So be aware and leave yourself enough voltage to start the bike again.

Quick Tip:

Have you ever been out a ride and been stranded with no directions because your phone or GPS died? Maybe you're on the way to a hiking spot where you plan to take a bunch of pictures with your iphone, or you simply need to get a little extra juice to make a call or upload to your Instagram. The real issue is that very few motorcycle manufacturers include this when they're designing their production street motorcycles. BMW is the only brand that comes to mind that has a charging port on every model, but unfortunately the port is a specialty size, only compatible with BMW accessories without an adapter. Guess what, BMW is the only one that sells the adapter too. Go figure. On a Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Triumph etc. you'll mostly only find a 12 volt outlet on their touring or sport/touring models. I'm not sure if other brands of motorcycles use the traditional 12 volt cigarette lighter configuration. But since all electronic accessories these days can be grouped into 2 or 3 different types of charging cables(usb, mini usb, or apple or some configuration of the 3), and they all have cigarette lighter mobile chargers. i figured i could hard wire one from the auto parts store relatively cheaply.

The story of frustration begins on an awesome day just like any other. I worked a half day on a Saturday and decided to head towards the beach on the bike once we quit for the day. I left around 12 noon from Camarillo, CA and headed towards PHC. Neptune's Net was the first stop for some calamari and a beer or two. (fuck it sometimes you have to treat yourself when you work overtime.) I lounged on my motorcycle in the lineup outside The Net and sent some snapchats and took some pictures of all the brands of bikes and eventually decided to make some calls and find out who was hanging out on this particular Saturday. I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with my partner in crime from San Diego, while sufficiently draining my Iphone battery. After a while a girl returns my call that recently moved down to Venice Beach into an appartment and we agreed that we would meet at her place and go to lunch. I input her address into my maps app on my phone and hit the road, south on PCH towards Venice.

About 35 minutes pass as i split lanes down PCH behind a guy on a big bagger Harley Davidson. Riding in a group is so much better than riding alone, even if its just one other person you don't know. As i passed underneath the I10 down there in Culver City, I snapped back to reality and realized i hadn't heard a direction in my ear buds for the last 15 minutes or so, and i was way past my turn off. Sure enough, phone's dead, and i start brainstorming options. Mcdonalds wouldn't let me charge my phone there and i tried a few other boutique restaurants that seemed cool but nobody would let me dock up my phone. Directly across the street from the Mcdonalds a red and white barbershop pole catches my eye. It seems like a hood, mexican barbershop from the graffiti style writing on the windows. I knew instantly that these guys are the homies and wouldn't care if i charge my phone as long as i bought a haircut and tipped. Being born and raised in southern California, i know my way around a hispanic neighborhood just fine. And as i walked into the shop i was greeted with a head-knod from 2 clean cut older mexican gentlemen and one homie with face tattoos. I knodded back and took a spot in the chair. I felt right at home.

Enough story time. This is where a 12 volt port on my motorcycle would have been handy. At the very least, I would have killed for an external battery pack like you see a businessman at an airport bar plugged into, but that's neither here nor there. I decided to go to Autozone the next day and see what i could find for 12 volt outlets. I came away with a plug for 6$, 2 rolls of 12ga wire, some heat shrink, a fuse holder, a switch and 2 eyelet connectors. The grand total for material was about 25$. 

I stripped the fairings from my rig and disconnected my battery, negative terminal first. I un spooled my wire and mapped the routing, seeing what zip-ties i could use to hold it in place. I was careful to leave a about 8 extra inches of wire, knowing that i would eventually fuck up a splice or a crimp. I crimped an eyelet to one end of each wire and zip tied them in place to reach the battery connectors, but didn't connect them. the fuse was placed in a convenient area of the positive wire where i could anchor the holder and that was crimped into place. Next was the switch. I had a switch but no real way of mounting it, as the switch just comes with the basic part (the switch itself) no housing or way to mount it. Eventually after brainstorming a while, i decided on a dank tank from a weed dispensary for the switch housing and sticky Velcro to mount it, as well as the 12 volt port itself. I configured the switch and the port itself under the seat in the empty space so i can access it with just a turn of the key and removing the seat.

*Keep in mind that if the bike isn't running and you're charging a device, you're killing your battery. So be aware and leave yourself enough voltage to start the bike again.

Quick Tip: