REQUEST: How to clean up slop factory wiring

[Bellagio]

Not sure if this is the place to post this but here goes... I'm absolutely hating the factory wiring on the outside of the trellis frame.  Just makes a beautiful Ducati look like a Suzuki.  I know Flight Cycles does this, but I'm Wisconsin and I work for a large financial firm (my wallet is empty... damn recession).  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[JEFF_H]

a good place to start is removing the frame wraps and zip-tie the wires together and then attach to other things inside the frame

i did this with mine...and then took it to Flight Cycles and have them do a real cleanup job 

[herm]

as jeff said, its pretty easy to get started on this. how far you take it is up to you.

i stripped my bike down to a frame, engine, and forks. then i pulled the entire wiring harness out through the triple and re-routed it so that 99.9% of the wiring was invisible. this required some separation of the wiring bundles, both to make things fit, and to find some extra slack (there is plenty).

all in all, i am happy with the job i did. and as an added plus, i got to know a lot more about my bike and how it puts together.

[Duck-Stew]

a 25 inch 6gauge battery cable will route the cable to the alternator side.

If you add a few inches (I never measure exactly...just see what I need and add it) to the rear brake lamp switch, the oil sending unit wire and the neutral warning lamp wire, you can get all three (they're in one bundle) to route nicely over the vertical head and out of the way (just loop the oil pressure sender wire forward from where it drops down by the engine breather (large round plastic thing). 

If you add about 18" of wire to the  oil temp sender (single lead going to the engine case below the clutch cover) then you get to route that wire down along the alternator side with the battery cable as described above.

After that, do what JEFF H says and you'll hit enough of a home-run to be really happy with the results.

PM me with questions but I'm not the quickest to respond....

[Bellagio]

  for all the input and help guys.  I'm pretty jacked about making her look all purtty.  My honey do list is getting the clipons squared away (STILL have to complete the controls), change the color of the gauge lighting, and do some cleanup on the cables.  That should tide me over for a bit.

[Jarvicious]

This is something I always have to remind myself on "rework" projects such as this, but try and do one thing at a time then at least start the bike, if not take it for a ride.  Nothing's worse than cutting/running/splicing/rewiring everything on your bike only to find that the ignition/guages/oil temp/starter doesn't work.  I've not had it happen on the Duc (yet ) but if you botch something it can really make troubleshooting hell on earth. 

[Raux]

This is something I always have to remind myself on "rework" projects such as this, but try and do one thing at a time then at least start the bike, if not take it for a ride.  Nothing's worse than cutting/running/splicing/rewiring everything on your bike only to find that the ignition/guages/oil temp/starter doesn't work.  I've not had it happen on the Duc (yet ) but if you botch something it can really make troubleshooting hell on earth. 

totally +1 on this one. i did the headlamps and tail lamps together one time... one of them blew the main fuse... finally found a wire that grounded in the tail lamp. one thing at a time is crucial, unless you have madskills then go for it.

[toaster]

totally +1 on this one. i did the headlamps and tail lamps together one time... one of them blew the main fuse... finally found a wire that grounded in the tail lamp. one thing at a time is crucial, unless you have madskills then go for it.

or balls of steel.  i reworked the wiring on my bike pretty serious.  the only thing in front of the steering stem is whats coming from the bars, the gauges are gone, and the switches on the bars are different (stock switches and coffin reservoirs dont fit on clip ons).  i did all my stuff at one time and just made sure to be uber careful and nothing bad happened.

[He Man]

tiem and patience. the only reason you skin things is because your running out of patience and start yanking on things.

dont forget to inspect your work before you move on to the next section.

[Spidey]

It's simple.  Just do this . . .   



I keed, I keed.

[Bellagio]

Oh, I'm not supposed to do that?  Crap... better undo all of last nights work!

[Duck-Stew]

It's simple.  Just do this . . .   



I keed, I keed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...  I got mad skillz. 

Seriously though?!?  For those that aren't as adventurous (or insane) as I am, just do it ONE WIRE AT A TIME.  Pretty hard to F things up that way.

[TAftonomos]

I'm just glad I've got a newer bike.  Not a whole lot to do re-routing items on it.  Making a lightweight harness out of raychem IS on the project list though.