Why do my projects always get out of hand?

It started simply enough – I got new grips and a throttle boss from Küryakyn for Christmas. Before I installed them on my scooter, I figured I ought to get some grip heaters, too. On those cold rides it doesn’t seem to matter how thick my gloves are – my hands always freeze. So I bought some Polly heaters to install inside the handlebars.

So far, so good. But the heaters need power, of course, so I started looking into how to wire them. There are good resources on-line for this at Burgman USA, and I soon worked out that I’d need to run power from the battery beneath the seat to the dashboard, through a relay hooked to the 12VDC outlet (so that the new stuff I’m wiring in would only be on when the bike is running), and into a fuse/distribution box. From that, I could finally connect a switch and get the heaters working.

Pulling the wire proved to be tricky. I had to remove several panels, and finally managed to snake a wire through the toughest area. Having done that, I decided I never wanted to do it again, so I stopped work for a week to think about what else might I want to put in at least provisional wiring for while I was at it. Ah, I know – an additional 12VDC socket in the under-seat compartment, and running light LED strips (fore and aft). While shopping for the LED strips at Oznium, I also found a 5×5 LED array to replace the under-seat lighting, short LED strips for added turn signals along the edge of my mirrors, and some nifty lighted rocker switches. And since I’ve got the dash off, I might as well hook up a cable to power my GPS receiver while I’m at it.

Sheesh.

So, it went from just “new grips and throttle boss”, to “new grips, throttle boss, grip heaters, 6 different LED strips, an LED array, several fancy switches, GPS power cable, 12VDC outlet, fuse panel, relay, and a dizzying collection of sundry wires and connectors”. All things considered it’s still a reasonably cheap project, but what started as an easy afternoon bit of tinkering is now on its third weekend. Good thing it’s winter. Or maybe that’s the problem – since I can’t ride my bike, I have to find some other way to play with it instead. Which would explain the ClearView windshield I installed last month, and the Givi E52 top box I installed the month before that.

Hello. My name is Eric and I’m addicted to scooter farkle.