Internal Handlebar Wiring

[Big-X]

This write up is for how I internally wired my new Hunington Beach Bars.

After removing the headlight assembly, handlebars, and housings I unplugged the wiring harnesses and removed the bars completly.

I got my new bars and ran a nice pink twine through the bars and out the other end as shown below:

http://www.vtxcafe.com/gallery/data/529/medium/DSC_0271.jpg


I took all my controls and cut the wirning harnesses about 6" above the end of the wires. After cutting the wires I got the housing and all wires placed at the approprate ends of the handlebars. I tied the twine very tightly around the very end of the wires and spayed the inside of the bars and wire with silocone spray. Then I fed the wires into the holes as shown below:

http://www.vtxcafe.com/gallery/data/529/medium/DSC_0277.jpg

Having some tweasers handy helped in getting all the wires out of the middle opening of the bar.

http://www.vtxcafe.com/gallery/data/529/medium/DSC_0278.jpg

Simply repeat this on the other side and the bars are wired. :)

Then the fun starts...

Figure out how much extra wire you will need (if any), go but it and cut the needed wires, onthis I planned on hiding all wires under the tank so I added 6" of wire...ended up not needing that much but oh well, it was already done. Of course match up the wires one by one, get the soldering gun and solder them together and use shrink tubing to keep them secure. Once complete I wrapped them with tape and put the bars back on.

Here are the bars mounted, no wires visable!

http://www.vtxcafe.com/gallery/data/529/medium/DSC_0044.jpg

Here is the wiring diagram for the 2002-2003 1800S: http://www.vtxcafe.com/gallery/data/529/wiring.jpg

[whitedime]

how about when your bars have an incredibly sharp curve to them, like the punisher bars

[whitedime]

yea... I haven't even done it once yet...

[whitedime]

DONE! I ran internal wires on the T bars. Used a blowgun to blow a string up through the bars then tied it to the wires and pulled them through carefully.

[Winter_Lion]

Great post.

I did this mod to my retro last year and I love the way it cleans up that area of the bike. The difference being that I used the stock bars and cut the holes for wire entry with my Dremel rotary tool.

Only thing I would add to your great post is that it might be easier for some readers to use a scrap piece of 16-18 awg wire to pull the wire harness through the bars.
I just overlapped the scrap wire and the end of the wire harness by about 4 inches and wrapped tightly with electrical tape. Focusing on making the transition from thickest part of harness to scrap wire as smooth as possible.

That way it feeds without hanging up and you don't need to worry about your string breaking.

btw: Avoid cutting the outer sleeve that protects the harness too short. It will protect your wires from chaffing on the edge of your handlebar holes later down the road.

Respects and thanks

Winter

[chapmanmd]

Greetings. This is my first post as I am new to this site. I'm relatively new to the VTX, but have been around bikes for the past almost 40 years. I am really interested in the post for the internal wiring. If using stock bars (only because I really like the bend and such), where would you drill for the wiring. I read the post that says that a dremel was used. What type of bit did you use to do it?

Anyway, thanks for your time and thanks in advance for your replies.

Mark Chapman
06 VTX1300S

[mscales]

Very nice writeup Big-X. Thanks

[Winter_Lion]

Greetings. This is my first post as I am new to this site. I'm relatively new to the VTX, but have been around bikes for the past almost 40 years. I am really interested in the post for the internal wiring. If using stock bars (only because I really like the bend and such), where would you drill for the wiring. I read the post that says that a dremel was used. What type of bit did you use to do it?

Anyway, thanks for your time and thanks in advance for your replies.

Mark Chapman
06 VTX1300S

Hi Mark,

I drilled my holes just inboard of the electrical switch housings at the bottom of the tube and two holes just inboard of the risers, also at the bottom of the bar...bottom as it relates to down when the bars are mounted.

I used a dremel tool and the dremel drill bits to get the holes started after using a small punch to dimple my planned hole locations. Don't try skipping that step as more than likely your drill bit will just skitter off the bar and scratch your bars or worse.

I opened the holes up with a blue stone cone shaped dremel accesory.

Don't forget to deburr the holes, inside and out and apply some primer to the raw steel edges.

The primer is optional, but it will keep your bars from rusting to some extent.

Be careful when you cut your wiring. Better too long the first time around than too short of course. You can pull any extra slack into the headlight housing or once everything is lined up, you can always trim a little more off the ends.

Winter...:cheers:

[Winter_Lion]

I drilled my holes just inboard of the electrical switch housings at the bottom of the tube and two holes just inboard of the risers, also at the bottom of the bar...bottom as it relates to down when the bars are mounted.

Sorry.........change the two holes that are located at the risers to just outboard of the risers, allowing a nice routing of the wires from there thru the wire hangers and almost entirely out of sight.

The holes drilled at the electrical housings are located just as close as you can get them to the inboard edge of housings.........as the clutch lever clamp on the left and the brake res. clamp on the right will up tight to your wire entry points.
Otherwise you would end up changing your lever length and position.......not part of this plan.........lol.

Sorry again........Winter

[avrgmike]

hmmm sounds simlpe enough i may have to make a pot of coffee when i get home from work tonight and give it a go. and to think they sell prewired bars for like 3k ( but they r soooo pretty ). anyone try internal throttles yet ? i know they sell the kit for it ??? how many wires can U fit inside a bar, lol:D

[avrgmike]

hey X, u never specified what size / gauge wire u used for the extension pieces. looks like it may be 20 or higher not sure.

[avrgmike]

ok well i started this little internal wiring idea and after 2 1/2 hrs i got the first pull string through. seems easy but a pain in the butt. tried the blowing one twine through....no luck. tried the fishing of 2 sep piecing and hooking them....no luck. even my dog said " roooof ?" I tried a piece of string with a small nut or 2 and a magnet no luck. seems haveing that damn sharp angle is harder then i though ..i have the 1.50" barons t-bars and they r a pain, lol. finally i got a string down by useing a small lead fishing weight then pulled a 22 gauge wire through for the wire pull. thats all i can take atm, im hungry and fustrated. so ill get at it again in the morning. 1` thing im curious though. X u said cut the wires 6" from end..im assuming u ment end as in where the conn. is inside the headlight housing..did u just spice both ends or 1 and hookup new pins for the connection clip ? last but not least, as i mentioned prior post what gauge wire did u use, and does it matter if the wire in the middle that u add is a little bit larger size. i have a butt load of 20 gauge that i was gonna use...it looks close but may be a little thicker. ty again for any answers. also whitedime, any other hints or tips ? since we pretty much have the same bar type ?

[Dapper]

Plan to do this on my punishers, feel pretty adept at fishing wires so for me the hardest part will be splicing on some add-on that is not going to come loose in the tube or oxidize later on causing a malfunction on the road. I really like the clean look :)

[avrgmike]

lol, that was my theory on it. i was good till i stumbled on the fishing of pull wire. and sure i come across these online, bastards. insert drool here....

[Dapper]

Nice picture, what is it, heated grip?

[avrgmike]

no ya goof ball, all internaly wired controls, with micro switchs.

[avrgmike]

DONE ! FINALLY ! just have to find something that can be wrapped around it to clean it up a bit.i saw the flex chrome type but no good unless i wanna take it all off again..:confused: anyways here a few pics of the end result
before
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/avrgmike/bike/9bac700d.jpg

after wiring, lol, not clean'd though



http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/avrgmike/bike/7a866703.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o319/avrgmike/bike/995d3424.jpg

[Dapper]

Great to see the finished project. Did you have to leave much slack for turning?

[avrgmike]

honestly, no. there realy isnt a whole lotta movement from turning if u think aboutit, maybe a 2 or 3" of travel. i added extra to make it easier getting into the headlight bezel thats about it. i'd say i added about 8" all together, the extra is tucked into the headlight. im happy with it, but im not.....the grey tubing sleeve is ugly = gots-2-go...gonna order the chrome mesh tubing in a few weeks. just gotta remember where i saw it, lol. u get the message with the bars in it. they r soooooo sweet.

[canivito2000]

avrgmike (http://www.vtxcafe.com/member.php?u=6967), what is that chrome spiral around your throttle and where did you get it?