World's cheapest fuse holders

[gspd]

Warning to Rob F. - please don't read this, you'll have nightmares

My bike hasn't blown a fuse in three decades, pretty sure the original ones are still in the original fuse holder.
The bike only came with 2 fuses to cover all the bases.

I needed to add some fuses, to protect a bunch of circuits and relays I added; horn relay, hot grip relay, flasher circuit, accessory plug, and one for the unfused main wire that goes to the ignition switch.

There are all kinds of fuse holders on the market, but my solution was to simply connect the fuse to two spade connectors and cut out the middle man. I shrink wrap the terminals and just plug the fuse in. I've labelled them for easy identification. The whole mess is tie-wrapped together so nothing can shake loose, and sits dormant atop the plastic airbox for easy tool-less access. Initially I was a bit concerned if the actual fuse body would break with vibration and stress, or if corrosion would eat them away, but most have been there for decades without an issue (some are more recent additions).

[gspd]

One day, if I win the lottery, I'll ship my bike over to Scotland UK (20 miles from civilisation up a dead end road) and pay Rob F to rewire the whole bike.
He's the only guy on the planet I would entrust my bike to for electrical wiring revamping.
I'm sure if I applied myself, I could do a great total revamp, but never quite up to Rob's perfectionist standards.
In the mean time, I'll soldier on with my original ancient harness with its many, many mods.


In all honesty, everything functions absolutely 100% perfectly, never any problems, it's just that some of the wiring colors and locations would leave anybody else a bit perplexed anyone totally baffled. And in general, the wiring harness just looks kind of old, the connector blocks aren't as shiny new as they once were.
I'm the only person that can make heads or tails of my bike's wiring setup.
Is that a bad thing?
At least I know every wire by heart.

[gspd]

If I had the space to install one of these I'd rewire my whole bike so each component would have its own designated fuse and all the appropriate circuits would have relays. There's just no room for it anywhere.
I recall Airbear had a really super neat setup, but I'm not keen on that cellphone interface idea, maybe because I don't have (and don't want) a cellphone. I enjoy being totally 'disconnected' when out on my bike.

[jackonz]

If I had the spare cash then I would totally re wire my bike and install an Moto gadget Mo.unit blue, its an amazing thing and brings your electrics right up to date, my problem is the price as the exchange rate with the NZ$ is not that good at the moment.
Anyway these thing's work on ground switching and no fuse box required as its all in the box, you only have to retain your charging circuit.

https://motogadget.com/shop/en/m-unit-blue.html

Am going to get 2 of them for work so we can teach students how to wire up circuits using ground switching.

[Airbear]

Yes, the Mo-Unit Blue is expensive - I threw 500 of our little Aussie dollars at it. I was only able to justify the expense because our PM made a surprise bonus payment to age pensioners when Covid was particularly busy here. I had been planning to install something like the box of fuses and relays that GSPD pictured above. I had drawn up about half of the horribly complicated wiring map when it occurred to me that there must be an easier way, and the Mo-Unit popped into my vision.

By the way GSPD, there ae less expensive versions of the Mo-Unit that have the 10 fused digital relays but do not talk to a cell phone. The Mo-Unit Blue does not need to be used with a phone - it's just easier to use the phone app's simple menu system to program the output actions. Without a phone the menu programming involves pressing buttons in particular sequences to achieve the same goal, something you may only need to do once, unless you wish to experiment with having your brake light flash in a particularly interesting way or whatever.

And Phil, yes the ground switching of inputs is interesting. Took me a while to get me head around it. The manual states that voltages on the inputs are not detectable. Could be magic I guess.

PS: I've grown to love my smartphone. It knows where it is in space and time when I don't.

[gspd]

Thanks for the replies...Jaconz & Airbear..very interesting, but scary.
Going digital scares me, I've experienced life on the inside, and it was terrifying.

Cars all have BCM's (body control module) now. The failure rate is quite low, percentage wise, but some do fail. When you work in a dealership, you realize that the actual failure rate is actually higher than the average consumer realizes. The cost to replace these units can be staggering, some are in the thousands of dollars.

Intermittent failures are a total nightmare, like when the wipers on your $200,000 Porsche develop a mind of their own. Is it the switch, the safety interlock, one of the multiple relays, the rain sensor, the wiring harness, a bad ground, the BCM, or the idiot behind the wheel? These are cars for wealthy people that don't want to repeatedly go back to the dealership for the same problem. Many customers have traded in their cars because such issues were seemingly impossible to resolve. The Porsche people go to BMW, the BMW guys go to Mercedes, the Mercedes customers switch to Cadillac, but many problems often remain unsolved forever as the cars get passed on to the next lucky unsuspecting owner...

I plan on keeping my bike forever, til' death do us part, literally. Not sure why, it's a real money pit.
As things are now, I can diag and fix anything in a few minutes if a problem arises on the road, or at home.

If When a Mo-unit equipped bike has an electrical circuit malfunction, how complicated is it to isolate a problem, and will a quick temporary bypass be possible to get things operational? What if the failure is in the Mo-unit module, is that easy to diagnose? Will Mo-unit company still be around in ten or twenty years? Can a simple flasher malfunction one day require a new costly 'box' ? Can a no-start condition be remedied with an unsightly analog by-pass?

PS - just for the record, I own a modern car with all the electronic doo-dads. No problems so far.
I love it as much as I love my refrigerator. If it gives me any grief, it'll get traded in a heartbeat.

[Rob Frankham]

And Phil, yes the ground switching of inputs is interesting. Took me a while to get me head around it. The manual states that voltages on the inputs are not detectable. Could be magic I guess.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C Clarke (1962... probably)

Rob