New bike, new farkles.

I recently bought an FJR1300. Obviously it needed setup and some farkles. I did the setup according to the rest of the posts here, but the farkles were kinda special. Click on the pic if you want it larger.

Installing the Garmin Quest II GPS was step number one, and an automotive type cruise control was #2 on the list.

These required creation/installation of an electrical subpanel hidden on the inside of the bodywork. I elected to do the installation according to the ideas and experiences of some of the long distance riders on the FJR board. Essentially, the entire subpanel is only hot after the key is turned on.

Let's follow the current from the positive lead of the battery.

The first component is an auto-reset 30 amp fuse. If I draw more than 30 amps, the fuse will trip, and then reset a few seconds later.

The second component in the supply is a 30 amp relay in the normally open condition. Unless the relay is activated, there is no current going past the relay.

The third component is a fuse block. Some people use marine type fuse blocks that provide connections for both the positive and negative leads, but I didn't think this was necessary since the frame of the bike provides a perfectly adequate ground (negative lead) for most components. The fuse block I used has 6 outputs that are protected by 6 seperate fuses.

Now, the trick is that we're supplying a max of 30 amps to the fuse block, so theoretically, the total amperage of all installed fuses shoudn't be more than 30 amps, correct? Truth be told, it can be more than 30 amps if you KNOW you won't be using more than 30 amps at a the same time.

However, I don't want or need to do the math in my feeble little head every time I turn something on, so I'm planning to only supply fuses totalling 30 amps.

Note I said "planning" in the paragraph above. Remember, I have 6 outputs and I only have two farkles. (The GPS and the cruise control) So at this point, I'm only using two outputs.

Let's see.... 30 amps divided by two outputs means I can use two 15 amp fuses, right? NOT! I've used correct sized fuses for each component. Basically, I have 3 amp fuses in each slot. See, the intention is to protect the wiring and the devices on each output.

I'll consider pictures next time I get under the dash.