2010 R1200GS - Under the seat

So I finally got the GS home (long day yesterday down to Razee's Motorcycles in Rhode Island to pick up the bike).

I have a lot of things to do to this bike (nothing that NEEDS to be done, just a metric boatload of WANTS) and it all pretty much starts with the addition of a Fuseblock. Without a doubt, I am going with Eastern Beaver's PC-8 Fuseblock as I've used this on my Strom and had great success with it.

I had to actually see the bike to figure out where to mount the thing. I'd seen someone mount a fuseblock here on the manual holder somewhere on ADV and thought it might be a good idea:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsansoucie/5442562093/" title="P1020292.jpg by DamnBeavers, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5216/5442562093_26afe87655.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="P1020292.jpg" /></a>

Seemed to fit OK, but I'm thinking I might be painting myself into a corner when I have to pull the tank and have to find a place for the Fuseblock to rest for a while.

That got me thinking as I have another item that is self-contained (sort of) and can be moved around a bit. My Autocom intercom:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsansoucie/5443166598/" title="P1020308.jpg by DamnBeavers, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/5443166598_07d9189e83.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1020308.jpg" /></a>

I think I am sold on this spot for the intercom, there is plenty of room for the cables to hang out (I will need to clean them up a bit as they are too long at the moment) and it doesn't seem to interfere with the seat at all.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsansoucie/5442590615/" title="P1020306.jpg by DamnBeavers, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5442590615_0fb11f3816.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P1020306.jpg" /></a>

So now I am left with the question of where to put the PC-8. The tool tray is the next logical place:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsansoucie/5442562545/" title="P1020304-Edit.jpg by DamnBeavers, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5175/5442562545_4bc39c8627.jpg" width="500" height="326" alt="P1020304-Edit.jpg" /></a>

It looks like it will fit, in fact, I am sure I've seen photos of other putting their PC-8 in this same place. However, I have to ask if anyone has:

1) Mounted a PC-8 (or any other Fuseblock) anywhere else, and why?

2) Can I remove the tool tray in order to pick up a little more depth to take up some of the wiring slack that will ensue?

I've got both my Starcom & Fuzblock in the tool tray area. I pulled the try out, and just have them sitting sideways in the compartment and it works fine. You do get a bit of over spray here, nothing much but there will be a few muddy drops from time to time. I just stuck everything in a zip lock bag.

Hi Glen,

I started out putting my Autocom in the same place you have yours, but I noticed when the bike was parked in the rain the water would flow off the fuel tank right on to the Autocom box. I decided to move it to where the tray is and built a small shelf to hold it. I also added a fuse block as well.



Here is a link to the rest of the pictures for the project.


Scott.

I think the Starcom is smaller than the Autocom. I've been checking out the Starcom in the Aerostich catalog since Autocom beat feet out of the US (I'm still waiting on another set of earbuds & mic for a new helmet that I ordered in August or September).

Good thing to know about the overspray back there, I do ride rain or shine.

Wherever I put the PC-8, I am going to use this "Super Velcro Stuff" as it simply rocks. That's how I mounted the Autocom & the PC-8 on the strom.

Scott,

Thanks. I remember seeing your install photo somewhere and then couldn't find the damn link again. I ordered a bunch of that braided cable after seeing your photo(s), it really makes the install look very neat.

Do you have a standard seat? I forgot to mention that I have the Low Suspension and thus a low seat. I'm not sure if the low seat means the seat pan has any less clearance or not though.

I have the standard seat in the high position, but I run it in the low setting when I'm riding difficult offroad and there's no issue with clearance.

I'm not 100% sure about the low seat as to how it's made lower. Is the seat pan different, or do they just shave the foam?

You probably saw the install from fuzeblocks.com. Curt added a link from his site to the SmugMug gallery.

Jim from Eastern Beaver and Curt from fuzeblocks.com are both great to deal with. I've bought a ton of stuff from Jim over the years and both he and Curt are always happy to answer questions about motorcycle electrics.

Scott.

Very Nice!! PB, could you please update the thread with the final install? I'll be watching as a GS Low is in my near future

Big +1 on Eastern Beaver...I keep his link on my desktop. I know I'll order something as soon as a project comes up so I make it easy on myself.

I will. I like to photograph what I do not only to share the info, but in case I get sidetracked and need to remind myself of something during the process.

I just placed my order with Eastern Beaver. In addition to the Fuseblock, I've ordered another wiring harness for my Stebel (for this bike, I will tap into the existing Beemer horn and allow both horns to work). I also picked up another Powerlet to run my compressor. I've not figured out where the Powerlet is going, but I ordered it with a long enough lead to not really care.

Glen,

Be careful where you take your switched source from. With the Canbus system on the 1200, it can cause a problem if you tie into a wire that is monitored by the Canbus. I wanted the switched side of my fuse block to activate on engine start. The only thing on my 2006 that triggers with engine start is the front lamp. It worked fine for about six months, but then I started to get "LAMPF!" warnings and the lamp wouldn't come on. I had to move the trigger to tie into the power from the charcoal canister as it's not monitored by the Canbus. The only difference is my switched power activates with the key rather than on engine start. No big deal.

What I was told is as relays get older they require a little more juice to open/close and the extra power requirement was enough for the Canbus to fail the front lamp.

Scott.

I got rid of the shelf in the tool tray and stack things in the box. Be careful not to remove the rubber dampner otherwise you will go bounce bounce bounce. Depending on whether you have a low or regular seat running wires on top of the frame will be a problem. More room under the low seat if you can believe it.

@PhotoBiker - Couple of quick questions...

1. Where did you get that wire protection/sheath from. I'd like to do that with some of my projects.
2. What gauge wire do you commonly use?

Thanks.

Scott noticed that you took out the rubber dampner from the tool tray that keeps the seat from bottoming out on the lock brackets. Any problems?

I mounted my Eastern Beaver fuseblock in the tool tray. I use the room underneath for my relays. There is a little splash that gets under the tray once in awhile but it's not too bad.

I got the Braided Sleeving from here.

If you can wait a couple of weeks, you can get my report on what worked and didn't. I expect my Eastern Beaver stuff won't come in until after the long weekend so I won't get to it until the following weekend at the earliest.

Without knowing which size would work, I bought lengths of 1/8", 1/4", & 3/8" (possibly even 1/2" too). Its the shipping & handling that is the expensive part so I bought extras so I wouldn't find myself needing a foot or wishing I'd gone the next size up.

Wiring size is completely dependent on the application. For the most part, all the items I've bought come with lengths of wire already.

I've been receiving boxes of "GS Stuff" each day now for the past three days. Some of it is going to wait on the Fuse Block, though I can mount and run the wires back to under the seat to save me some time later.

An odd fact, but I do have the Low Seat...

I like the idea for the Relays under the tray.

No problems at all. We actually did two bikes; mine with a stock seat, the other with a Sargent seat. Neither of the bikes have a problem with bottoming.

Also, try to go with the Clean Cut Braided Sleeving as it doesn't fray when you're working with it.

Got the shipping notice from Jim, parts on the way.

Stumbled on this today when looking for a way to route some wires from the console.

Thread Linky.

I cut out the entire middle part of the tool tray and retained the shape. I stack a radio, starcomm and fuzebox in the tray. Need to tidy the wiring but seems to work ok. I used a Dremel to cut out the tray.

I like my tool bag

Bump

(Working on this today)