This project’s firmly in the category “looks like hell, but it works.”

My post on wiring up a Gerbing’s Permanent Dual Temperature Controller left out a crucial part: mounting the temperature switches to the handlebars. This, naturally, is the eternal question for naked bike owners, who lack fancy fairings to mount things like switches upon. Various ideas were bandied about. Radio Shack project box? Out; not waterproof. Zipties and a plastic bag? Out; too tacky. $120 chrome switch mount from a ‘merican motorcycle company that shall not be named? Out; too ostentatious. Then one night, as I was drifting off to sleep, an epiphany struck. Born out of equal parts desperation and sheer stubbornness, this project’s firmly in the category “looks like hell, but it works.”

The Gerbing’s controller includes two rotary switches. The individual switches are mounted on sealed PCB boards measuring 3/4″ x 1″, with a small indicator LED attached and 6″ of thick wire leading to a mini-DIN connector.

This awkward switch configuration is the root of the problem. I needed an enclosure that was big enough to fit both switches and their attached PCB boards, was watertight, and was easily mounted to the handlebars. I suppose I could have ordered a fancy watertight project enclosure from Mouser, but what’s the fun in paying $25 and waiting for UPS when you can have instant gratification for cheap?

My epiphany took the form of a PVC electrical conduit box.

The 1/2″ box was easily big enough to fit both switches with room to spare. The lid has a gasket to keep water out while the port opposite the lid is big enough for the mini-DIN connectors to pass through. The port on the side of the box offered some intriguing possibilities for handlebar mounting via the unused mirror mount hole on the clutch perch.

Here’s a rough example of the switch placement inside the box:

I took the lid and measured out where I wanted the switch knob holes and matching LED indicator holes. My new centerpunch made the drilling easy. Then, I took some black spray paint and painted the box and the lid to pretty things up a little:

Next up was figuring out a way to attach this beast to my mirror mount. I settled on a bracket made out of some aluminum bar stock I had laying around. One end of the bracket would fit inside the open port on the conduit box while the other would bolt to the mirror hole. Here’s a shot of the hardware on the conduit box side of things:

If you look closely at the picture, you can see the hole I drilled through the conduit box. This hole matches up with the hole at the end of the bar stock. Here’s the finished bracket, cut and drilled for the mirror mount:

Yep, the bigger hole is way off-center. My drilling fu is weak. Here’s a shot of the bracket attached to the conduit box:

The smaller bolt runs through the conduit, through the bracket and through some washers, where it’s finally secured with a nut. This is what the bracket looks like with everything put together:

That big bolt is a M10-1.25. I couldn’t find a bolt short enough to avoid bottoming out in the mirror mount, so I shimmed the bracket with two washers.

By this time, the paint was dry enough to put the switches into the box. Unfortunately, my camera crapped out so I don’t have pictures of the process. First, I fed the mini-DIN connectors out through the rear port, then I arranged the switches in their proper holes in the lid. I used a dab of silicone sealer to seal the holes around the LEDs before I pushed them into their respective holes. Finally, I pulled the wires to remove the extra slack, set the lid in place, and tightened the screws.

And here’s the finished switch mount:

Once the mount was finished, I hooked up the mini-DIN connectors and heat-shrunk the connections. Due to a prior screw-up on my part, the heat-shrink is too short; I’ll need to buy more and re-do them correctly soon.

The final step was to seal all the exposed gaps with silicone sealer.

I found the conduit box at Home Depot for $2.75. The mounting bracket bolts, washers, and nuts were also bought at Home Depot for a couple of dollars. The total cost for this project was less than $5. Not too bad. Anyway, this switch mount might be ugly, but it makes a nice symmetry with the master cylinder!

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Tagged as: gerbings, handlebar, Motorcycling, mount, SV650, switch, water, waterproof, watertight