Imagine, a beautiful clear crisp Spring morning.
You are carving your way through the twisties on a road you've never traveled
before, on a trip you have planned for months. You steal quick
glances of the grandios mountains around you through the trees.
You are on one of the loneliest roads in the entire mountain range.
Your destination today, the worlds largest cockleburr.
Suddenly,
with absolutely no warning, with a finality that takes your breath
away the bike just quits. "What the...." You hear
"Dueling Banjo's" playing in your minds stereo....
The Achilles heel of any motorcycle is the alternator.
The alternator supplies the bike with its electrical power necessary
to run. That means, in a nutshell, that it supplies the spark
to your plugs, the power to your lights, the heat to your plug in
clothes, the music from your MP3 player etc. It also, while
performing all these functions, charges your battery.
If your alternator should fail your battery will try and carry the
load on its own. It doesn't take an electrical engineering
degree for you to understand what happens next.
One of the best investments you can make for your safety, reliability
and peace of mind for your motorcycle is a good voltmeter.
There are many different brands of good quality voltmeters with
different types of readouts, indicators or lights. I am
not endorsing any brand or type of meter. That
is entirely up to you but I will show you what I came up with on mine
and why.
I chose the Kuryakyn LED voltmeter.
This meter is simple to interpret and mount. I paid around
$35 for the meter and everything you need to mount it which consists
of the wire already attached to the meter and the two faced tape already
on back of the meter.
Probably the most difficulty
you will have with your meter is trying to decide where you want to
mount it so you can glance at it quickly from time to time but it
won't be unsightly or a distraction for you either. On my Goldwing
I decided to mount it down inside the forward fairing where I could
see it up through the hole where the handlebars come through.
Do
you see it?
Now can you see it?
This particular meter has a series of Red, Yellow and
Green lights. While the bike is running and charging all the
lights are on. I thought that was a bit too much light shining
at me so I placed it such that while sitting on the bike in my regular
upright position I can only see the two green lights. Thats
really the only lights I need to see. I know in the picture
above it looks like I have to lean to the side to see the lights but
that is just a flaw in the view due to the placement of the viewfinder
on the camera versus the lens. On this meter if
you have two greens the alternator is charging at a typical rate around
13.8 to 14.2 v. Some riders have to be more informed than that
and want the exact readout in digital form and thats ok too.
This is what my voltmeter
looks like. I have a trim piece removed here for this view.
To mount
your voltmeter decide on a few places you would like it. Then
sit on your bike and place it in each spot and make sure it is not
blocked by your handlebar or tankbag etc. You may need some
help if you mount it someplace like mine where you can't reach it
and hold it to look at it while sitting on the bike. Here again
placement is important, at least it was to me, so that I wouldn't
have to see any of the other lights except the two green snake eyes
looking up at me. Once you decide where you want it clean the
area with alcohol to remove the dirt and or polish and pull the double
side tape layer off and stick it on. Press firmly to get it
to adhere tightly.
The wiring part is pretty
clear cut and dry. The meter comes with two wires attached to
it. Mine had a red one and a black one. Route the red
one securely up through your fairing or instruments and run it back
to the positive post on your battery or if you like, your bus box.
(extra power terminal) The black wire runs to a good clean ground
connection bolt.
Will a voltmeter keep
your alternator from going out and save you from missing the great
cockleburr display? Nope. It won't help one bit.
But what it will do is give you ample warning that something is wrong
with your charging system and you will have a chance to ride to a
repair shop or at least someplace safe. Does a low charge indication
mean that your alternator is on the fritz? Not necessarily.
You may just have a bad ground, a bad wire connection or just dirty
battery terminals. In any case you will have warning that something
is not operating properly so you can look into the problem before
you are stranded in Dogpatch, Iowa.
And finally,
I hope you realize that I cannot be responsible for any problems malfunctions
or damage that may occur to you or your equipment just because
you read this article. I offer this only as friendly
advice. Good luck.
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