Poorman's alarm system

I realize there are alarm systems out there for bikes, but didn't like anything I saw (or I just couldn't afford what I saw). So I came up with this idea. Granted, it is not perfect and by no means is it going to stop a thief from ripping your bike, but it does offer me a little peace of mind in that it accomplishes one thing. It makes some noise to attract attention.

Let's say I park my bike outside my house or anywhere that it's not in my sight. Now some dirtbag comes along and decides to take it. What are they going to do first? More than likely they will grab the handlebars, flip up the kickstand and start rolling the bike away. With my poorman system the alarm goes off when the kickstand is flipped up. The thief does one of two things: he drops the bike and runs, or he is smart enough to realize the kickstand set off the alarm and puts it back down. If nobody comes to investigate the noise he can still roll the bike with the stand down, but have you ever tried to run along side of your bike with the stand down? Not easy without tripping. Sure, he can still steal my bike, and it's not a foolproof system by any means. It only keeps honest people honest. If someone wants your bike bad enough, no locks, cables or alarm system is going to stop them. Worse case is he rips my bike and my insurance buys me a new one. Least case is he drops the bike and runs, and I get to keep my bike and only have to buy a new clutch lever or whatever got broke from the fall.

So if anyone is interested, here is what I did...

First thing you need to do (if you haven't already) is to bypass the stock kickstand switch. Unplug it under the seat and splice the two wires together on the engine harness side. Now this frees up the kickstand switch wires to be used to activate the alarm. One of my goals of this install was to not use the battery on the bike for the alarm so it wouldn't get drained in the event of a short circuit or prolonged sounding of the alarm buzzer. So I got a 9 volt battery and made a small case for it out of an old beer coozie (neoprene material). Went to Radio Shack and bought a 9 volt snap on battery holder to clip on top of the battery and encased it in my homemade battery case...



Next you need some sort of buzzer or horn. I used a Yamaha marine warning buzzer, but you could use just about anything that makes a loud noise. The Yamaha buzzer is a piezo electric horn with a very high pitch sound like a smoke detector would make. It also has a built in mounting bracket that fit rather nicely where the vacuum canister used to be for the flapper on the airbox.




Here it is mounted...



I mounted the 9 volt battery pack under the wiring plug for the ECU. It is very secure there and will not move around.



The next step is to mount your "secret switch" so you can flip the kickstand up without tripping the alarm. You can use just about any switch you like and mount it where ever you want. I used a Yamaha marine kill switch because it is waterproof and has the removable clip. The switch fits very nice into the DRC taillight bracket on the right side without drilling any holes...



Here is the switch with the clip installed. This would be normal running postion (alarm deactivated)...



Now, when you leave the bike and want to set the alarm, just pop off the clip and put it in your pocket. Here is the switch with the clip removed (alarm activated)...


Wiring the system is simple. The positive wire from the buzzer goes straight to the positive wire of the 9 volt battery pack (fuse is optional). The negative wire from the buzzer goes to one of the kickstand switch wires. Then take the other kickstand switch wire and run it to one of the terminals of your "secret switch". Run the other terminal of your secret switch back to the negative wire of the 9 volt battery pack and your done.

You could use the battery on the bike if you like. The buzzer would even be louder with a 12 volt battery, but like I said, I didn't want to run down the bike battery is something happened. The buzzer is plenty loud enough with the 9 volt battery. Think of the sound a smoke detector makes, and that is how loud it is. Smoke detectors use 9 volt batteries. Come to think of it, you could just buy a smoke detector and gut it to make one of these alarms.

Here is the finished product all tucked away nice and neat under the seat...

Mark, What dealership dp you work at?

wow. I thought you were Canadian and I thought, DAMN! I need to take back all the shit I have said about Canadians, then I saw that you are in FL. Still an amazing idea! No offense Shewolf, its just that after Bryan Adams, Canadians deserve a hard time

boogn1sh wrote:

wow. I thought you were Canadian and I thought, DAMN! I need to take back all the shit I have said about Canadians, then I saw that you are in FL. Still an amazing idea! No offense Shewolf, its just that after Bryan Adams, Canadians deserve a hard time

I've never even been to Canada, but that's a big 10-4 on Bryan Adams.

INSTIGATOR wrote:

Mark, What dealership dp you work at?

I'm at Caribee in Islamorada. Come on down and buy a boat. We need the business!

LOL...I'm at Ocean Reef...

Nice mod Mark! What's in that pouch?

SheWolf wrote:

Nice mod Mark! What's in that pouch?

tool pouch?

I see dust

mtb wrote:

SheWolf wrote:

Nice mod Mark! What's in that pouch?

tool pouch?

I see dust

Tool pouch = yes

dust = yes

You got me mtb!

I took the pouch out of the stock tool kit box and put it under the seat. Frees up the toolbox hanger for a fuel bottle (future mod). I keep a wrench in my tailbag to access under the seat if I ever need the other tools.

INSTIGATOR wrote:

LOL...I'm at Ocean Reef...

You work there, or live there?

Just a little update to this mod. I have found that the Yamaha buzzer is not as loud as I would like. Once I got it outside and tested it, the noise wasn't as loud as I would like. I am thinking of hooking it up to the bike battery, since this buzzer is really for 12 volts. Maybe a 9 volt buzzer from a smoke detector would be louder with the 9 volt battery I have. More experimenting is needed. I'll post up any changes when I figure it out. I also thought of hooking to the stock horn on the bike, but that would wear the battery down quick. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions on improvments?

I work for MarineMax as a tech. I think an ignition kill with buzzer would be pretty cool.

INSTIGATOR wrote:

I work for MarineMax as a tech. I think an ignition kill with buzzer would be pretty cool.

No shit. Small world huh? That's cool. I'll have to stop in and see you next time I'm doing a service call up there. We have a lot of customers at the Reef.

I'm going to try the 9 volt smoke detector buzzer tonight. I think the Yamaha 12 volt buzzer is too weak sounding when powered by the 9 volt battery. Let you all know how it goes later....

mwakey wrote:

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions on improvments?

Consider using an automotive "Heavy Duty" flasher in series with stock horn. This will cycle horn on and off, using about 1/2 the electricity - Plus it is more attention getting than always on, and makes overheating the horn less likely. Horn probably doesn't draw all that much current - easy to check with an ammeter.

BTW I personally would not disconnect the kick stand switch. I left mine down once in 1972, took off into a left-hand sweeper, ended up with a ruptured kidney - hard earned lesson that riding after a night of substance abuse is risky.

BluePill wrote:

mwakey wrote:

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions on improvments?

Consider using an automotive "Heavy Duty" flasher in series with stock horn. This will cycle horn on and off, using about 1/2 the electricity - Plus it is more attention getting than always on, and makes overheating the horn less likely. Horn probably doesn't draw all that much current - easy to check with an ammeter.

BTW I personally would not disconnect the kick stand switch. I left mine down once in 1972, took off into a left-hand sweeper, ended up with a ruptured kidney - hard earned lesson that riding after a night of substance abuse is risky.

Interesting idea. I like it. I'll have to check the amp draw on the horn.

I tore apart an old smoke detector tonight and the buzzer inside is not going to work the way it's made. Not sure how modern detectors are made but this one had a cheap plastic wafer thing inside and no way to adapt it to my project without a lot of work. I would really like to avoid using the bike battery and keep the 9 volt battery pack for the alarm. But I have a feeling I will end up using the 12 volt battery on the bike afterall. I like your idea of using the flasher to attract more attention.

I also understand your concern about disconnecting the kickstand switch. I am not promoting anyone to do anything they feel is unsafe and I am not planning on selling these things. It's just a simple way to activate the system and I have noticed from reading the forums that a lot of people have removed their kickstand switch all together, so this would be a way to reinstall it and use it for something else. You have to agree your unfortunate situation was a rare one and as you said yourself, was the result of DUI. It is my personal decision to disconnect the kickstand and I will have to live with the results if something like that happens. Hey, you don't have to be drunk to forget the kickstand, but my X is lowered so much it barely leans over on the stand, so I don't think it would be an issue with me personally, because as soon as I sit on the bike and start to go forward, the stand pratically goes up by itself.

I decided to try the buzzer connected to the 12 volt battery in the bike, and it was only a wee bit louder, so I have gone back to the 9 volt battery pack I made. And I relocated the buzzer to get it out from under the seat. It is a little louder where I have it now. I think I will leave it as is. The heavy duty flasher is still a good idea, but it is another small doo-dad that I would have to cram into an already cramped area.

Mark, do you have the EXUP servo moto removed?

try to mount the buzzer there might help to increase the sound volume

That's where he stores his can of safety beer.

mtb wrote:

Mark, do you have the EXUP servo moto removed?

try to mount the buzzer there might help to increase the sound volume

No, the servo is still there but it's disabled. I mounted the buzzer to one of the servo mounting bolts. See pic above.

SheWolf wrote:

That's where he stores his can of safety beer.

Ya, but only until I get the mini-fridge mounts for my tail rack.

Mark, I saw you today

Ya, that was me. I'd offer you a cold one, but they are almost gone. It's Friday night ya know.

mwakey wrote:

Ya, but only until I get the mini-fridge mounts for my tail rack.

How about just hooking it up to the horn, or have you already removed that?
Granted, a thief could disable the horn, but they would have to know about it first. If they only discovered the issue at time of attempted theft, they would likely just book out.

As for the kick-stand switch, a person could use it for this project and for the intended use through the use of an interposing relay.

ZED wrote:

How about just hooking it up to the horn, or have you already removed that?
Granted, a thief could disable the horn, but they would have to know about it first. If they only discovered the issue at time of attempted theft, they would likely just book out.

As for the kick-stand switch, a person could use it for this project and for the intended use through the use of an interposing relay.

I didn't want to use the horn since it's 12 volt and I was trying to keep the alarm seperate from the bikes electrics by using the 9 volt battery. The horn would be good and loud if someone wanted to use my system for that. As for the using the kickstand switch for both, it could be done like you said, but I'm trying to keep it simple. More black boxes, relays, etc.. under the seat or where ever is just too much for this little bike. Not enough good places to mount stuff where it's out of the elements. If I start getting too complicated with this idea, I might as well buy a regular alarm system and install it.

Great job on the little niffty alarm.
Some one should hook it up to the horn...and upload pics and inform all of the other on how it goes.
I think i might just hook up a window alarm and up to the horn as well(use 2 9v) Sound like a good idea???