IF you are going to use the following as any kind of guide, please read it all the way through and make sure you fully understand it before you start to do any work on your bike. It would probably help if you printed this out, with the larger pictures and compared the pictures to your actual bike with the seat off.
The Author cannot be held liable for anything that happens due to someone reading or following what is written in this document.
OK, before getting started, make sure that you have the necessary tools. You'll need to remove the seat and you'll need to cut some wires (to shorten the wires from the Scorpio unit) and do some crimping and you'll need some electrical tape. A pair of needle-nose pliers makes the job of tightening up the wire ties a bit easier.
Even if you are extremely careful and double and
triple check everything, this won't take anymore than an hour of
your time. But, I like to do this kind of work on the weekend,
earlier in the morning so I have lots of time and am not rushed. My
preference is a Saturday morning (that way I can ride on Sunday).
Plus, if I run into problems like the kids have hidden the
electrical tape yet again, I can easily take a quick trip and pick
some up.
As there are a number of locations where the components can be placed and a number of wires, I recommend placing everything where you want it without actually fastening it down. Make sure you've routed wires over, under and around with enough slack such that they won't wear or pull, don't cut until you are 100% sure you are ready. In my case, although I shortened the wire somewhat I still left a good foot or more of length that I coiled up "just in case".
1.
All that needs to be removed to install this unit is the seat
plus the side panel to gain access to the battery. As well, you'll
want to remove the other side panels to give yourself more room to
work. So, get to work, bike up on the center stand and remove the
seat and the side panels. By the way, did you know that once you
have the 4 bolts removed from the seat that it'll come out MUCH
easier if you have the trunk open? Strange but true.
2.
Seeing as you are going to be "touching" the
electrical system, disconnect the battery (Negative connection
first].
3.
You are going to have to find out where things "fit
best". You have the Main System Module, the Pager Module, the
Perimeter Sensor and the Siren to tuck away in various spots. This
shot shows the completed install. You are looking towards the back
of the bike, down onto the rear fender. The two "Scorpio"
units that you see on the bikes left side, tucked in beside the
frame (the left side of the bike is the riders left as the rider is
facing forward) are the Main System Module and the Pager Module. I
put the thin Perimeter Sensor on top of the large fuse box (see item
# 8) and the Siren is tucked away in a space on the right side of
the bike (see item #9). You may find better areas to put these
items. I recommend placing all items and ensuring that the seat will
still fit properly before securing anything down.
4. Find the large "bundle"
of wires located just in front of the trunk. This is where you are
going to "tap into" the required wiring. You can see this
bundle clearly at the top of this picture. This picture also shows
my hand "holding" the antenna for the Main System Module
(the antenna is for the remote key fob, not the pager). I simply
placed this antenna across the top of the rear fender as shown.
5. You'll
have to pull the plastic covering off the large bundle of wires a
bit in order to access the wires that you'll tap into. When you read
the advertisements from Aritronix, they state that no wires have to
be cut. This is true! They have these neat little "T
clamps" that simply clamp onto the wire that you want to tap
into and then a normal spade connector fits over the bottom part of
the "T" making a nice neat package. Here you see a shot of
the 3 wires that need to be connected into.
6.
This is a little bit closer (albeit blurry) shot of the
wires. The Scopio kit requires that you tap into 3 wires. You'll
need to tap into the Left turn signal power wire which is Orange on
the GL1800 and the Right turn signal power wire is Light Blue [you
can see these in the picture]. As well, you need to tap into the
Tail Light (Wire that powers the tail light when ignition is on)
which is Brown/White. And, not shown here, are two additional
connections that you need to make, one to the battery positive and
one to the battery negative. DO NOT do the battery connections until
you've done all other connections.
7. OK,
this should be a bit more recognizable. You are looking towards the
back of the bike, that big black thing with the white X in a circle
is the rear fender. You'll notice that the wires from the Scorpio
unit have small plastic flags on them to identify them. There are
two wires that have yellow flags (so it doesn't matter which taps
into what) but, these are to tap into the "turn signal power
wires (left [Orange] & right [Light Blue])". And, a White
flag to tap into the Tail Light [Brown/White].
8.
This shot is from the right side of the bike. You can see the
two Modules (Main & Pager) to the top left of the picture
(that'd be the left rear of the frame of the bike). Plus, you can
see the Proximity Sensor which I've mounted on top of the fuse box
(the clear plastic box with circuitry inside). I mounted this to the
side so that I didn't cover up the markings on the fuse panel. There
is a small "pot" on the box that can be turned to increase
or decrease sensitivity, leave this as it is until everything has
been connected.
9. The
instructions state that the siren should be installed "facing
down". I found that it would fit nicely in this small space on
the right side of the bike. I wire-tied it in place. It is
positioned such that once the seat is off it is very easy to turn
the Siren off. Note that because this Siren activates itself if the
power is cut, you MUST tell anyone who is working on the bike that
they need to turn the Siren off if they are going to disconnect the
battery for any reason. Seeing as the Siren comes with 2 keys, I
keep one velcroed up in the right fairing pocket and I've let my
dealer know that it is there.
10.
This is the siren wire that connects back into the Main
System Module. I just routed it under the frame members back to the
Main System Module and Plugged it in. NOTE, I advise against
plugging in anything until you have got everything exactly where you
want it.
11.
There is a rather long antenna for the remote pager that
comes with the kit. The Instructions tell you to route it along the
frame or coil it under the seat. I chose to route it along the frame
and in so doing, found that it went all the along the left side of
the bike, across the front, then down the right side. You can see
where there is some tape on the frame that I've used to secure it.
As well, if you look real close in front of that bronze coloured
"thingy" that goes into the fuel tank, you'll see that
I've run a full strip of electrical tape across the black fuel tank.
The antenna is under that.
12.
This overhead shot has the rear of the bike to the right. You
can clearly see the Perimiter Sensor (flash washed it out a bit) to
the left a bit, the two Scorpio units against the left frame member
(bottom right of picture), the two yellow and one white tag on the
wires that go into the wiring bundle at the back and the wires
(orange / yellow / brown) going across the top of the "X"
in the circle that go to the Siren. As well, on the top (right)
frame member, you can see a white tagged wire which is the antenna.
Immediately to the left of the white tag you can see the small
rubber boot that covers the Siren on / off keyed switch.
13.
OK, now that you have everything where you want it firmly
attach the Modules using the supplied Velcro. And plug in all
Modules. Make sure all wiring is in place, routed where you want it.
I taped over any "unused" connectors with electricians
tape to help keep out moisture.
14.
Double check all connections. Time to reconnect the battery
(Positive side first), you can decide whether to route the alarm
Positive Battery Feed directly to the battery as I did (In addition
to the main cable on the Battery Positive Side, I now have the Alarm
wire AND a wire to my trickle charger). Once that is connected, do
the battery ground. Again, I have the main ground cable from the
battery plus both my alarm ground and the ground for my trickle
charger connected directly to the Battery Ground.
15.
Follow the instructions to "set" your remote key
fob control unit and the remote pager.
16.
Lay the seat on your bike and test out the sensitivity of the
Perimiter Sensor. I have mine set such that if someone reaches over
the front handlebars (to look really close), the Alarm will warn
them away. Similarly, if anyone sits on the seat, the Alarm will
warn them away. Once this is set OK, put all the components (seat,
side panels) back on.
17. To set the sensitivity of the alarm I went out to a remote area and tried different settings to get the one I wanted. I made sure that the alarm would go off if anyone righted the bike when it was on its sidestand. As well, if anyone took the bike off its center stand, the alarm goes off. I also made sure that when on the center stand, if the bike is just rocked a bit, the alarm doesn't go off. Try some different sensitivity settings and you'll find what works for you.
Performance and Summary
Well, I'm very happy with this unit and I'd recommend it to folks. I did in fact have the pager go off once on my trip! I looked out the window of my Motel Room (I was on the ground floor) and down a few stalls to where my bike was but I didn't see anything. I don't know whether passing truck traffic had set the alarm off or someone was indeed fooling around where they shouldn't have been (there was a bar close by). I decreased the sensitivity of the alarm by one or two steps the next morning by using the remote just to make sure. In any case, I felt much more secure. When touring, if I'm staying for more than a day, I'll normally cover the bike when I park it. But, if I'm just parked for the night (as in this case), I don't bother with a cover.
Range seems very good. At work, I park my VFR800 at the front entrance and my office is up 3 stories and a hundred yards or so away. As well, I've been on the sixth floor of a hotel, overlooking the parking lot and the Remote Pager still works. A real nice feature is you can easily test whether the Remote Pager is working from where you are (as long as you do so within 1/2 an hour of arming the bike).
When I went to install the system on my VFR800 a few weeks later, it took less than an hour and most of that time was spent in figuring out where to place items! Even taking your time, if you had done a few installs, doing another GL1800 wouldn't take anymore than about 15 minutes.
Note that the alarm does cause some battery drain. When Winter came this year, I had both bikes parked. After about a month of no riding, I heard a "clicking sound" from my VFR800 (it has an older battery with less capacity than the Wing). I figure that as the battery drains down, the siren gets to the point where it isn't getting as much power as it should but is still getting some so it warns you before the power drops to a level where the siren would go off (thinking someone cut the power). With my GL1800, it took a good month and a half of no riding before the clicking sound started. Putting the bikes onto a trickle charger had the sound disappear immediately. It would probably be a good idea to turn the alarm off during any storage period and I have done this with the VFR (but the seat is MUCH easier to remove on that bike).