DIY: ABS switch for motorcycle

Tonight, contemplating on the 8th of March 2016 events, I decided to make myself an ABS switch. Although I made it for my 650 V-Strom, same principle can be applied to any.

I love my ABS so I will not switch it on/off pretty often. I will do it only when going off road / fire trails / gravel / etc. Because of that, I wanted a solution that would be temporary, not to be fiddled with by mistake whilst on the road, and that can leave the ABS off even after turning off/on the engine.

I decided to mount a on/off (not toggle) switch under the seat as this would make it easy  to install and not easily accessible or tempered with.

It took me around 30 minutes to make it. If I would do it again, I think I can cut it down to 10.

Items needed:

  • strip pliers
  • any large (normal) fuse
  • a switch
  • fuse holder
  • shrinking tube (not shown here)
    • you can also add as I did, insulated wire terminal (crimp)

Items needed

 

Remove the plastic from the fuse. You’ll end up something like this:

 

removed plastic

 

Add the fuse ends to the wire and insulate it withe the shrinking tube. Be careful don’t make the tube to long or you will have problems later when mounting on the bike. Do this process for both wires.

adding the fuse ends

 

Seal the other ends to the switch and you should be ready to go.

It should look like the image below. Unfortunately the image below is an image from the first trial so the ends don’t look like they are now on the bike, but it should look very similar.

 

final mount

 

Add the switch to the bike and tie it up with a zip tie or whatever works for you.

 

added to the bike

ABS Switch mounted
ABS Switch mounted

 

I’ve tested the setup, works flawlessly.

Total cost: $2

Posted in DIY

11 thoughts on “DIY: ABS switch for motorcycle”

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    1. Tim Whitten is half right. However, the scenario he’s thinking of is the background to ”, where an economic collapse called ‘the Great Chaos’ was caused by under-damped and over-reactive stock management systems, and a coicnnimatmous logjam. It led to a rather glummer and more regimented society than previously.

  2. Thanks Julian, this looks amazing!
    I did read you other post on this subject but it looks to complicated for me (since I am an idiot in electricity :)) so I wander if I could do the same thing like in this post but use “longer” wires so I can put the switch somewhere on handlebar or at least somewhere near the hads. I’ll try to understand other post anyway and apply that mumbo-jumbo 🙂 to my Tenere XT660ZA.
    Otherwise, it seems you have excellent content here! I can’t wait to read other posts :).
    On more thanks!
    BR
    Perica

    1. I’m learning as I go as well.

      I was thinking of doing the same, longer cables to the handlebar. Should work, as long as your cables are rated 15A minimum. Buy them from the local auto shop.

  3. HI, this looks pretty simple, Im sure it works fine, but I just want to switch off the rear, Is this what you are doing here?
    Thanks, Kirk

    1. Shuts off both of them. Would be nice if the rear would be separate.

  4. Hello,

    Please tell me, what year is you bike?

    Greetings from Holland,

    Dylan.

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