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Post by lain on Dec 16, 2014 13:46:25 GMT -5
I have wired quite a few alarms in the past year, Boston is not a great city to park your scooter without a couple chains, but an alarm system will scare off any thieves who aren't snatching it up with a truck or van. My alarm system is a 2 way pager system made for motorcycles. They are pretty easy to wire if you have some basic wiring experience. Most alarms come with a wiring diagram and a wiring harness to connect to the alarm harness.
For a basic hookup for just the sound just wire the positive to the battery and the negative to the frame of the scoot.
For a more secure hookup to prevent hotwiring as well, do the above then cut the ignition timing wire that goes to the cdi from the engine (instead of the ignition switch like it says to in the diagrams) then wire the grey and pink wires of the alarm to the two ends of the ignition timing wires, it does not matter which ends you connect them to. The idea here is that the alarm has an electrically controlled switch inside of it controlled by the status of the alarm, when the alarm is armed the circuit is broken because it turns the switch off, when the alarm is disarmed is completes the circuit by turning the switch inside the alarm to the on function. This also acts as a remote kill switch for the engine as well.
For the lights, if you want them, splice the yellow alarm wires into the wires for the signal lights, if you have an issue finding them take the body off and trace the wires to the harness.
Place the alarm and speakers inside the body of the scoot on the frame somewhere you cannot reach, point the speaker down towards the ground for loudest sound. Attach the antenna inside somewhere you can point it upwards, this is usually hard but try to get it as straight as possible while also pointing upwards as much as possible.
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Sophomore Rider
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Posts: 125
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Post by william42 on Dec 16, 2014 16:14:22 GMT -5
My alarm would go off when the wind blew. It would beep at me after I turned off the engine to remind me to turn on the system. It would beep at me if I forgot to turn it off before I touched the bike. I hated that damn thing! I disconnected it. Just sayin'.
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Post by JerryScript on Dec 16, 2014 18:18:52 GMT -5
I was comparing my scooter to one a fellow at a local dollar store drives. He had already had one stolen, and I told him about my alarm system. He immediately ordered one. About two months later (back in Oct), I ran into him again. He told me the alarm had already paid for itself (two-way remote alarm $100 on ebay). He was working when his alarm remote fob went off in his pocket. He rushed outside to see his parking space empty, but did not hear the alarm. He began to walk around, pressing the button on his fob. He got about a block and a half down the street, and heard his alarm going off. It appears as if the alarm's noise was enough to make the theifs give up and leave the scooter where they were. Pain in the butt, perhaps. Worth $100, IMHO, absolutely! BTW- Remote start is ridiculous on a scooter, but it does impress the easily impressed!  |
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Post by lain on Dec 16, 2014 19:57:33 GMT -5
My alarm would go off when the wind blew. It would beep at me after I turned off the engine to remind me to turn on the system. It would beep at me if I forgot to turn it off before I touched the bike. I hated that damn thing! I disconnected it. Just sayin'. It's good to adjust the sensitivity of the alarm if you have issues like that. If your alarm doesn't have adjuster knob look in the manual of the alarm remote as well. My sensitivity is controlled by a combination of buttons on my pager. Also if you are going to be away from your ride for long enough for someone to break the steering lock and wheel it away you should have it chained up. Having the alarm will not make your scooter seem like less of a target until they experience the alarm, and at that moment they hear it they either try to rush it away to find and bust up the alarm system or they run, so you want to have even a small chain to tie it down so when they start to react to the alarm and try to run away with it they wont go anywhere and will just leave it. I have my alarm set so sensitive it will go off if someone touches the chain, but also not sensitive enough for the wind or rain to set it off. |
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Post by dmartin95 on Dec 17, 2014 2:19:37 GMT -5
Pain in the butt, perhaps. Worth $100, IMHO, absolutely! BTW- Remote start is ridiculous on a scooter, but it does impress the easily impressed! My wife's scooter (BMS Heritage 150cc) came factory equipped with the Alarm/remote start and it turns heads every time she hits the alarm button - chirp, chirp...... The remote start is also impressive IMO. I'm going to install an alarm on the scooter in the Video I included. On Ebay, these alarms go for $20~50.00 for a decent quality unit. Price depends on if you want to wait for your order to come from China or not. (While it's not the greatest of quality, it will get the job done.) This is the Kit I ordered: LINK
It's cool this thread was started. I had already ordered the alarm about 10 days ago. I too will contribute to the thread with a little bit of of my own tutorial for certain scooters: This is a video I made illustrating factory alarm plug location: This is a wiring diagram showing how all the circuits are routed.  Hope this helps! |
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Post by lain on Dec 17, 2014 12:23:45 GMT -5
Remote start is pretty cool but I have heard of a lot of experiences where the remote start fries the ignition, so I chose not to even bother. I've heard that some alarm models just cannot handle the electricity that goes through it during the startup due to gauge of the wires, while others do fine and come with thicker wires, check the reviews before you order one if you plan to use remote start!
I personally do not think I will ever use the remote starter. However if I were to hook it up and I wanted to retain my current wiring to prevent hotwiring, I would hook the I think blue wire, or whichever the power feed for the remote startup is, splice it into the switch wire for the starter solenoid. This way it will complete the circuit for the electric starter motor and ontop of that there wouldn't be enough electricity going through the alarm to fry anything, it would just be regular small bit of 12v just like if you pressed the starter button.
You gotta make sure when you wire these things that you are not going to be putting more electricity in them than the wires can handle or your gonna have a bad time lol. I had it wired the regular way the first time I got an alarm, after about 2 months it was completely fried and only would make the arm and disarm sounds but didnt actually do anything else, not even sound off when the bike was pushed over!
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Post by JerryScript on Dec 17, 2014 12:25:48 GMT -5
For $50-$100 you can get a cheap two way alarm, one where the key fob sounds off when the alarm is activated. That way, you know when someone is messing with your ride instantly. There are youtube videos showing the range is good enough for most work and shopping situations. Here's an ebay search showing a bunch of different models from $50-$250 and up: Ebay Search: motorcycle two way alarmHere's an amazon search: Amazon Search: motorcycle two way alarmHere's my favorite demo: |
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Post by lain on Dec 17, 2014 13:09:59 GMT -5
For $50-$100 you can get a cheap two way alarm, one where the key fob sounds off when the alarm is activated. That way, you know when someone is messing with your ride instantly. There are youtube videos showing the range is good enough for most work and shopping situations. Here's an ebay search showing a bunch of different models from $50-$250 and up: Ebay Search: motorcycle two way alarmHere's an amazon search: Amazon Search: motorcycle two way alarmHere's my favorite demo: That is what I have now, it is great, my alarm fob can reach up to the point where my scooter is a dot at the other side of a parking lot. The one dmartin95 bought is the one I had first, if you hook it up the regular way it will be toast in a couple to a few months, and they need to be caulked at the points where the wires come out to protect it from rain and dust getting into the unit. It is admittedly a very good alarm, just have to be careful and make sure it still works instead of just walking away and chirping it. Before I upgraded to the two way I had the regular sound alarm, it failed to sound off when theives broke into my scooter and tried to hotwire it. They tore up all my wires, they tore the body off my scoot, they stole everything I had in it then they kicked the out of my bike trying to break it and ran off when someone was coming out of my work building, the worst part is the cops rolled by multiple times while this was happening and did not even slow down to look at what they were doing! I filed a police report and the cops told me unless I knew who they were, their names and stuff, there was no way of knowing because they did not feel like my ride was worth enough money to do an investigation. They told me if it was a car they would check the cameras (and yes they were on camera) but since it's a scooter they aren't going to help. Boston is a crappy place to need cops, they don't help anyone, even if you are calling because someone attacked you (which is somthign that has also happened to me) they tell you unless you are worth something they aren't going to do an investigation. |
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Post by lain on Dec 17, 2014 13:31:26 GMT -5
Hope this helps! Seems a little complicated for those who may not know electrical like we do, when you get the new alarm can you take pics of the ends of the wires close to where they connect or after you have connected them? I think this would help people who don't know how to read schematics out a lot! I would do it but then we would have posts asking what i took a picture of lol bad camera is bad |
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Post by JerryScript on Dec 17, 2014 23:14:16 GMT -5
So, a little update on my friend from the dollar store. He had his latest scooter stolen yesterday, the one with an alarm. He had an alarm that didn't require wiring in to the bike, it ran off batteries, and he let them die. I'm definitely recommending the two-way alarms now, and be sure it isn't self powered, it's too easy to forget to change batteries (think about your smoke detector).
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Post by lain on Dec 18, 2014 12:39:27 GMT -5
So, a little update on my friend from the dollar store. He had his latest scooter stolen yesterday, the one with an alarm. He had an alarm that didn't require wiring in to the bike, it ran off batteries, and he let them die. I'm definitely recommending the two-way alarms now, and be sure it isn't self powered, it's too easy to forget to change batteries (think about your smoke detector). This is why I also recommend tethering your bike to something, even with a crappy chain. Spots in clear sight of cameras are big turn-offs. Check your local laws, you may be allowed to park on sidewalks tied to bike parking spots that are bolted into the ground, not the case here in Boston though, however I have never received any tickets for doing it anyways. At night, the best spots are the most visible. If you live in a high crime rate area also invest in a cheap but decent disc brake lock, some even have alarms built into them as well. Remove the kickstarter if you do not use it, and I mean the gears too, they can just attach their own lever if all you do is remove your lever. Removing the kickstarter is what prevented a friends bike from being stolen, they could not energize the electric starter by hotwiring, and there were no kickstarter gears in place so they could not kick it to life, they left their lever behind and he got a free lever. The more steps it takes to move your ride, and start your ride, the less likely it is to be stolen. |
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Post by dmartin95 on Dec 18, 2014 20:29:18 GMT -5
Hope this helps! Seems a little complicated for those who may not know electrical like we do, when you get the new alarm can you take pics of the ends of the wires close to where they connect or after you have connected them? I think this would help people who don't know how to read schematics out a lot! I would do it but then we would have posts asking what i took a picture of lol bad camera is bad Yeah sure, not a problem.... I actually had plans on doing a video showing how to hook one of these alarms up. I do have one schematic, this is not for the alarm I purchased but it shows the connections with proper color coding for a chinese scooter.... And BTW, while there's a bunch of scooter alarm manufacturers,  % will have the same wiring.  |
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Post by scooter on Dec 19, 2014 2:07:12 GMT -5
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Post by rcq92130 on Dec 19, 2014 12:46:43 GMT -5
BMS puts Steel Mate alarms in their scooters - the most hated alarms around.
I actually contacted Steel Mate to ask how to turn the "3-beeps" reminder off ~~~ if you have air horns you do NOT want this annoying 3-beep thing sounding every time you turn the thing off. Worst time is when you are doing work on the thing and need to turn it on and off several times.
Steel Mate replied, "Oh - that's a safety feature built in and can't be turned off".
So the Steel Mate alarm (brand new) went into the trash in favor of one that did not tell it's customers what they want or do not want.
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Post by lain on Dec 21, 2014 14:06:30 GMT -5
Yeah that's an easier schematic however I still suggest using the pink and grey wires to interrupt the timing wire from the engine to the cdi. It's a more secure way to prevent hotwiring and it will make it very hard for anyone to hotwire without good knowledge of the electrical systems. The schematic here doesn't show what to do with the blue wire, I suggest splicing the wire into the starter solenoid switch wire, or simply unscrewing the switch wire (that's the thinnest wire on the starter solenoid) and adding the blue wire in there and screwing it back on. There's no way to switch the killswitch remotely though, and the remote start takes up unnecessary power. I'm not sure if the brake switch would need to be turned on as well but I would think not. |
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% will have the same wiring.
