battery connection woes

hi all
yesterday decided to put a optimate lead on the bike .then discovered not a lot of room is there ?. why do they put the fuse block so close to the end of the connectors.
in the battery box there is no room at all to get the fuse holder . also what a place to put all the fuses and connectors . water and crap straight over the lot . mine has mud stains and water trails all over them , cannot be long before there will be a problem ..anyone had any problems with this ? the only thing i can think of is to make a extension lead and zip wire to frame .. any ideas ?thanks r

I've got the - lead on the battery and + lead on the starter relay main feed - its easier to fit than trying to run the + down to the battery.

Yup I had the same problem and it takes forever to fit them in.

Still not to worry, the 2013 bike will have the battery and all the gubbins in a sensible place with plenty
of space for connectors and whatever you want

hi orpheus & ktmguy& jmann
thanks for the info , why did i not think of that , think i could not believe there was no room .
its ok to put the - on the battery side .. behind the headlamp cowl would be good.
thanks for the link. r

I extended my leads and placed the fuse (and the extra wire) behind the rectifier, in front of the engine. The connector is zip-tied to the middle of the "Y" engine mount on the right side.

Edit: That said, I just read the other thread that was linked into this one... I NEVER thought about using the unswitched leads behind the headlight!

hi all
plipton put this up on the link .
Hi Mate, You could have saved a lot of hassle by using the accessory wires in the headlamp cowl. There are 2 sets, one switched and one live.

ok this afternoon found some empty wires behind left side of light cowl ,anyone know what the colours are to join to.
just just fancy blowing something , 1 wire was a red&yellow .the other was brown with it . on the cable was a sticker with acci on it ..the other pair i could not quite grab .could not see those colours.

cheers r.

hi all
forgot to say ,when i took the seat off i found a white two pin connector block coming out the back light area . its goes to a v sort of shape . looks like a battery connector ???
anyone know what it is ?
cheers r

We all love the SD. But the battery access and inspection/removal is just the worst design I have ever had to deal with on any bike I've owned bike. I think that I have at least four, (maybe five) connections that have to be attached to the positive side of the battery and the access is really bad. I spent the best part of five years getting the hang of it and this was frequent because of the capacity for the battery to run flat if you left it for a week or two or were doing things like fitting electrical devices and had the ignition on without the engine running.

But I eventually fitted some wires to plug in the Optimate and since then I've never had to remove the battery. Almost one of the best mods I've ever done to this bike!!

Every time I ever get the belly pan off I just dose the whole area with ACF50 and pray that the grime and water can't get into all those wires, plugs and whatnot. I'm all for mass centralisation etc. but when they decided to put all that stuff down there I don't see why they didn't design a waterproof box that protected it from all the water, salt and crap kicked up by the front wheel. Maybe they tried but the heat from the front header made it impossible.

hi
i see that the bike only comes with a 6 month warranty on the battery. the twins have never been good with batterys , so why don't they just fit a more powerfull one in the first place ..
out of interest .how long does a battery last on sd if used a lot .. i know from having aprilia and ducatis &bmw it won't be long before hands in pocket again .
i have also learnt the a tickle charger will save the day more often than not . try to bump start a twin is for the brave only .
cheers r

I swear by battery trickle chargers. In one of my SD's I've got a gel battery that had been left in the bike with the ignition on for
several weeks. Believe it or not it recharged and hasn't given me any trouble in the last six months but I always plug them in
when I come home. I would think that whatever type of battery you choose a trickle charger is a good investment. Especially
given that I've never been able to bump start a SD even though I live on a hill.

Regarding the battery box: Shit happens but sometimes it is predictable. Those connectors are going to give trouble sometime.
For mine, I covered the cables and connectors with lengths of bicycle inner-tube to keep stuff out. It works.