im looking to turn my sporty into an inconspicuous road tripper, not a day tripper.

I already have a shaved down memory foam custom seat, i NEVER get tired sitting on this thing, and grip heaters as well as a hidden cruiser control thats easier to activate than the factory one. and grip end weights to eliminate (not reduce, eliminate!) handlebar vibration. I have a pair of throw over saddlebags, a chrome luggage rack that bolts onto where a passenger seat would go, and I still need to buy some highway pegs. I got a nice dufflebags with straps for attaching to a motorcycle, a front barrel bag that straps to the forks.

I already bought all my cold weather gear as well as slip over earmuffs, the kid that fit behind your head like those new sony headphones. I think EVERYONE should have some of these!!! they cut down wind noise and keep your ears warm, and dont do much else, which is great! i cant imagine riding without them except in the summer heat


I got a super bright halogen H4 but its not enough. I want to add some generic fog lamps down by the front fender. Most of my long trips are between 6PM to 4AM in the middle of the night along the coast up state about 400 miles each way. this is how i rack up 1k miles a month on my bike. becuase I do it like twice a month or so

can someone help me figure out how many accessories i can add to my sporty before I'm taxing the electrical system? Its all stock right now and the super bright bulb draws the same power as stock, the grip heaters are about 40 watts I think they are the standard "under grip" type. I dont know the exact draw. Id like to add a detachable GPS on the handlebars powered by the bike and nice fog/passing lamps. no heated jacket or gloves are neccesary.

what is the limit of my bike (1988 sportster) and how do I calculate my power usage?

help is appreciated, I dont work with electrics except when I wire my custom guitars, thats about it.

 

oh by the way, I've been looking around stores like autozone and walmart and I see standard fog lamp kits that draw 55watts (the box says) and it comes with two and its really generic bolt on, from companies like sylvania and GE. the sealed beam type passing lamps, not full headlamps. can I use these instead of motorcycle specific ones as long as I can find a place to bolt it on?

 

How many watts we have extra, I've never gotten a really good answer... but I've been running (2) 35W lights, (2) 30W lights, (1) Garmin 2610 GPS, (1) BMW heated vest, plus the lights, pumps and whatnots the bike needs to move down the road and I will have low voltage at idle, but no critically low voltages and the voltage stays up when I'm at speed.

I HIGHLY suggest a voltmeter on the bike. This is the one I use. It will catch a problem before it becomes serious.

For where to plug everything, this is what I am planning on installing on my Sporty. I've spoken to the owner of the company and this is a very good product and deal. It's a relay controlled fuse block that handles both ignition controlled and always on circuits.


For an "inconspicuous" road tripper, I'm VERY happy with the detachable hardware for the Sporty. I believe that the removeable components was called "convertibles" back in 1988.

Personally, I can go from my 500 mile on a tank of gas, painful amount of forward lighting, ridiculous amount of storage and windshield to an around town scoot in under 5 minutes.

Swap the fuel line, swap the gas cap, two clips and the tourtank and luggage rack comes off. That's two minutes.

Unplug the windshield mounted driving lights, pop the four clips and the windshield is sitting on the work bench. One minute there.

Unscrew the RAM mount and the GPS is off. One minute.

Unfortunately, I just put on HardStreet saddlebags - they're a little more involved in removal. But, I'm OK with their semi-permanent nature because I really like waterproof, locking bags.

I'll post some pictures next week of the bike with and without goodies. (my tourtank bracket is taken apart being painted)

 

Yes, I ran them for YEARS on my GL1100. I wouldn't hesitate to run a decent set on my Sporty, except that 55W lights draw a little more than I care to run. HOWEVER, you can pick up a pair of $20 lights with 55W H3 lights and then change the bulbs to 35W and you'll be golden.

Personally, I'd go with HID. There's a couple folks around selling them, but I bought these from the good folks at Aerostich. If I had it all to do over again, I, honestly, wouldn't mess with halogens, though I am running these. After running HIDs, I can't justify the power draw and relatively low light output of the halogens.

 

A Voltmeter is the easiest and simplest way. Can't maintain a steady 14+ Volts while running will need a more powerful alternator .. also don't use skimpy little wires like 20 gauge to carry your loads...

 

Joe, here is how you figure out how much extra power you have available.

First, you need to find out how many amps the voltage regulator/charging system for the 88 sporty is rated for. It's listed in the Service Manual for that year. For 2004 - 2006, the regulator is rated at 22 amps. (It was increased to 30 amps in 07 to handle the extra power required for EFI & electric fuel pump)

Next you need to add up all the power drawn by the stock bike. This is in amps as listed in the Service manual. It looks like you don't have turn signals/running lamps on your bike so those don't need to be counted if that's true. Simple add up the amp numbers from the list below to get your initial load for the base bike. I'm listing the Max. draw for each.

Headlamp - 5.0A
Tail & Brake - 2.7A
Turn Signals & Running - 2.25A
Instrument Lamps - 0.6A

So, if you have all the above, that's 10.55 amps being drawn stock and for safety sake let's round the number up to 11.0 amps. (we don't want to chance overloading the system)

Now, if your regulator is rated at 22 amps, subtract the 11 amps from that and you have 11 amps to left over to play with.

Now, we have to start adding up the additional accessories you want to add. These are almost always rated in watts and we need to convert this into amps. This is done by dividing the watts by the voltage and we will use 12V here as the charging system won't be putting out the 13.5 to 14 volts when the bike is idling. So here are some examples:

Heated grips 40 watt/12 = 3.33 amps
Driving lights (each) 35 watt/12 = 2.92 amps x 2 = 5.84 amps

So, if you subtract the 2 above (9.17 amps) from the 11 amps you had to spare that leaves you with 1.83 amps. I wouldn't try to add anything else other than the GPS, which should draw less than 0.5 amps.

That should get you started..

EDIT: All the above is based on the charging system being at idle, (12v). Once you are at cruise speed the regulator will be putting out 13.5 - 14.5 volts. Assuming it's 14 volts, that will reduce the above calculated load by 3 amps, leaving you enough for recharging the battery during your extended cruise. Just to be safe, you could switch off the driving lamps when you are in stop and go traffic and use them only when your on the road at cruise speed.

 

If you use a GPS for a car be careful about how you wire it into the bike. Most of the GPS systems for a car run on 5V. There is a regulator built into the cigarette lighter adapter. If you try to wire one of these things in directly to the 12V on your bike without the 5V regulator you stand a good chance of letting the smoke out of the GPS.

 

To check how much current is left to charge the battery with the existing components you have installed to see if you can put on more, you need a powerlink or a multimeter with an inductive lead and hook it up to the battery and perfom the following tests (sorry about the caps, it's cut & paste from my school notes to make it easier to read while working):

1. MAX CURRENT/VOLTAGE OUTPUT:__________AMP (MINIMUM OF 85% OF SYSTEM RATING)
POWERLINK or DVOM WITH INDUCTIVE LEAD CONNECT TO BATTERY INDUCTOR ON MAIN C.B. WIRE {SMALL BLK WIRE TO REGULATOR} ZEROLINK RUNNING BIKE REV TO 3K ADD LOAD TO 13V RECORD AMP VALUE DISCONNECT P-LINK (-) TO RESET {MUST BE LESS THAN 15 VOLTS}

2. CURRENT DRAW:__________ AMP
POWERLINK or DVOM WITH INDUCTIVE LEAD CONNECT TO BATTERY INDUCTOR TO BATTERY (-) DISCONNECT STATOR DEUTCH RUNNING BIKE REV TO 3K ENERGIZE LOADS RECORD VALUE

3. CURRENT LEFT TO CHARGE BATTERY:__________AMP
SUBTRACT #4 FROM #3 RECORD VALUE

4. MINIMUM REQUIRED: 3.5 AMP TO CHARGE THE BATTERY

The above gives you actual numbers not just calculated ones which may not match (kind of like my check book). Off hand I think you're pushing max output for an XL.

 

thanks for all the great responses, very helpful


well my friend bought an old honda and the spokes were rusted out on the back wheel so we ordered a set and then the wheel finally had it, so we had to basically rebuild the entire wheel on the road, I had to park my harley behind and aim the headlight at it. my lights were on for about 25 mins without the engine on.

long story short it would start, and being a liter bike with HC mods, it would not bump start. I had to push it to a local hill and start it at like 25 mph.

how long does it take for a battery to drain to less than "able to start the bike" voltage? and does this battery life affect my ability to add the accessories I want? the battery is about 12 years old and ive NEVER ever had a problem with it becuase its a sealed maintence free and I ride often and everyday. also, the ignition permits me to ride in the daytime with my headlight completely off, but everything else perfectly functioning, and I always start it in this mode to keep the headlight from dimming while the starter is on


and thanks for the voltmeter idea, what is the cheapest one I can get? Ive seen some guage type for cars by autometer in pepboys and the like for between 20-40 bucks, if I can get a small enough one, would this work? or is it set for car batteries