#Tips

The aftermarket is full of tools to make motorcycles better. Get enough creative minds in enough saddles for enough hours with nothing to do but think about the ride, and you’re sure to find a fertile ground for some great riding accessories. However good these ideas may be, sometimes you just don’t have the scratch to lay out on one of these professionally crafted tools. Then again, maybe the need is so simple that nobody has been able to produce the idea in a way that is cheap enough to be marketable.

Previously, I covered how to install a Powerlet accessory electrical socket. While having access to constant power for accessories is convenient (particularly for maintaining your battery with a smart charger), it has a major drawback: If you leave your electronics on when you shut down the engine, you can easily kill your battery. The best way to prevent this from happening is to make the socket switch itself off with the ignition. Although the task is fairly simple, you’ll need to perform a little detective work before you start.