Honda ST1300A/electrical

Honda ST1300 Electrical wiring diagram (colored)

Battery

Fully charged battery: 13.0 - 13.2V Under charged battery: < 12.3V

Customizations

It should be noted that installing any electronics inside the glove boxes is probably a bad idea!! It gets too hot inside there and electronics will not operate properly and could even fail. There is an excellent article on the ST-Owners forum that shows how to install a power outlet into the fairing space just outside the right-hand glove box.

Battery Tender

I have a Battery Charger Lead (SAE) on the right side of the bike directly attached to the battery terminals. (The battery is located on the right side of the bike, below the seat.) This makes it simple to attach a battery tender during bike storage. The charger lead is also fused (10amp) inline. Technically speaking, the lead could be used for any purpose - like running a wire up my jacket into a phone in my pocket or something. I just haven't come up with anything that I need or want to do with that wire except charge the battery. When not in use, I keep the wire tucked into the right side of the bike frame and it has a rubber boot to keep it dry.

Quartet Harness

I discovered that I also have the 'Quartet Accessory Wire Harness' (Part No Honda 08A30 MCS 100) Although there's a link on Amazon, it is unavailable for purchase there.

Quartet Harness Installation instructions can be found on the ST-Owners forum with a photocopy of the original 4-page install instructions too. (Those are linked from this forum post but without comment, and the whole thread is pretty content-free.)

See Also: the ST-Owners farkle wiring guide

New Stuff / Old Stuff

Trying to figure out what wiring was already done (and removed!).

Glove Box (right side)

There is one hole in the glove box - plugged with a rubber grommet. It appears that this hole contained a cigarette lighter style power plug at one point - because I found a broken one abandoned inside the fairing! The hole/grommet is about an inch or so in diameter.

Locked Box (left side)

There are three holes cut into the locked compartment. The 1 1/4" bottom hole is sealed with duct tape. There are two more holes fore and aft at the top of the compartment.

Maybe I should get this $20 "Quartet" simplified harness from Eastern Beaver. It is made to simply connect to the existing wiring harness' "accessory" connector (located under the left side front cowl) and provides two outputs: a switched and an unswitched. Mating connectors and terminals are included so you can wire up whatever you want. See the ST1300 - Quartet Harness Farkle Wiring Guide article on ST-Owners. This connector is already present, and unused - mated to the Quartet harness. I may be wired incorrectly? I need to re-check the voltage at the head end.

If I ever decide to put power in the rear of the bike (e.g. top box, saddlebags), Eastern Beaver sells a wiring harness for that: ST1300 PC-8R Fuse Panel

Electrical Connection used to sell connector parts, but as of this writing 2024, they only offer a cigarette lighter power plug for the ST-1300 https://electricalconnection.com/index.php/brand/honda/st1300/ This looks exactly like the broken / abandoned one I found inside the fairing on my bike.

Excess Electrical Capacity

Excess Electrical Capacity (EEC) is the amount of excess electrical power your vehicle has in reserve to power additional devices (appliances) without draining the vehicle battery. This number varies widely depending on the manufacturer, model and sometimes model year of the vehicle. Excess Electrical Capacity is defined as (Excess Electrical Capacity) = (charging output) - (common operating load).

From section 19 Battery/Charging System in the service manual, my alternator is rated at 0.742kW/5,000 rpm In other words, the bike will generate 742 watts at highway revs.

Honda ST1300

Peak Charging Output	- Common Operating Load	= Excess Electrical Capacity
740 watts	??	??
low RPMs	with heated grips on high	?? less
740 watts	savings from LED headlights	?? more

I only want to power a phone (3 watts), GPS (6 watts), and maybe a music player (3 watts), so there will be plenty of excess capacity. However, some things like heated garments or lights draw a lot of power. If you want to have your laptop computer charging in the trunk while riding, it could draw 100 watts - so know what load you are adding to the system and how much capacity you have so that you don't drain your battery while riding.

Outlets

Today's electronics (phone, GPS) typically charge off USB type A or type C connectors. You can purchase a charging receptacle with wiring to connect directly to your battery. Most have an inline SAE connection.

Cigarette Lighter

Officially termed the Automotive Accessory Receptacle, back in "the old days", every car had a cigarette lighter. You push in the lighter, it gets glowing red hot inside and pops out like toast from a toaster. This would allow you to light up your cancer sticks while driving without causing a fire (even before the disposable cigarette lighter). All sorts of things from inflators to CB radios or radar detectors ran off the cigarette lighter adapter. This is obviously old technology in 2024. People still sell them, and gadgets that use them. But, since they are fairly bulky, most new products do not use this form factor for a power supply.

PowerLet

One of the 'standard' (widely used) power adapter formats besides Cigarette Lighter and SAE is the 'PowerLet'. PowerLet is the common brand name for ISO 4165. (Other common brands include 'Hella plug' or 'BMW DIN plug'). It is shorter and smaller diameter than the "Cigarette Lighter".

PowerLet is a company that offers a range of products - including products for the ST1300 https://www.powerlet.com/shop-by-vehicle/honda/2006/honda-st1300-pan-european-2002-2007/10/378

It is possible to fit a PowerLet just below the glove box of the ST1300. See these excellent photos on the ST Owners forums

One item I might want to get is the dual outlet Honda ST1300 Dual Rear Kit PKT-028 from PowerLet that mounts under the rear suspension pretension adjuster (so left side of the bike). This would offer power for both riders. But, it is not available any more and a coax power supply would probably be better anyway.

Bavarian Motor Works = German car company

coaxial cable