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Let's face it, trying to use one of those pocket garage door openers on a bike is a pain--especially if it's raining (or you have to use the bathroom) and all you want to do is to get the bike into the garage NOW! I tried to keep one in the front pocket of my leather jacket, hoping I could just press the front of the pocket to open the door. But my jacket is a bit, shall we say, snug, and a halfway deep breath was all it took to activate the button, so the door would open or close unexpectedly. Once it happened when I was halfway down the alley already...
Fumbling for it in your jacket or pants is no good either, so I decided to add a built-in remote to my Shadow Sabre. I found a beautiful waterproof stainless steel push button online; it's made by a company in England. I drilled a hole in the upper part of the right side cover, which holds the instruction book and is lockable. I took apart my existing Genie remote and soldered wires onto the two contacts of the button, then cut some notches into the case to run the wires outside. Those wires got soldered onto the switch and heat-shrink tubing was added to make it neat and waterproof. The remote was attached to the inside the cover with some Velcro tape.
This setup has worked great. The button is easily reachable under my right leg, and easy to find by touch. The button can be easily pushed even while wearing gloves. The only drawback is that the bike is between the opener and the receiver, so I have to pull right up to the door to get it in range.
Now I want an opener on the CTX 1300. There are probably lots of mounting options for a switch if I want t drill a hole in the fairing, but I'm not sure I want to do that on this brand-new bike! So I did some research and came up with what sounds like a great solution:
Mo-Door Products
The company makes a control box that can be programmed to work with most brands and models of garage doors. It has it's own replaceable battery that lasts about five years, so it does not have to be connected to the bike's wiring. This gives you a lot of flexibility for mounting the box.
You then select the type of pushbutton you want connected to the box. These can be a simple colored button, a more substantial one that has been designed to look like some of the Harley factory-installed control buttons, a waterproof industrial one that can be mounted almost anywhere, and one that looks like a little black cushion, about the size of a postage stamp. That's the one I'm leaning toward, as it looks like it will be easy to mount unobtrusively almost anywhere. My goal is to make the button easily reachable for me while I'm on the bike, but not very visible to someone else.
You can also choose what length you want the wires to be between the switch and the box: 6, 12 or 18 inches. I'm going to decide where I'm going to mount the box and the switch before I order, and that will give me an idea how long the wires need to be.
I have never used this product before, but it looks like a perfect one for my needs, and maybe for yours, too.
Fumbling for it in your jacket or pants is no good either, so I decided to add a built-in remote to my Shadow Sabre. I found a beautiful waterproof stainless steel push button online; it's made by a company in England. I drilled a hole in the upper part of the right side cover, which holds the instruction book and is lockable. I took apart my existing Genie remote and soldered wires onto the two contacts of the button, then cut some notches into the case to run the wires outside. Those wires got soldered onto the switch and heat-shrink tubing was added to make it neat and waterproof. The remote was attached to the inside the cover with some Velcro tape.
This setup has worked great. The button is easily reachable under my right leg, and easy to find by touch. The button can be easily pushed even while wearing gloves. The only drawback is that the bike is between the opener and the receiver, so I have to pull right up to the door to get it in range.
Now I want an opener on the CTX 1300. There are probably lots of mounting options for a switch if I want t drill a hole in the fairing, but I'm not sure I want to do that on this brand-new bike! So I did some research and came up with what sounds like a great solution:
Mo-Door Products
The company makes a control box that can be programmed to work with most brands and models of garage doors. It has it's own replaceable battery that lasts about five years, so it does not have to be connected to the bike's wiring. This gives you a lot of flexibility for mounting the box.
You then select the type of pushbutton you want connected to the box. These can be a simple colored button, a more substantial one that has been designed to look like some of the Harley factory-installed control buttons, a waterproof industrial one that can be mounted almost anywhere, and one that looks like a little black cushion, about the size of a postage stamp. That's the one I'm leaning toward, as it looks like it will be easy to mount unobtrusively almost anywhere. My goal is to make the button easily reachable for me while I'm on the bike, but not very visible to someone else.
You can also choose what length you want the wires to be between the switch and the box: 6, 12 or 18 inches. I'm going to decide where I'm going to mount the box and the switch before I order, and that will give me an idea how long the wires need to be.
I have never used this product before, but it looks like a perfect one for my needs, and maybe for yours, too.
