MotoFX Garage Door Opener Installation for SV650S

For Father's Day this year my wife bought me a Craftsman garage door opener, a MotoFX Built In Garage Door Opener (BIGDO) and a Universal Receiver.




The installation instructions left MUCH to be desired so it took me a little bit to figure out exactly how to do it. Hopefully this will make it a little easier for the next person.

You can wire the opener to activate with the use of your turn signal or your headlights high beam, I chose the high beam method. There are a few different ways of connecting the opener wiring to the stock wiring of the bike: soldering, stripping and taping or splicing. Due to the tight quarters I'd be dealing with I choose the splicing method. There are two different gauges of wire you will be splicing into and below are the parts I purchased at Radio Shack to get the job done.



The package on the left is for the larger gauge power and ground wiring and the package on the right is for the low and high beam wires. I think these were like $2 and were very easy to use.


Remove one of the access plates to get at the headlight plug and pull it out.




You will need to cut back and remove the electrical tape about an inch or so to give you enough room to splice everything in. Using the smaller Tap Connectors I wired the Blue opener wire to the White low beam wire, the Green opener wire to the Yellow high beam wire and the brown opener wire to the black/white headlight ground wire.

Here are the three wires spliced in.


Wrap over everything with electrical tape and you're ready to run the power wiring.


Finding the right wire to power the opener was the hardest part. I wanted to pull it from somewhere close to the unit and needed a wire that was only hot when the key was turned to the "On" position so I wouldn't drain my battery. I finally decided on cutting open the bundle of wires going to my ignition switch. The wiring schematic was pretty much useless for telling which wire would be the correct one. I used a probe style meter that you push into the wire insulation to get your reading and found the Orange wire to be hot only when the key was turned on. Splice in the red wire from the opener and then wrap it up with electrical tape.



After the pic below I routed the wire along with some other existing bundles up front leaving enough slack so it wouldn't get pulled when turning. I'm a little anal so I'll probably take a black sharpie and color the wire so it doesn't stand out so much.



Now all you have to do is mount the opener up in your fairing somewhere. I used a piece of double sided Velcro I had leftover from my PowerCommander and mounted it to the the vertical part of my fairing.




Since I have a newer garage door opener (after 1997) with a rolling code I need to install the universal receiver. I left all the dip switches on the MotoFX opener and the universal receiver set to the defaults it came with and it worked just fine.

Here is a pic of the universal receiver plugged in and wired to my opener. All I have to do is tidy up the wires and I'll be done.


Hopefully this write-up will save someone a few headaches trying to figure out the installation. I'll try to post a video clip when I get some time.

Frame Sliders

What are frame sliders?

Call them crash protectors, crash bobbins, fairing protectors or frame sliders, all these products ultimately seek to do one thing - protect your expensive bodywork or the essential and often expensive structural parts of your motorcycle from damage in the even of a fall or tip-over. The frame slider concept is as old as the proverbial 'crash bar' and today there are as many designs and brands as there are models of bikes. The proliferation of these types of products testify to the success of the idea of providing a sacrificial item to absorb some of the damage in the event of a fall.

Sooooo...... after installing my lower fairings this spring I found out my frame sliders barely stuck out past the plastics. I called Vortex to see if they made longer pucks to mount to the base, nope. My next thought was to use a spacer and machine a longer bolt to mount the puck to the base. I was having trouble figuring out the thread with the gauge here in the shop so I called Vortex again and they told me it was a custom thread!!! UGH I did a little research and found some Nylon bar stock at Grainger that would work. I ordered a 12" piece of solid 1 7/8 diameter Nylon for $10 (CHEAP). Next I threw it on the lathe, drilled, drilled, drilled and drilled until I got the exact piece I needed. It turned out much better than I expected and everyone that sees them seems pretty impressed.







Old puck on the left, new (unpolished) puck on the right

Road Scalpel

The springs that come in the factory forks are sprung for a much lighter person than myself. So after riding it for a season and getting tired of the brake dive and drifting in the corners I decided to do something about it. I looked at my options, get Gixxer fork assembly (too much modifying) or get new springs. I decided to go the spring route to save time and money. I checked out Sonic Springs, Traxxion and Race Tech. One of the owners of Sonic Springs, Rich Desmond is very active on the SV Rider forum and after seeing how much support he provides I decided to give him my business. The whole process of changing the springs is a little time consuming, requires a couple odd ball tools and a way to lift your front end. Luckily for me a local guy on the SV forum had just done this mod the week before, so I was able to bribe him with beer to lend a hand.

Springs

Lifting the front end

Two Step Ladders

3 pieces of 2 x 4

Set of ratcheting straps

loop the straps around the frame slider base

cross fingers and start ratcheting

Here is the first fork removed

Removed the factory spring and spacer and drained the oil.

I didn't get any pics of the reverse process since my hands got pretty oily at this point. I just installed the new .85 kg/mm springs, added the 20 weight oil and installed the fork. The whole process from start to finish took about 2 hrs. And wow, what a difference it made! I could not believe how much it improved the handling on low speed cornering. I hit some twisties last Thursday night with my neighbor and damn, the bike felt like it was on rails. No wonder everyone on the SV forums say this should be your first mod.

Next I'm going to probably get a 2005 GSX-R 1000 rear shock off E bay for $35 and my suspension will be set. After that a nice pair of Michelin Power Pilots and it will corner like a dream.

First week of commuting

Well my first week of commuting to work is going pretty well so far. The weather has been decent enough, 40 degrees or so in the morning, chilly but not killing me. It's well worth it to ride home with the sun shining and the temps in the mid 60's. As always it seems that any odd situation I could run into on a motorcycle is happening to me. On Monday morning there came a point where both lanes of traffic on the 2 lane highway slowed down and moved towards the should to get around something. As I got closer I saw a freshly hit deer laying on the yellow line, sprayed into both lanes. I got over and tried not to look too closely but there head was right there staring up at me as I went by at 5 mph, mmmmmm. On Wednesday I left work to go see Kira's Ballet recital, what fun that was. On the way back I came over the hill on a 4 lane hwy to see water spraying across both of the north bound lanes. It seems I just had to be driving by as they were blowing out the fire hydrant. I have never ridden in the rain or much water at all so going through 20 feet 2-3" deep water was a real treat for me. Little did I know it would get even better about 10 minutes later when I got to drive through a manure spill on a smaller section of highway. At that point I couldn't do anything but smile and laugh. You really get to enjoy the sights, sounds and SMELLS of your daily commute that much more on two wheels.

Someone got a new lid

Kathy and I took advantage of all the motorcycle stores big "spring sales" and picked up a helmet for her this last Friday. She now has a jacket, helmet and gloves, if only it would get warm out again!

Exhaust

Oh yeah, it's a done deal. My exhaust came in on Friday and I put it on that night. Mmmmmmmmm, you gotta love carbon fiber!! After researching different exhausts I ended up going with the Leo Vince SBK Carbon Fiber High Mount slip on. I had to wait a bit longer because they're built in Italy but it was well worth the extra time. I cannot wait to get the battery in and hear how it sounds!

Factory Exhaust

Carbon Fiber Heaven
(I also installed the solo seat cowl)

I'm about mid way through installing my Power Commander fuel injection module. I have it mapped, and all the wiring routed from the tail section to the engine, I just have to remove my air filter assembly to get to the wiring harness to get it plugged in.



Once that is done it's on to the lower plastics and I'm ready to ride!!