Admore Light Bar installation

docw1

Bill Rankin
Joined
Dec 3, 2004
Messages
1,599
Location
Muscatine, IA
Bike
2012 ST1300A
I'm installing the Admore Light Bar.


There are five leads coming from it: power, ground, brake, left and right. Anyone who has installed this--where did you tap into the wiring?

Thanks
 
The logical place is in the tail where the loom feeds the rear light cluster. The non-invasive approach would be to make up plug-and-play Y-harnesses using the appropriate connectors, one wee harness for each lamp. On the light bar's bundle of wires you'd feed each into the corresponding connector.

Or, you could cut the bundle before it goes to the cluster and add a 6-way plug and socket (e.g. the Hitachi kind, presuming one redundant connector hole) into which you could then insert your own simple 6-way Y-harness (one end feeding the cluster, the other, the light bar). If you chose to remove the light bar later then you'd just reconnect the 6-way.

Or, you could splice in extra wires directly. The nice way to do that is to warm the insulation, cut and peel it back and solder on the extra wires, then wrap with gently heat gunned electrical tape.

On my bike, the previous-but-one owner had installed a towbar, and for the lighting he had cut each of the wires to the lamps and added each additional wire by twisting the strands together and wrapping them in tape. No solder, not even Posi-taps. When he sold the bike without the towbar he just snipped those extra wires off short and left the twisted connections. After I discovered the mess I think I soldered them, and wrapped the snipped ends for later projects.
 
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Or, you could cut the bundle before it goes to the cluster and add a 6-way plug and socket (e.g. the Hitachi kind, presuming one redundant connector hole) into which you could then insert your own simple 6-way Y-harness (one end feeding the cluster, the other, the light bar). If you chose to remove the light bar later than you'd just connect the 6-way back together.
+1 on this, I have their top box kit, it comes with the disconnect. The LIN 3 I have on the fender did not and was a pain changing the tire, I finally put a Hitachi connector on so I could put the fender on the ground.

Take your time, mark your lengths with LT, RT, BL, TL, once you're done you'll think how easy it was. Getting to them may require removing some factory loom tape so you can see what you're doing.
 
When I installed mine, I used posilock taps accessing the taillight wiring under the pillion seat. If you pop out the taillight lamp holders, you will have more free wire to work with, but getting them to turn that 1/4 turn was just about beyond my hand strength. I think I might have grabbed the base of the lampholder with needle nose pliers, but this was a long time ago. Before I installed them, I put a dab of silicone paste on the rubber ring and they went in like a greased pig. As a test, I tried removing them again with my fingers - absolutely no problem.
 
I installed Admore lights to my top box.
A bit off-topic, but did you end up with a flying lead feeding power from the bike to the top box, or is there some neat sprung connector arrangement? I've often wondered if power cons could be incorporated into luggage box mounts.
 
A bit off-topic, but did you end up with a flying lead feeding power from the bike to the top box, or is there some neat sprung connector arrangement? I've often wondered if power cons could be incorporated into luggage box mounts.
I'm not exactly sure what your asking, but the lights came with a harness to tap into the bike's power. I just connected it to the bike's aforementioned wiring using posi-taps. I think it also steps down the voltage.

Actually, I think you're asking about connecting power to the box. The lights i got were for the Shad SH50:

It comes with a connector that you can mount on the box so it's a quick disconnect when you want to remove the box.
 
OK. Got it all hooked up. The brake lights look great. However, I'm having a problem with the turn signals. When I turn on the turn signal, the light bar signal switches to solid yellow and does not flash. My blinkers still work fine. Admore doesn't seem to help. Anyone have a problem like this?
 
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There are five leads coming from it: power, ground, brake, left and right. Anyone who has installed this--where did you tap into the wiring?

If I recall, I tapped into each wire based on its purpose (specifically, separate taps to each turn light, using wiring in the rear of the bike) rather than an always-on wire..

I've attached a copy of the installation instructions (*) that came with my kit, in case it helps. It says to tap into the turn signal wires individually, so that's what I must have done.

(*- I had both the Admore light bar AND the kit that installs into the lid of a GIVI V46 top case installed; these instructions seem to be for the top case kit if I'm correctly interpreting the part number at the top, but I'd presume the principle is the same.)
 

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I've got a similar project planned for this season, but specifically to install the ST2 Brake modulator on my 1300.

I'm building a pass-thru wiring harness which will also add running lights to the turn signals which involves adding an additional terminal to each of the turn signal lamp sockets (and amber/red switchback lamps).

It'll be completely plug'n'play, meaning that everything plugs into the bike's harness with OEM style connectors and removing it returns the bike to completely stock condition. Not a fan of Scotchlok or Positap connectors that pierce the insulation of the harness wires.

The 1100 is easy by comparison as all the wires to the taillamp cluster pass through a single 6-pin connector. The 1300 sprouts a bundle from the main harness to a connector for each lamp socket. meaning that the whole tail light electrical service can't be intercepted at a single point, but four at minimum - one for each turn signal and two for the tail/brake lights.
 
They look great! I first saw them at last year's WeSToc. Very eye-catching. t'll be while until I can show them off to the world.
 
It'll be completely plug'n'play, meaning that everything plugs into the bike's harness with OEM style connectors and removing it returns the bike to completely stock condition. Not a fan of Scotchlok or Positap connectors that pierce the insulation of the harness wires.

+1 If possible a photo chronicle of your progress would be welcome. I've got that module and would like to install it to a CHMSL brake light I have. I don't know if the is the Gen 1 or 2 module but I doubt that makes any difference in the wiring.

And I'd be interested to know the decelerating speed threshold at which the ST2 flashes a brake light. Years back I had one that flashed at different rates as my car or bike s-l-o-w-l-y slowed as weill as tapping the binders hard.

I think the ST2 flashes at only one rate and isn't a true deceleration warning like as defined by our CVC. It's just an "autonomous" brake light switch. But if it activates a light just by rolling off the throttle then it'll do what I want.
 
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