wfooshee
O, Woe is me!!
If you're looking for relief from that cramp in your right wrist, that numbness in your hand, that annoyance of coasting every few minutes to shake the blood around, and if you're on the fence between a throttle lock or a cruise control, do this:
[SIZE=18pt]Get a cruise control ! ! ! ! ![/SIZE]
I road tested it up hwy 231 a ways, was impressed by the ability to relax my hand. It holds what passes for hills here very easily. I know what you're gonna say, and yes, we have hills in Florida!!!! Every time you come to a creek, you go downhill, then after you cross, you go back uphill. So there!
) It resumes correctly, it adjusts with the accel and coast buttons, and the buttons, while small, can be operated in gloves easily. The panel is lit so you can find it at night.
The review is over. If you're interested in the install details, continue. If not, go find another thread to read. Pictures are thumbnails, click them to get full-size pics. If you're just browsing, say thanks for not using up your bandwidth with big pics in the post.
The most difficult part of the install, by far, was getting the chain attached to the throttle. I had a bit of a head start as the previous owner had a cruise on this bike, which he rudely moved to his new bike before I bought this one. Anyway, my head start was that I didn't have to drill the hole for the bolt that holds the chain receiver, it was already there. The bolt was still incredibly hard to install as I don't have the long, delicate fingers or tools to get in there under the fuel rail, and I really didn't want to take the rail off. Might have saved time in the long run, I dunno. Here's the chain receiver bolted to the throttle, with the throttle at about half:
Then I mounted the actuator cable parallel to the bottom throttle cable (the return cable). I worked the throttle to make sure the chain had minimum play when the throttle is closed, and did not bind or catch when the throttle is opened.
I mounted the servo on the right side under the seat, where there's plenty of room! You can see the red and purple wires separated from the harness to run to the brake light switch wires on the rear brake. They see the brake light from the front brake lever, too.
Here's the engine bay. The vacuum hose isn't there, yet. I used the #3 port, right by the throttle cables. Everything fit well under my tank blanket I got from Smitty. That odd black wire is the ground wire from my PCIII, which is mounted under the pillion seat, held by the strap that the rest of the world uses for a u-lock.
Now for wiring. I elected to mount the control panel to the top fairing rather than the handlebar, beause I found it difficult to justify to myself getting Skyway's mount, which costs almost as much as the cruise control kit. No disrepect to Skyway, it's a great-looking part, I just didn't want to part with the cash. I also didn't want a homemade bracket like the one shown in the how-to for this item on fjr1300.info, so I drilled a couple holes and slotted them out so the wiring goes through, and I used the double-stick tape the unit came with to mount it.
I ran the gray wire for backlighting down to the turn signal and tapped the running light with one of the included wire splice clamps in the kit. All the other wires ran under the tank across the frame to the battery side, where I attached to power and ground, and connected the electrical cable from the servo. That cable came forward between the frame and the air box, then under the tank, over the frame to the battery area. I tapped the coil for the tach signal (blue clip on the gray/red wire in the left of the picture), and connected ground and power to a handy power strip installed by the original owner. Not quite through tying things down in the pic, but that's where everything is, under the top right fairing.
Here's the bike after my test ride, showing the control panel's position more clearly. I'll probably go back and wrap the wires with tape where they show in the gap, just to keep the colors from showing. I can't see that from the seat, but seeing it now in the picture annoys me!
[SIZE=18pt]Get a cruise control ! ! ! ! ![/SIZE]
I road tested it up hwy 231 a ways, was impressed by the ability to relax my hand. It holds what passes for hills here very easily. I know what you're gonna say, and yes, we have hills in Florida!!!! Every time you come to a creek, you go downhill, then after you cross, you go back uphill. So there!
) It resumes correctly, it adjusts with the accel and coast buttons, and the buttons, while small, can be operated in gloves easily. The panel is lit so you can find it at night.The review is over. If you're interested in the install details, continue. If not, go find another thread to read. Pictures are thumbnails, click them to get full-size pics. If you're just browsing, say thanks for not using up your bandwidth with big pics in the post.
The most difficult part of the install, by far, was getting the chain attached to the throttle. I had a bit of a head start as the previous owner had a cruise on this bike, which he rudely moved to his new bike before I bought this one. Anyway, my head start was that I didn't have to drill the hole for the bolt that holds the chain receiver, it was already there. The bolt was still incredibly hard to install as I don't have the long, delicate fingers or tools to get in there under the fuel rail, and I really didn't want to take the rail off. Might have saved time in the long run, I dunno. Here's the chain receiver bolted to the throttle, with the throttle at about half:
Then I mounted the actuator cable parallel to the bottom throttle cable (the return cable). I worked the throttle to make sure the chain had minimum play when the throttle is closed, and did not bind or catch when the throttle is opened.
I mounted the servo on the right side under the seat, where there's plenty of room! You can see the red and purple wires separated from the harness to run to the brake light switch wires on the rear brake. They see the brake light from the front brake lever, too.
Here's the engine bay. The vacuum hose isn't there, yet. I used the #3 port, right by the throttle cables. Everything fit well under my tank blanket I got from Smitty. That odd black wire is the ground wire from my PCIII, which is mounted under the pillion seat, held by the strap that the rest of the world uses for a u-lock.
Now for wiring. I elected to mount the control panel to the top fairing rather than the handlebar, beause I found it difficult to justify to myself getting Skyway's mount, which costs almost as much as the cruise control kit. No disrepect to Skyway, it's a great-looking part, I just didn't want to part with the cash. I also didn't want a homemade bracket like the one shown in the how-to for this item on fjr1300.info, so I drilled a couple holes and slotted them out so the wiring goes through, and I used the double-stick tape the unit came with to mount it.
I ran the gray wire for backlighting down to the turn signal and tapped the running light with one of the included wire splice clamps in the kit. All the other wires ran under the tank across the frame to the battery side, where I attached to power and ground, and connected the electrical cable from the servo. That cable came forward between the frame and the air box, then under the tank, over the frame to the battery area. I tapped the coil for the tach signal (blue clip on the gray/red wire in the left of the picture), and connected ground and power to a handy power strip installed by the original owner. Not quite through tying things down in the pic, but that's where everything is, under the top right fairing.
Here's the bike after my test ride, showing the control panel's position more clearly. I'll probably go back and wrap the wires with tape where they show in the gap, just to keep the colors from showing. I can't see that from the seat, but seeing it now in the picture annoys me!
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