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New thread title years overdue, but more relevant than ever. Anyone have any experience wiring in power plugs for accessories? Like a USB charger or what have you. Brain says it ought to just be a case of "get socket, wire it directly to the battery with a [probably] 5A fuse inline" but this is exactly the kind of "easy" job I'm amazing at screwing up because I think I know what I'm doing. Brand recommendations or alternative solutions welcome. I'm mainly thinking of something with at least two USB ports on it so I can keep my phone and camera topped up on longer trips (especially the camera, which doesn't quite last two hours on battery but conveniently is able to record while plugged in). Weatherproofness springs to mind as something I can't really verify from pictures. Also stuff like ideal mounting locations etc.
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Dec 29, 2015 19:57
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Do you have a battery tender jr? There's a little usb converter that plugs into the pigtail that goes to the battery. It's like $10 on amazon. That's what I use.
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Dec 29, 2015 20:04
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The easy way to do it: Wire it straight in. The cheap, right way to do it: Wire in a relay The "I want a product to fix this for me" way to do it: Buy a Fuzeblock.
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Dec 29, 2015 21:04
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Renaissance Robot posted:New thread title years overdue, but more relevant than ever. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorcycle-...=motorcycle+usb I can attest to the waterproofness and ease of mounting of this one, had it on the Shiver. I mounted the box to the side of the airbox under the frame, where it was easy to reach but not really noticeable, then velcroed the socket to the throttle cables (I have a phobia about using zip ties, or anything that can crimp, on control cables). There's a cheaper one with dual outputs available but it's pretty much handlebar mount only because it's huge.
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Dec 30, 2015 01:52
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I run a fused water proof cig lighter adapter and tender plug off the same line. I've had usb charges plugged into it without ever killing one in the rain. I'll grab a picture tomorrow.
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Dec 30, 2015 06:09
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Renaissance Robot posted:New thread title years overdue, but more relevant than ever. In addition to what others have said, some bikes actually already have spare connections for switched accessories.
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Dec 30, 2015 09:43
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M42 posted:Do you have a battery tender jr? There's a little usb converter that plugs into the pigtail that goes to the battery. It's like $10 on amazon. That's what I use. This is what I use too, it's nice, small, and the weatherproofing's good, comes with a fuse in the pigtail, and it will charge my phone while running GPS and streaming music.
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Dec 30, 2015 11:22
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Any good 12v USB hubs out there? I'm looking for something small, with at least 2 ports (more is better) that I can wire to the battery (fuse in-line) or plug into my battery tender connector.
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Dec 30, 2015 15:06
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Renaissance Robot posted:New thread title years overdue, but more relevant than ever. I reported it so that a mod would notice and take pity on us two-wheel outcasts. Thank you, mystery mod!
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Dec 30, 2015 15:38
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goddamnedtwisto posted:There's a cheaper one with dual outputs available but it's pretty much handlebar mount only because it's huge. This I one reason I'm attracted to old fat sport tourers, because they have these flat upward facing fairing panels either side of the tank that are perfect for mounting stuff like this. I'll probably end up getting one of these (or a few separate ones of the same screw type with various connectors), a relay, and a 4 socket hub on a car plug to throw in a tank bag if I have anything else to charge or it's especially nasty out. Thanks for the tips all.
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Dec 30, 2015 16:45
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 There you go. Tender plug comes out just below the speedometer.
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Dec 31, 2015 00:15
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Does a USB/cigarette lighter need a fuse? I have a 1xUSB and 1xcigarette lighter combo and its directly on the battery. I've had no issues, but I've only used the USB port.
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Dec 31, 2015 00:28
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Schroeder91 posted:Does a USB/cigarette lighter need a fuse? I have a 1xUSB and 1xcigarette lighter combo and its directly on the battery. I've had no issues, but I've only used the USB port. Absolutely yes. Otherwise you're entrusting the entire continuing not-on-fire status of your vehicle to whatever Chinese 8-year-old put the power supply together.
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Dec 31, 2015 00:36
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cursedshitbox posted:
Tell me more about your headlight setup
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Dec 31, 2015 01:08
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absofuckinglutely. I have a 15 or 20A breaker on mine because I like big loads.
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Dec 31, 2015 01:09
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Absolutely yes. Otherwise you're entrusting the entire continuing not-on-fire status of your vehicle to whatever Chinese 8-year-old put the power supply together. :v guess I'll need to do that tomorrow speaking of which, would running one of those tire inflators work on a bike? Don't wanna kill my battery while refilling a tire.. Schroeder91 fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 04:48
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gently caress, quote =/= edit
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Dec 31, 2015 04:51
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Tell me what ethanol in gas really does to motorcycles. Not what your cousin who works at the Yamaha dealership says, what are the true effects on carbs, tanks, etc?
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Dec 31, 2015 16:30
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Tell me what ethanol in gas really does to motorcycles. Not what your cousin who works at the Yamaha dealership says, what are the true effects on carbs, tanks, etc? IIRC some really old rubber parts (gaskets, o-rings, diaphragms, whatever) that were totally fine last time the bike was started (in 1977) go to complete poo poo due to the ethanol. It'll also gum things up if you let it sit for a year or 10. Run a tank of gas through your bike once a year, sell it, or buy some sort of fuel stabilizer. e: I think next time I'm at work I'm going to grab a quart bottle out of the lab and see exactly what happens. 87 pump gas right out of my DRZ, both glass jars with teflon in the lid, one clear, one brown (just to be sure nothing slowly oxidizes due to tiny amounts of UV light over time), stored in a dark place (my shed) for a year. Just to see what happens. e2: Ethanol also absorbs water. So there's a potential for slight water damage, or even water straight up falling out. Marxalot fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 16:35
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Tell me what ethanol in gas really does to motorcycles. Not what your cousin who works at the Yamaha dealership says, what are the true effects on carbs, tanks, etc? According to what I've gleaned from the following, it's something you need to design for. I have a g650x which is made by ze Germans who cannot comprehend that someone might have fuel full of ethanol. As a result, it is not uncommon to encounter cold stalling problems because the idle actuator gets gummed up. So in the throttle body there's a teeny hole that provides air when the throttle is closed. Running fuel with ethanol makes gunk on the idle actuator and that tiny hole build up which causes the engine to stall. You can't just run seafoam because it's not part of the combustion and frankly it's a little unclear to me how ethanol causes the buildup (crank case breather goes through the air box but I wouldn't think that'd do it - maybe just teeny bits of gas vapor escaping?  ) but that's what everything I've read says and BMW apparently had some engineers take a look at it because it was a systemic issue and they said "you Americans are stupid assholes and also you are ruining our superior design by running that poo poo through our perfect engine* so you will need to become clean before being permitted to ride again." I had the cold stalling issue and cleaned the throttle body and idle actuator and it's been smooth sailing since then. Anyway, based entirely on that and on not hearing of other problems with ethanol, I suspect there's something you can design around but I'm sure z3n will be along shortly with a real answer. *engine built by Austrians.
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Dec 31, 2015 16:58
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Is there any evidence that E10 gas causes any more gunk and varnish buildup than regular gas when sitting over time? I'm having a really hard time finding credible information online about the whole issue. Since I got into bikes, there's a ton of old cranky guys who complain about how engines just don't run as well, they get buildup, fuel economy is crap, etc etc. My sample size of 4 (two bikes, two trucks) have never presented any problems that I could tie directly to ethanol. Lean condition is a frequently-mentioned issue, but every vehicle is lean from the factory now and has been for a good 30 years at least. edit: I'd love to be pointed to some credible sources on this that are not an engine manufacturer, the AMA, or a news stand cycle mag. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 17:21
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Marxalot posted:e2: Ethanol also absorbs water. So there's a potential for slight water damage, or even water straight up falling out. That's actually desirable, and even non-ethanol petrol will have isopropanol in it for exactly that reason. Both also have a load of detergent to keep the water in suspension too. Otherwise water vapour condenses to the bottom of the tank and fucks poo poo up, better to keep it in suspension where it does much less damage.
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Dec 31, 2015 17:32
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goddamnedtwisto posted:That's actually desirable, and even non-ethanol petrol will have isopropanol in it for exactly that reason. Both also have a load of detergent to keep the water in suspension too. Otherwise water vapour condenses to the bottom of the tank and fucks poo poo up, better to keep it in suspension where it does much less damage. So one of the big arguments trotted out is phase separation, but nowhere can I find information on what it takes for the ethanol that's in gas to become saturated to the point that the water actually does separate. My assumption is that it's pretty rare. Especially when fuel stabilizers are basically some alcohol and detergent.
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Dec 31, 2015 17:37
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:So one of the big arguments trotted out is phase separation, but nowhere can I find information on what it takes for the ethanol that's in gas to become saturated to the point that the water actually does separate. My assumption is that it's pretty rare. Especially when fuel stabilizers are basically some alcohol and detergent. The only time I've seen that was when a company added too much or too little of something to their gas and ended up with ~4000gal of ethanol in the bottom of their tank. And a very, very large tank full of unusable gasoline. Kind of a different scenario really.
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Dec 31, 2015 17:46
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Tell me what ethanol in gas really does to motorcycles. Not what your cousin who works at the Yamaha dealership says, what are the true effects on carbs, tanks, etc? The biggest thing is that ethanol gas has a short shelf life. Old gas, you can let sit for several years and it's still ok to run. Ethanol starts to break down in a matter of months if you don't treat it with something. And then there's the way it breaks down. Old gas will eventually turn into a very hard varnishy type stuff. It's a major problem to clean this poo poo out, but it takes so long to happen that it's rarely an issue. I've seen it on bikes that sat for 15+ years. Ethanol breaks down into a layer of crap almost exactly like jello. On fuel injected vehicles (all modern cars) and on vehicles with big carbs and big engines, this is less of an issue because the jello is not thick and a 30+psi pump will just chew through it and force it out the injectors eventually. The smaller the vehicle (250cc motorcycles, 50cc scooters see a lot of these issues) the more likely it is to have a problem because the carbs have smaller jets which are more easily clogged. We had a new scooter in the shop here that didn't sell for about a year, and in that time I had to personally clean out the carb twice because of lack of use and year old gas in it. It developed a symptom where it might run but wouldn't idle. Each time a layer of jello was visible in the float bowl. This was without putting ethanol stabilizer in the gas. The other more vague thing I've seen that I think can be attributed to ethanol but can't prove it is the way it affects plastic and rubber things. Some carb float bowls for example have an o-ring sealing them to the carb, and after a long time of ethanol use and then after removing the float bowl and o-ring, the o-ring has grown in size and won't fit back in its groove on the float bowl. Things like this are usually a nuisance at most in my experience, because you should be replacing rubber things like that if you're taking poo poo apart either way. The other thing is with [some?] plastic fuel tanks. Ethanol seems to make the plastic just a little bit soft and deformable. There are many stories on the internet of bikes with plastic tanks, BMWs and Ducatis certainly, where after taking the tank off the bike and letting it sit on a shelf for a few days, it won't fit back on the bike. The bolt holes etc. don't line up anymore, the tank is warped a bit. I've seen this once myself. I assume ethanol but I can't prove it. Maybe some plastic factory is just making lovely plastic these days.
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Dec 31, 2015 19:15
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:The other more vague thing I've seen that I think can be attributed to ethanol but can't prove it is the way it affects plastic and rubber things. It's pretty to prove actually. Get 2 carb rebuild kits, put one in ethanol free gas, the other in ethanol gas. Watch the ethanol gas swell and chew through the carb bits. I lost a couple of freshly rebuilt carbs to ethanol gas. Looks like it's vitton O-rings from here on out.
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Dec 31, 2015 19:23
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It's important to note though that I don't think I've seen a failure in a bike that I could attribute to ethanol on rubber/plastic, the only problem you run into is when you take fuel related poo poo apart and try to put it back together.
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Jan 1, 2016 14:38
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We've got a Chevron nearby that sells the "Premium Clear" which is their no-ethanol gas. I've noticed that, after using it for a couple months with daily riding and a fill every week, that it seems like I get worse mileage than if I'm using just regular 87. I wonder if it's just a function of a "filler" effect, though. I get about the same actual mileage, but my gauge goes down a lot faster with the no-ethanol stuff. I got some of the 87 a couple weeks ago and noticed that at about 120 miles it was at half, where with the 100% stuff I was lucky to hit 100 miles at half. Generally I get about 225-250 miles on a tank. I need to actually start paying attention to what I get with the 100% stuff, I guess.
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Jan 2, 2016 01:46
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Lynza posted:We've got a Chevron nearby that sells the "Premium Clear" which is their no-ethanol gas. I've noticed that, after using it for a couple months with daily riding and a fill every week, that it seems like I get worse mileage than if I'm using just regular 87. Without longer-term averages it's going to be pretty hard to know if there's a real difference due to variations in the details of every ride/your riding style. So yeah, log that poo poo if you really wanna know.
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Jan 2, 2016 03:25
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Yeah, get the Fuelly app and log it at the pump.
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Jan 2, 2016 05:42
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Fuelly app isn't an app, just a shortcut to the mobile site.
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Jan 2, 2016 06:53
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I liked the Acar app. I vaguely recall that Fuelly sucked or wanted money or something.
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Jan 2, 2016 07:06
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Apart from some minor UI annoyances I like Fuelly.
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Jan 2, 2016 13:04
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I used to only use the Shell no ethanol premium stuff for the old Honda, but I don't think I let it sit enough to notice a difference between it and the 10% 87 stuff, so I just switched to regular unleaded when I was still riding it on the regular. The Bandit I would always use 87 except for the last ride of the season before storage, then I'd get the Shell premium stuff and add stabilizer just to be on the safe side. Doesn't cost much to ensure there's no ethanol in the system over the ~6 months of storage IMO.
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Jan 2, 2016 17:14
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Lynza posted:We've got a Chevron nearby that sells the "Premium Clear" which is their no-ethanol gas. I've noticed that, after using it for a couple months with daily riding and a fill every week, that it seems like I get worse mileage than if I'm using just regular 87. I know that gasoline has higher energy than ethanol, should give clear a 3% energy advantage over E10, assuming everything about mixing them is as they seem and the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. That being said, I have no idea if your engine is flexible about the 2.
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Jan 2, 2016 17:19
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Verge posted:I know that gasoline has higher energy than ethanol, should give clear a 3% energy advantage over E10, assuming everything about mixing them is as they seem and the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. That being said, I have no idea if your engine is flexible about the 2. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml posted:Since ethanol contains about two-thirds as much energy as gasoline, vehicles will typically go 3% to 4% fewer miles per gallon on E10 and 4% to 5% fewer on E15 than on 100% gasoline.
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Jan 2, 2016 18:55
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:
I heard that, because ethanol has a lower energy density, you can get almost 4% more efficiency using straight gasoline. Can anyone confirm?
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Jan 2, 2016 19:25
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I had a plastic-tank Tuono and it was definitely warped. Can't say scientifically it was caused by ethanol but certainly makes sense to me. It never fit 100% correctly but I could still bolt it down, so I could see in a more extreme case the tank warping so much it wouldn't fit anymore.
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Jan 2, 2016 21:11
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If your bike isn't made for premium you're going to see a drop in efficiency because of that alone.
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Jan 3, 2016 01:21
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Ducati had to replace a bunch of tanks in the US due to warping and leaking where the fuel pump mounted, didn't they?
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Jan 3, 2016 01:44
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