Accessories vs Capacity

[knuckledonkey]

I currently have a Zumo 550 wired to my battery.

I would like to consider some heated clothing.

I am a little wary of connecting too many accessories to my battery as I don't want to damage any part of my electrical system.

Can someone provide the basic rules and things to consider before I do this?

Thanks!  

[knuckledonkey]

And, of course, as soon as I post, I find my answer:

http://www.powerlet.com/learningCenter/excessCapacity

Of course, I would still like your feedback.

[Cablebandit]

Figure out how many watts your bike generates.  Subtract what it needs to run (lights, etc).  The remaining number is the amount of juice you have to spare.  Your GPS draws so little it's not even worth mentioning by itself.

[Rincewind]

Per the linked article, your Ninja 1k produces 336W @ 5000 rpm.  This means you should really assess your normal running watts carefully before selecting heated clothing articles as some jacket liners alone may exceed your charging capacity.  A heated vest may be ok.  The Zumo is around 0.6-amps, or 7.2-watts.


http://mcnews.com/mcn/model_eval/2011JanNinja1000.pdf

[Cablebandit]

One other thing to note, especially on liter bikes.  The watts at 5k RPM is a bit of a joke.  Especially if you're planning an extended trip in 6th gear.  You'll be in left-hand lane on the autobahn speeds at that point.

[ConPilot1]

Shit man I've run my Zumo, Gerbings liner and gloves, high beam, and two 55w driving lights at the same time.

[Rincewind]

Shit man I've run my Zumo, Gerbings liner and gloves, high beam, and two 55w driving lights at the same time.

You have a different bike with a higher charging capacity.

[ST1300Rider]

Per the linked article, your Ninja 1k produces 336W @ 5000 rpm.  This means you should really assess your normal running watts carefully before selecting heated clothing articles as some jacket liners alone may exceed your charging capacity.  

A jacket liner runs about 75 to 80 watts as per Gerbing's website. Less than 7 amps. Gloves about 1/2 that or less.

[mugwump58]

I'm not that well educated and have never really gotten too many good answers to what bikes actually put out at various rpm so... What I do is hook everthing up and start taking readings at the battery at varying rpms and various heat controller settings, then I know.

[Justin]

One other thing to note, especially on liter bikes.  The watts at 5k RPM is a bit of a joke.  Especially if you're planning an extended trip in 6th gear.  You'll be in left-hand lane on the autobahn speeds at that point.

You can always downshift as well  

If it is really cold, and I need to run my heated liner/gloves at full, and run the aux lights, then I will run in 5th to keep the RPM's up.

[zer0netgain]

Most aftermarket power blocks you can install for easy wiring of additional circuits will tell you to not exceed 30A total load.

On larger bikes, I see that as the upper limit of what the bike will handle before you need to worry.

The GPS pretty much sips power.  Heated grips use more as does heated gear, and even those are designed to not tax the capacity of a 250 cc bike.