It all started with the painful realization that our American DRs were not equipped with a kickstart or a manual decompressor. What it means is should the battery dies we would not be able to easily start our bikes.
And why would the battery die you might ask? Bad luck comes to mind, but also our plan to power several accessories such as GPS, heated grips and phones.
We looked into modifying the DRs wiring harnesses with the following 3 goals in mind:

1. Be able to switch off what consumes power
2. Keep a close eye on the battery’s health
3. Ensure that the accessories we need to power rely on an auxiliary, easily to disconnect, harness

Item 1. The European DRs and more specifically the SP46 shares a harness very similar to our US model, with one significant difference, the right handle switch includes a 3 positions switch (off / position / on). It plugs right in the US wiring harness. Interestingly enough the US DR does not have a front position light, but the wire to power it is still there and can advantageously be used to control a relay. More on this later.

Item 2. Was fairly easy, we researched a decent voltmeter and first landed on the Kurakyn unit. The small size, low consumption and lack of exciting alternative made the decision easy. A bit more research uncovered another cool unit sold by ADV monster, we picked one up for the Wolfmobile.

Item 3. Designing an efficient and reliable harness for our accessories proved more challenging than we initially thought. Randomly tapping into the bike harness creates the risk of overloading small wires and ultimately frying essential components. We learned about the value of using electrical relays, bought the component from Eastern Beaver, warmed up our soldering iron and got to work.

• US harness has headlight always on

Zebramobile wiring

• Heated grips are connected directly to the battery using the side stand switch
• Auxiliary harness powers headlight, cigarette socket and volmeter
• Aftermarket switch installed on the right handlebar controls the relay powering the headlight

Wolfmobile wiring

• Euro right handlebar control to turn on/off the headlight
• Auxiliary harness powers headlight, cigarette socket and volmeter
• Hi-beam switch controls hi/lo and auxiliary headlights