I'd like to be able to charge AA nickel metal hydride batteries on the motorcycle.

The battery charger I'd like to get uses 500mA - I have no idea about electrics and was wondering if a motorcycle is capable (at least while the engine is running) of taking a current draw of that size?

Advice appreciated
Grant March

(I'm thinking of using Maha batteries and charger).

I'll have a KLR and if I understand the info on Touratech USA (see their site it uses frames so navigate into "Modifications -> Elektrik" and you should see the "Accessory Socket" and "Cigarette Lighter Adapter").

500 mA (0.5 Amp) is not a lot in the world of motorbike's. You can add it to almost any available cirquit without the need of a bigger fuse.
To get a rough idea, a 50 watt headlight is about 4 or 5 Amp. (Watt / Volts = Amps)

But !!!! Don't attach a cigaret-lighter to the outlet... This take's up a lot of juice and will not light the cigaret but the electrical wire's.

Maarten

Hi Maarten,

On the same note then.. it would be ok to charge a mobile phone using the same cigarette socket?

Cheers - Spud

Hi Spud,

No problem, I gues a mobile-phone-battery-charger (nice word) take up about 300 or 400 mA. But you can alway's check, it should say on the device what it uses. As long as you keep below 1 Amp there is no problem. If you go above this it might be better to make a new lead-wire straight from the battery. Don't forget to put a 5 Amp fuse in it! (this will burn out before the wire-insulation does.)

Maarten

[This message has been edited by mmaarten (edited 05 December 2001).]

Thanks Maarten,

I may need my phone whilst away!

Cheers

I'm riding a BMW R100GS which is fitted with the standard BMW 12v accessory socket. I have made up a lead with a BMW plug (to fit said socket) at one end and a cigarette lighter socket at the other. From this I charge my mobile phone and laptop and have had no problems so far, so you should be able to run a battery charger of that ampage no probs.
Hope this helps.
Harvey www.chasingthesun.org

I fitted a 12 volt outlet onto my Honda ST1100, details and photos are at the link below.

Truth is, though, that I have found it a lot simpler and easier to just carry the wall socket charger for the phone with me, and plug it into the wall. Even if I am camping for an extended period of time, I have always found someone, somewhere who will let me plug in my phone for recharging.

Rather than going to the trouble of fitting the 12 volt socket to the bike, I would suggest you make sure you start your trip with a new battery in your mobile phone (thus ensuring you get the longest possible life between charges) and just bring along the small mains charger. Concerning your computer, I have found it to be hopeless to try and charge a computer from a motorcycle 12 volt outlet. Again, you can always find somewhere you can plug it in, even if only when you are having coffee in a restaurant somewhere.

http://www.my-mc.com/messages/1/791.html



[This message has been edited by PanEuropean (edited 28 January 2002).]

It is easy to install yourself and you can do it a lot cheaper than Touratech!

I recently installed a double (!) 12V socket (model cigarette lighter) on my Honda Transalp. Thank to lots of good advice of Maarten all worked well from the first time.

It has costed me about 1/4 of what you would pay for the Touratech gadget and about 1/6 of the original Honda socket!

It's real easy to install it yourself. I didn't know anything about electronics, but it was a short learning proces. I would advise you to install the thing yourself. If you have any trouble with it on route there is a bigger change that you can find and solve the problem yourself too.

The double 12V sockets only costed about 8 EURO. In total I spend about 13 EURO.
If anyone is interested feel free to send me an email. I will try to get pictures online asap.