Tuesday, July 21, 2009

V-Star Accessories

I think I'm well prepared for my trip now. After getting new tires put on, I finished installing two key accessories, the "cruise control" throttle lock and the cigarette lighter.

I installed the throttle lock a couple weeks ago and have been testing it out a bit on my rides to work this week. It works great, it's just tight enough to hold the throttle over bumps and dips, but loose enough that if I grab the throttle, I can adjust it up or down with relative ease.

It tends go get in the way when I'm moving my thumb between the kill switch and starter button, but overall it's fairly out of the way and simple.


I installed the cigarette lighter on the handlebars, between the bar clamps, which is what it was designed for, though it could mount anywhere that there was a bolt and extra space.

The added width has made the bar clamp a little crooked, but once it was tightened in place, it came into full contact with the bar, so it should be fine.

I installed it by tapping into the light power line, which was located at the ignition, only a few inches away. I put in a 10amp fuse (which is what the book called for) with a simple fuse-holder I got from wal-mart.

I made the tap into the line with a T-Tap connector like these:
http://www.allproducts.com/manufacture13/uta/19-quick_spice_b-l.jpg

The benefit to this kind is that the connection is made with a quick-disconnect terminal, so if I want to take the cigarette lighter out when I am not using it, or if there are any unexpected electrical problems I can just disconnect and be on my way.

Here is a close up of the lighter.


And here is a slightly fuzzy picture showing the whole dash now.


Of course, the cigarette lighter won't be convenient for lighting my pipe, so the main goal with this was to provide power for my ipod, GPS and cell phone when it is needed.

It is just over two days now until I depart on my long journey. I'm a little worried about forgetting to get receipts for my IBA certificate. I hope Jon and Sheena will remind me when I arrive, if I haven't already picked up my end receipt.

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