I’ve converted the bike to keyless ignition. No, I’ve not gone all geeky again and installed RFID proximity sensors (although I did consider it, I have to admit).
The nav-tower mounting required the steering lock to have been ground off, and the ignition barrel was relocated to the side of the nav-tower. As a result, the barrel itself was easily accessible, and the wiring visible and equally accessible. It would have been a trivial task to hotwire the bike if someone was so inclined. However, with the locking petrol cap on the bike, the ignition barrel served a purpose as a main switch but also somewhere secure to keep the key for the petrol cap.
However, I now have a nice billet alloy screw-cap for the fuel tank on it’s way to me, so there’s no longer a requirement for a secure key-store. With that in mind, I decided to remove the barrel and just fit a simple switch, but what switch and where to locate it in such a way it couldn’t easily be knocked into the off position.
The solution is pretty simple. I have a couple of toggle switches below the clocks already, controlling the auxiliary fuel pump and the cooling fan. There’s two spare switch holes on the plate that they’re mounted in so, due to clearance issues, I relocated the fuel pump switch one place to the left, and fitted a DPST toggle switch (the SPST fuel pump switch is narrower and can fit in the gap next to the nav tower better than the fatter DPST switch for the ignition). I needed to use a DPST (Double pole, single throw) switch as the ignition barrel switch turns on both the ignition system itself on one pole, but the lights and some other components with the other. In testing with the AV meter and individual switches, I found that switching the two poles separately resulted in some odd behaviour such as the fuel light coming on. To play it safe, a DPST switch does exactly the same as the ignition barrel did, so it should be fine.
I also fitted a ‘missile switch’ cover, but mounted it 180 degrees from the norm so that it’s ‘safe’ position is with the ignition turned on rather than off. As it’s spring loaded, it should stay put and protect the switch from getting turned off accidentally. I weatherproofed it with a standard rubber boot over the toggle, and used a piece of bicycle innertube on the base to protect the connectors.
