Shop day - louder horn, Admore tail lights and inside led's for top case

TN_Sooner

Member
Hey guys - took the BMW to my buddy's barn (Oldasdirt from ModernVespa.com fame) yesterday for some mods to the bike. OAD is a long time Piaggio guy and has a big barn full of tools and the knowledge to use them. Below, when I refer to "we", what that means is OAD doing the work and me holding the flashlight or just sitting on my duff watching!

Project 1 - as we all know, our stock horns are pretty worthless on the road. Many have gone the Stebel route. I found an option that I used on my Piaggios to good effect that is pretty easy to install - PIAA Sport Horns(link below). This a "plug and play" option, just wiring off your stock horn (though we wound up doing a bit more than plug and play, which I'll share below). This horn is a good bit louder than stock, but not as loud as a full Stebel. Link:

http://www.amazon.com/85112-115db-500HZ-600HZ-Sports/dp/B00079V5ZI

Project 2 - Admore Tail Lights - I have installed Admore tail lights (running, brake and blinker) in my Givi E55 top case. I use the top case on all 3 bikes, so I needed to install the Admore harness on the BMW. In the process of figuring this mod out, we discovered an additional "hot" accessory wire, which I haven't seen anyone post on yet - read on for my find!

E55 Top Case - LED Kit (TS)

Project 3 - power to interior lights in my top case - I have a string of white LED's inside my top case, controlled by a simple switch, so I need a hot wire to the top case. Preference was a hot all the time wire. The LED's are nothing elaborate - just a string around the top of the case adhesives to the roof of the top case.
 
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TN_Sooner

Member
Upgrade stock horns - PIAA dual Sport horns - PIAA offers several options for a sport horn - they sell individual 400, 500 or 600 HZ horns, as well as kits that link a couple of the horns. I bought the combo kit with a 500 and 600 HZ horn - here is what the kit looks like:

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We decided to pull the front panels off on both sides to explore places to place the horns, better access to wiring, etc. As most probably know, but I haven't seen it summarized anywhere, panel removal:

Front Top - several screws - once all removed, the panel lifts up off the tabs connecting it to the lower panels - don't for get the screw at the front corner of the panel and the screw behind the glove box doors.

Front bottom - several screws, including two hidden underneath the tread on foot rest and the one from underneath. Also, several "center pin" automotive mounts to the interior "mud flap" like thingy - to remove these, you pry up the pin in the center of the fastener and then you can remove the fastener.

We found a spot for one horn on the right side, just above the radiator fill cap. On this side, we wound up just "zip tying" the horn to the frame of the bike - becomes a maintenance check item - check it when you are inside the panel for anything.

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On the left side, we wound up attaching to the same point as the existing stock horn - first we rotated the stock horn down 180 degrees, and then placed the PIAA horn in roughly the same spot as the stock horn. We had to bend a finagle the mounting hardware on both horns to make things fit nicely into the panel space.

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I'm going to start a new post to talk about the wiring choices.
 

TN_Sooner

Member
Wiring - you have several options here - on both of my Piaggio's, we simply removed the existing stock horns and used the existing horn wire to wire the Piaggio horns - hot and ground. Pretty simple.

On the BMW, we noted one of the problems with the existing horn (and with our selected locations for the PIAA horns) - they are tucked into the panels and thus their end result to those we want to inform is muffled. We decided to try to use all three horns - more has to be louder, right? We started by tapping the wires to the stock horn and wiring the other horns that way. However, we noted while doing this that our wire got a bit hot - decided this wasn't a good solution. So, we used a standard 4 post relay switch (about $7 at any auto supply). Ran a fused (7.5 amp) hot wire directly from the battery and used our tap of the horn wire as a the trigger relay - so the new horns draw their power directly from the battery, but that power is switched to the horn button - only hot when the horn button is pressed. Here's a couple of picture of the relay:

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Sorry that I don't have better pictures here. We tucked the relay into a small "cubby hole" just above the battery - another thing to check when the front covers are off.
 

TN_Sooner

Member
So that is the horn project in summary. I don't know how to tell you how much louder the new horn is. However, I ride using molded in-ear music plugs (like Beyonce, except I have only average speakers inside mine!). I tune the iPod at about 1/3 volume - roughly the same I use when I listen off the bike. I can still hear some road noise and emergency sirens. I think this environment is very similar to the average cager driving down the road, listening to music or talking on the phone, with the AC blasting and windows up.

I could NOT hear my stock horn under this set up - not at 10 MPH and certainly not at 40-50 MPH. With the PIAA mod, I can now hear the horn at speeds upwards to 65 or so - could not hear it at 75 on the Interstate.

As good as a Stebel? No, probably not. But a nice price option and easy to install.
 

TN_Sooner

Member
Now onto the Admore Harness

So the Admore Harness is sold separately from Admore and allows you to move your top case from bike to bike and simply connect the wiring harness to the top case. I know others here have accessed the rear tail light wiring harness underneath the right side rear panel - when we looked at this option, we couldn't find a "clean" way to get the Admore wiring harness to the preexisting female outlet on my Topcase - which is on the high left side of the top case. If you are doing this for the first time, you might be able to avoid extra work by mounting your femail outlet on the right side of your top case.

So, in our search, we wanted access to the rear brake light panel as well as the right side panels. Of course, you have to remove both side panels.

Rear side panel removal - should be simple - three torx inside the "pet carrier" (for those not familiar, Piaggios are covered with warning stickers, including some warning not to use the underseat storage as a pet carrier (seriously)). However, the front most of these screws is (a) hard to get a driver on and (b) stubborn. Once we got the panel off, we discovered why and quickly remedied this "problem" using a speed clip with a Phillips head screw. BMW used speed clips on the other 2 screws here, why they choose one of those paininthebutt automotive type push dohickies is beyond me. So, picture of our mini mod, showing the speed clip and the fastener that it replaces:

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I know it is simple, but this made removal and attachment of the panels much easier. We had speed clips on hand (they are everywhere on the Piaggios and its good to have some around) and found screws that fit.
 
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TN_Sooner

Member
Removal of the rear light case is a bit more involved and I didn't take very good notes. There are 2 torx on either side that are hidden by the sides of the side panels, which is why you have remove them. You'll also have to remove the grab rails (simple - four torx bolts) and the BMW emblem which hides a screw (my emblem was already gone due to installation of the Givi mount). Then a couple of center pin fasteners. You'll also have to pull off the plastic on the license plate holder (see below) to get access to final pieces to remove the rear light panel. Disconnect the panel from the wiring harness (right side of the bike), undo the zip tied line and you can now remove the entire rear tail light section.

Removal of the plastic license plate - three torx behind the license plate, plus 2 more fasteners underneath the plastic (holding this piece to the rear tail assembly).

Now - the bonus - removal of these rear pieces reveals an additional "hot" accessory plug - this plug is hot when the key is one and is available to wire anything hot that you desire. I think everyone knows about the accessory plug under the handlebar panel, but this was a new one to me). I don't have a great picture, but here you go:

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While we were in this area, we tapped a couple of wires to the taillight - we plan to add some LED running lights around the license plate area some day.
 
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TN_Sooner

Member
Continuing with the Admore harness install, once we got everything apart, we were able to find the right places to rig the wires and were able to run the Admore harness wire up through the rear tail assembly without drilling any plastics or into the bike panels. We did wind up shaving a small channel for one of the wires.

We spliced into the bike wiring harness at the point the harness splits off to the various lights (brakes, running and turn signals). Admore nicely provides the ever so wonderful Positaps, which makes the wiring a dream - unscrew one end of the Positap and insert the bike wire into the slot and then screw the cap back down. Then, unscrew the other end, run the hollow "cap" through the Admore wire and extend the Admore wire into the chamber and screw it back together - if you do any wiring of this sort at all, Positaps are a great way to do it - hard to source locally, but all over the internets.

Heres a couple of pictures - shows the Positaps in position to receive the Admore Harness:

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Here is the connected device - OAD is holding the bike wiring in his left hand - you can see the wires extending from the tops of the Positaps and most of the Admore harness - OAD is suspending this rectangular shaped bulbous thing, which is the "intelligence" part of the Admore Harness and the LED booster thingy - sorry for the technical terms...

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TN_Sooner

Member
To complete the Admore, we were able to feed the wire up through the rectangular hole underneath the grab bar torx connectors - I will show you pictures later in the section on the wiring my top case interior lights, because that creates another wire up "out of the bike" and we ran them similarly.
 

TN_Sooner

Member
On to interior Top Case lights

So, my top case has lights inside - just a string of white LED's around the top of the case. Switch to turn them on and off, so you prefer a "hot all the time" connection. As noted above, we discovered the hot all the time accessory plug under the plastic cover for the license plate.

We hijacked the Givi quick connect, used to connect the Givi accessory top case brake and running lights (junk - not LED, not bright, no turn signals - don't buy - thats why I'm using Admores!). You have to install contacts into the bottom of the top case and run the wires to LED lights that you chose - I (oops - again, OAD!) did this several years ago, so I don't have any pictures - sorry about that). Then you buy the Givi wiring harness and drill a hole into your Givie mounting plate, insert the "male" end of the wiring harness and then to the hot all the time wire.

Here's a shot that shows the Givi harness wired to socket accessory and the "business" end of the Give - that small disc with contacts goes into the hole you drill in your Givi base plate.

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Feed the wires up through the tail assembly and out the rectangular hole:

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You can see the 2 wires fed from the tail assembly and the rectangular area I'm talking about - sorry, not the best picture. No drilling here - just a slight bit of plastic carving to create a channel to avoid crimping the Admore wire - the Givi wire is not thick enough to worry about.
 

TN_Sooner

Member
A few final pictures that I just took, which I think will help you see some of what I've done.

ADmore Harness connector to the Top case - its a plug that inserts into the female receiver added to the top case.

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Here is the best shot I can manage - shows the effect of the LED lights in the top case

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Simple switch mounded near top case latch - controls the LED's

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LED strip - one of 3-4 in top case:

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Finally, the Givi connector built into the mounting plate.

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TN_Sooner

Member
Well, I'm exhausted! If you've read this far, you probably are too. I just thought I would share my experiences. if you have specific questions about the install, I'm glad to try to help you out and OAD is about as great a guy as you ask for and I'm sure I can get him to help respond to questions about anything we've done here.

While we were noodling around, we decided to install another mod, which we (and several others) have done to our Piaggios - rig a steel wire to the latch of the seat, allowing you to open the seat without a key. I live in constant fear of locking my seat with keys in it! Picture of wire connected to the latch:

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Just give it a little tug, and your latch is opened. Now, the trick is to figure out where you want the other end of the steel wire - needs to be a place you can access, but not obvious or people might see it and tug on it. And, I'm not going to tell you where I ran mine! I trust all of you, but this is the internets! If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you more information!

Hope this helps some of you!
 

Spdrush

New member
Hella horns are possibly a good option also. I replaced the beep beep horn on my Subaru STi with a Hella set. Big difference.
 

wsteele

New member
I know of AOD from the MP 3 site (Piaggio ) he does come up with good fixes to problems I also own a MP 3 500
 

justscootin

Member
I like this modification for one reason and it is not to open the seat if the key is locked under it. If you lock the key under the seat most of us have already hidden a spare key under the plastic somewhere just in case we were to lose a key at a rally for example.
This is a great modification if the cable was to break. You would never get under the seat to replace the cable. The dealer would not get under the seat either.

While we were noodling around, we decided to install another mod, which we (and several others) have done to our Piaggios - rig a steel wire to the latch of the seat, allowing you to open the seat without a key. I live in constant fear of locking my seat with keys in it! Picture of wire connected to the latch:

View attachment 747

Hope this helps some of you!
 
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